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news
Jens Voigt with Julian Wall and Phil Cavell, founders of CycleFit (taken from Twitter)Jens Voigt opens CycleFit Manchester
Jens Voigt was on hand to officially open the new Manchester branch of CycleFit on Monday night. After whiling away the afternoon serving visitors coffee and cake, he returned for an evening event at which he spoke at length about some of the highlights of his career.
Founded by Phil Cavell and Julian Wall, CycleFit has been helping riders of all levels from its London premises in Covent Garden since 2002. The firm also provides bike fitting for Trek Factory Racing – hence Jens’s presence.
The new store is in a grade II listed yarn mill on Newton Street in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. As well as two state-of-the-art bike fitting studios, consultation rooms and a fully equipped workshop, there is also a large retail area. This features custom bikes from Parlee, Seven and Passoni, together with some hand-built steel frames from Honey Bicycles of Boston, USA which had just arrived on the day of the event.
The fitting studios are what catch the eye, however. A whole array of cameras, pressure sensors and cutting edge software are employed to analyse a rider’s position and pedalling style. The list of services takes in sizing, shoe and cleat setup, saddle pressure mapping and custom footbeds, but CycleFit’s biomechanical approach means that a physiotherapist will also be on hand to offer advice where necessary.
In the afternoon, around 100 people dropped by for coffee and cake and some were doubtless rather taken aback to find themselves being served by Jens himself.
Just a normal day at Cyclefit. @thejensie serving customers coffee and cake, generously supplied by @ezra_gil pic.twitter.com/6gu0Uqqg5h
— Cyclefit Manchester (@CyclefitMCR) September 28, 2015
Later – after speaking to road.cc about the challenges of cycling professionally into his forties and how he’s now coming to terms with retirement (full interview to follow) – Jens reflected on some of the highlights of his career in front of an audience of enthralled fans at what was also a well-attended evening party.
Towards the end of the talk, cult favourite revealed that he’s in the process of writing a book. Somewhat unbelievably for a man of his reputation, he’s currently short of words. How can this possibly be?
“I have six kids,” he replied, succinctly.
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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7 comments
Well the bikefit is £120, but I paid £110 to spend a couple of hours with Richard at Pedal Precision in the velodrome. Done properly, that's not an extortionate price.
I love the look of Cyclefit. The posh bikes, nice building etc are appealing. However, if I'm honest, a conversation with one of the guys a few weeks ago wasn't very promising. A chat about my footwear and forefoot wedging led him to recommend that I get fitted for their insoles. When I pointed out that the forefoot lacked sufficient bulk to cater for the wedging I require, he simply switched to doubting that I needed it. Years of sore knees and 2 bike fits with quality guys who had different strengths, and being pain-free now, indicates that they did a decent job. No offence, but he wasn't old enough to have that much experience, and didn't even see me sit on a bike.
If I go to a 'proper' bike shop, I don't expect to get the hard sell.
I knew nothing of the evening do at CycleFit, so that must have been an invite only job, but the Lunch time session was pretty good. Jens was an absolute gent and was happy to chat with everyone and had no qualms about signing souvenirs for people and posing for photos even offering advice to some on how to take better pictures.
The cake and coffee was supplied by Ezra & Gill who are based next door and very nice it was too. The fact it was free may have helped but I'll definitely be heading to them in the future.
I agree their (CycleFit, not Ezra & Gill) prices for bike fitting are at the very top end and well out of my price range but looking at what was on offer, their services looked like they were at the very top end too, far more tech involved than I have seen in other bike fit places I have visited.
I'm far from being an expert on these matters so they may well be peddling the same service as TriFit or Pedal Precision but my gut feeling is that TriFit & Pedal Precision aren't being used by top level Pro teams for a reason. I'm willing to be proved wrong though, and no disrespect is intended to any of the companies involved if my lack of knowledge has failed me completely.
Looks quite pricey. If you are in the Manchester area and looking for a bike fit than Richard at Pedal Precision is the one to see in my opinion.
Or just go to trifit in Failsworth or popupbikes in Angel meadow for £70 less.
I hope they sell a lot of cake.
Ooh cool, I'll check this out... (checks price[splutters]) 120 quid for a shoe fitting, my shoes cost 60. I'll set my own cleats up and have a 'free' pair of top end Castelli bibs thanks, or whatever takes your fancy. Nice way to reinforce the banker-wanker image (though I am actually a banker [well actually I answer the phone.])