Gebiomized pressure mapping?

[taylor_walker]

Apologies if this has been covered and I missed it in my search: is anyone familiar with "Gebiomized pressure mapping" for saddle fit? A local shop that does fittings offers this technology, and I am curious if Paceliners have positive experience with it, as is pertains to overall bike fit, and as it pertains to finding the right saddle type for one's body, sit bones, etc.

Thanks,

Taylor
SF CA

[MattTuck]

Taylor,

I can give you my experience. I had a fit last year that included a Gebiomized pressure component.

That portion of the fit resulted in my fitter doing 2 things. First, he noted from the scan that I was very sit bone heavy, and he suggested I try a Specialized Power saddle, which I did, despite not liking Specialized much. That saddle has been the most comfortable saddle that I've had. Not perfect, but for me, it is working much better than anything in the past.

Second, he noticed fore/aft tilt (my right side was further rear than my left). He attempted to solve this with about a half center of shim on my left cleat. This was absolutely, unequivocally, the wrong approach. The problem was not skeletal in nature, it was a L/R strength and flexibility asymmetry in my hips that presented as a tilt in how I sat on the saddle. The shim caused all sort of other problems, and I didn't ride comfortably for about 4 months until I chased down the underlying cause of the problem, removed the shim and saw another fitter.

The key lesson here is that the Gebiomized pressure mapping system is not a cure all. It is only as good as the person using it, and I think there is still a bit of interpretation of what they see on the scan, and how to translate that into actionable adjustments to your position.

If you go that route, I hope your experience is better than mine. And please come back to this thread and share your outcome.

[Ti Designs]

The marketing of bicycle fitting is all about explaining how technology makes everything better. It can, but that would require the input data to be accurate and the process to be valid. I really don't think the marketing people are the least bit interested in those two things...

[taylor_walker]

Matt, thank you for the feedback -- I will keep it in mind and report back when I have experience with the mapping.

Sincerely,

Taylor
SF CA

[taylor_walker]

Just thought I'd follow-up on this thread. I went to Bespoke in SF and had Ari do a new fitting for me, including the Gebiomized pressure mapping, which is included in his standard fitting.

Ari is very thorough and insightful, and he knows how to leverage the tools he has. The Gebiomized pressure mapping revealed that way too much of my weight was on one sit bone, and that in turn led Ari to the discovery that my legs are not quite the same length, etc. Ari shimmed my right shoe, got me on a new saddle, and the results have been great.

Taylor
SF CA