Tried and Tested

Long-term product review

New bike fit products come to the market all the time, but how do you know which ones are worth the investment? In the first of a new series, IBFI vice-president Lee Prescott shares his thoughts on two products he’s been trialing in his own bike fit studio for the past few months.

ACME Seat Cleat – One-handed quick saddle changer

ACME Seat Cleat

Most of you will know how time-consuming swapping out saddles can be, especially on certain brands of seat post. During a fit, especially if you charge by the hour, the ability to quickly swap between sizes and shape of saddle to allow a comparative test is crucial.

The guys over at ACME Bicycle Co. got frustrated with this cumbersome practice and looked around for an alternative. They spent some time using a BIKEFIT saddle changer, which improved their processes, but they thought there was room for improvement. One of the team, Jonathan, is a professional engineer, so applied his knowledge and experience to the problem.

What they have come up with is the Seat Cleat. It’s a neat twist on the type of fixture seen on a Garmin mount, except the ACME version only needs 1/8th of a turn to fix a saddle securely.

The Seat Cleat comes with a host of features to help fitters easily swap out and adjust saddles on any stationary bike. There is a direct mount to GURU bikes and a saddle rail adapter for other brands. The overall stack height has been kept very low and there is a neat angle adjustment that is based around the centre of the saddle so the effective seat height doesn’t alter hugely.

So that’s the theory, but how does it hold up to the rigours of day to day use in a busy fit studio? We have been putting this one through its paces over the last three months and I have to say I’m impressed. The build quality is excellent, and the design shows a real attention to detail, such as rounding all the edges that may come into contact with a client.

It really does make the process of swapping out saddles almost instantaneous, and the fine adjustment of the saddle angle is especially useful when trying to find that perfect spot even whilst the client is still pedalling. Swapping the cleats onto different saddle also take no time at all and is a simple two bolt clamp from the bottom of the cleat.

The GURU direct mount version, including three cleats, retails at $525, with extra cleats at $45 and the rail adapter coming in at $25. Given the quality of construction and the usefulness of this product, I would say is good value. Find out more at www.acmebicycleco.com

FORM bike fit products

FORM is a UK-based design company with the goal of elevating bike fitting products to a new standard. Founder Ronan Descy, a fitter with 14 years’ experience, had a growing frustration with limitations of existing products on the market, so he started to experiment with ways he could overcome them. The result is a range of products he believes offer fitters new solutions.

Now you might ask how you can add functionality to the lowly cleat wedge or leg length shim, but there are some clever little touches on these parts that demonstrate that the designer actually works with these products dayin, day-out.

For instance, the in-shoe forefoot wedges are a one-size-fits-all, which makes stocking really simple, and they are made of a pleasant tactile material which seems to prevent them slipping around in the shoe even without a holding tape. They are also toeless, so if the client’s shoes have a low volume toe box the wedge isn’t taking up precious space.

The MTB cleat wedges are also pretty neat with an anti-rotation tab on them, and they can take quite a torque on them without crushing.

I think the star of the show within this range though is the walkable MTB LLD shim. Its been great to be able to pop a shim on that doesn’t then totally negate the main reason for using the smaller metal cleat system. The only issues with these that we have seen is that they can be a little too big for the cleat opening of some shoes, which we have got around with the judicial use of a bench grinder. However, Ronan informs us that a V2 version of the shim to accommodate shoes with limited space at the cleat insert is on its way, along with at a Time ATAC/ Crank Bros compatible option.

Check out the range at www.formbikefit.co.uk

Opinions expressed in these reviews are personal and are not endorsements by the IBFI. Products in this article were purchased by the reviewer.

If you are a bike fitter and have been using a new product you’d like to review, or if you are a company and you’d like to submit a product for a long-term review by qualified bike fitters, email lee@ibfi-certification.com