Issue with fit, and my bike fitter never had a response/solution. (Bib issue)

One side. It didn’t seem to effect this issue though. On that side, my knee tracked fairly straight, and it is a lot straighter now. The opposite side is a little out at the top of the stroke. I joked with my surgeon that I should have the other side replaced now too to fix my peddling style. He wasn’t laughing, surgeons don’t apparently have much of a sense of humor?

I don’t see where it had much effect, pro or con…

OK, that’s interesting.

I’m not a surgeon, or a physio, or anything like that, but I can imagine that the movement of the artificial joint (including the muscles/tissue around it) is different from the biological joint.

I would start by contacting the Steve Hogg fitters and ask if they would recommend someone close to you. Steve is in Mn this week with a few people going over some new spinal based bike adjustments to go along with his magnetic stuff. You might not get an immediate response. You could also ask here on the forum about fitters that do a more comprehensive fit taking body issues into account.

It’s actually not. It works the same way as the original equipment, just less pain and actually more movement. Not that I’d recommend it for everyone, but it has been pretty nice. The first night was painful, but I was up riding (light resistance, no clipless pedals) within a couple days.

EDIT: The biggest potential issue is dislocation during the first year or so post-surgery. The way the surgeon explained it is they have to stretch your butt over your shoulder to get the old joint out, and the new one in. I know he was joking, but I did have the most painful cramps that night as the surgical pain drugs wore off. Pain that the strongest pain killers they sent me home with didn’t even begin to touch. I was ‘so muscular’, they said I’d have a ‘hard recovery’, but was walking the next day, and by the middle of that next week was on the wife’s Peloton putting in my first 15 minute ride. Not too bad at all… (Oh, second potential issue is infection as the new parts seem to be a magnet for infections, some of which will destroy the bone that they were pounded into)

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Bugger! The closest one with a chance of getting my bike to them would be Ontario, and he’s no longer doing fittings. Hmm… Last time I tried to fly my bike via Delta, the cost was almost another ticket, and then case rental fees and yikes. There is so much in life that we have to ask if it’s worth it. Hmm… Someone wrote an article about their running and using a university biomechanics program to help them. Long shot maybe… I don’t want to pay for a fitting that doesn’t address/investigate these issues. Thanks…

I am the king of over thinkers. I studied the potential for the surgery to go sideways from all angles, and came to the realization that the hip joint is really a very simple structure. It’s just as simple as a ball in a socket. It’s the muscles that do all the ‘heavy lifting’, and tendons too.

The replacement was three-axis measured and 3-d printed to fit my measurements. The cup was located with extreme accuracy, the old socket drilled out, and the new cup pounded in. The ball was installed after removing the old ball and a few inches of my femur. It was mapped out where it had to go, and also pounded in (fixing my pedaling motion). The parts are meant to be integrated into the bone over time, but will not slip or become loose. It’s a simple cup with no retention mechanism, it’s the muscles that hold it all together. It’s really quite an interesting process. The risk of dislocation is because there is no lip covering the ball in the socket because it had to be assembled in my body. And as long as I’m good, and don’t get an infection in the area, it’ll last for 20 some years.

He knew I was a biker, and how much I ride. I asked him the last time before the surgery if it came with a mileage warranty. Typical lack of a sense of humor, he shot me a look, and looked at my wife. ‘Is he kidding?’ We both laughed. He got the joke…

Anyway, sorry for being so long, but it sure interested me, the whole process. And, so far, it’s worked out really well. He said, with a grin, I’ve been his best and most successful patient. (But most of his patients are in their seventies and exercise is walking to the kitchen for food. (shrug)

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That’s great! I know a few locals here with similar success stories on hip or knee replacements. Can be life changing for the better from what I have seen.

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Ironically, I went in thinking I needed a knee replacement. I was having a lot of knee pain and the surgeon identified it as a nerve impingement, and it was stretching the nerve, causing the pain. Weird. ‘I’ll bet it’s not your knee!’ Um, are you insane? (It was a second consult, saving me a lot of recovery and still more surgery) And he was right! Took 8 months or so, but literally almost no ‘knee pain’ anymore. Weird… Glad it worked out though. Oh yeah…

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Some of those fitters will do virtual. It could be worth paying for an hour of their time to at least get an opinion.

I’m no expert, but here’s a few thoughts.

It seems like you mostly have this issue indoors. Are you sure that your equipment is setup fully square? Is your bike perfectly level side to side? Are the front wheel, handlebars and seat all perfectly aligned with the frame? These things may often seem aligned good enough at a glance, but being super precise is critical since any error is there 100% of the time over many hours. Riding outside at least you move and around a lot so you notice larger errors and small errors tend to wash out.

Are you sure that your shorts are tight enough? There should be a slight bulge at your thighs and waist where the shorts end. If not, they’re oversized. How old are the shorts? The pads lose their springiness and need to be replaced regularly regardless of appearance. In fact, whenever you fix this issue I would replace all my shorts side by this point the pads have likely broken in unevenly.

Upload some videos of you on your trainer already! There’s no substitute for letting others see what’s happening directly. I don’t understand why you haven’t taken this basic step.

Your typical fitter working from a bike shop is not a medical professional. You really need to go see a sports physical therapist, ideally one that specializes in cycling. There’s several in the Detroit area. I imagine there are in other major cities.

[quote=“huges84, post:33, topic:83450, full:true”]
I’m no expert, but here’s a few thoughts.[/quote]

Thanks. I’ll address them as best as I can.

I went through some of this with Tacx support a couple of years ago: the base of my 2T was cracking. The floor is solidly level. I checked the smart bike I have after it was replaced and it is level. The seat and bars are also level. I did have a seat fail on me back around the start of the pandemic. That was a surprise.

True.

Oh, they are tight enough. Most of my bibs are less than 3 or 4 months old, but I do have a couple pairs that I just have to wear on ‘tough rides’, and Zwift tours (that always turn into races) and they generally fit well (I thought).

Well, I’m retired and buying lots of bibs is cost prohibitive. Someone joked about setting up a GoFundMe so I can get new bibs. Yeah, thanks. :roll_eyes: I did buy some this year. They are a little beyond ‘snug’. The grippers make my signature move harder to pull off without getting a ding from Zwift.

Oh I don’t think people here are ready to watch me riding, especially from the back. :flushed: But I did marry a woman that did gate research as her PhD, so she might enjoy seeing it with little white balls on it.

My wife knows someone that works with some of the sports teams (in Detroit), and I’ve thought about finding where to go for help, but my insurance just freaked out because I had three weeks of PT. I have now exceeded the yearly limit for PT it seems, and I CAN’T BELIEVE IT! WTH!?!?

I’m in my 60’s, and ride on average an hour to an hour and a half most days. Spending money to make that obsession more comfortable would be money well spent, but some of that could get expensive. If I was sponsored, it would (hopefully) be covered by the team.

Of all of the issues I’ve had riding, this isn’t quite the worst, but the chaffing and swapping saddles got old.

I will setup a camera and get a video. I was also planning to go to NYC for 5Boros this weekend and track down a fitting there, but it ended up not happening. I would have had my bike there too. Opportunity missed, but ‘life’…

In the Detroit area, I recommend Adams Sports Medicine & Physical Therapy. I’m sure they can get you sorted.

Thanks I’ll contact them. Cheers…

Colby Pearce recently described how some people feel twisted on the bike in his podcast “Cycling in Alignment”. Maybe your issue is related.

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Wow, I didn’t realize that he was still doing new episodes. I haven’t seen a new podcast in my Stitcher feed since he dropped off with Fasttalk.

He needs better marketing!