Has anyone ever gone to one of his clinics? Is the FiTTE analysis worth $300?
Thanks
ecb304,
I attended one of his seminars to try and learn things that would benefit me and my cycling. At the time I felt I could not afford the $300.00 fee for a personnal analysis.
In hind sight I think I made a big mistake. For what you get in terms of position critique/analysis, power improvement and specific exercise instruction to improve your cycling I think it was probably some of the cheapest advice and assistance one could ever purchase.
John Howard is a legend in cycling and he has remained active in cycling his entire life. Some may feel he is too old or he didn’t accomplish as much as someone else did or just don’t like his style or him personally, but it is hard to argue with the fact of his accomplishments/achievements.
You may think I am a John Howard advocate by the sound of this, but I am not. I’ve simply observed him achieve typical improvements of 10% or more improvement in power output without appreciable increase in effort/heart rate. Think about it for a minute. Some of us are willing to spend $1000.00 or more for equipment in an effort to gain seconds in a race, seconds that equate to less than a 10% difference in power output. John Howard is helping cyclists fine tune their engines and to a lesser extend their equipment/bikes.
I regret that I did not recognize this fact until after it was too late to take advantage of his services. IMHO it would have been $300.00 very well spent. FWIW
Good luck. If you do “splurge” and “go for it”, come back and give us some feedback on your experience. I personally think you will be very “stoked”.
ecb304,
I see you got a lot of responses to your question. Sarcasm. I am dissappointed as well because I had also looked forward to the responses of other Slowtwitchers.
You probably know that the John Howard School is located in California and I thought that would improve the chances the some Slowtwitchers had personal experiences to share.
In the absence of any additional feedback, did you make a decision about going to one of his clinics yet?
I attended the FIST with Dan at his ranch. Shortly after returning to my bike shop I performed a fit on a good friend of mine. I put her in an optimum tri position. John Howard came to town and she asked me if I thought she should get a fit done with him. I said it is your money and you already paid for my fit. She went to Howard to get the fit. The only change he made to her bike as raising the saddle and the tilt of the areo bars. He put her on the computrainer but since there was nothing to go off of the results really didnt matter. The next week on a local ride about 30 miles into the ride she asked me to lower her saddle and fix her bars back to wear I had them. I complied, did my best not to do an I told you so and she went on to win her age group at IMCDA last year.
I attended the FIST with Dan at his ranch. Shortly after returning to my bike shop I performed a fit on a good friend of mine. I put her in an optimum tri position. John Howard came to town and she asked me if I thought she should get a fit done with him. I said it is your money and you already paid for my fit. She went to Howard to get the fit. The only change he made to her bike as raising the saddle and the tilt of the areo bars. He put her on the computrainer but since there was nothing to go off of the results really didnt matter. The next week on a local ride about 30 miles into the ride she asked me to lower her saddle and fix her bars back to wear I had them. I complied, did my best not to do an I told you so and she went on to win her age group at IMCDA last year.
Horatio and Rip Van Winkle,
John Howard runs a cycling school where the position coaching is just one aspect of his services.
It is just a little difficult for me to accept that he would compromise all that he has achieved by becoming a charlatan just for the money. With all the other choices for cycling schools and the small number of cyclists that support them, it would seem to me that someone who was dishonest would quickly be driven out of business for a lack of customers and the bad reputation that would follow his business. And yet John Howard has run a successful cycling school and business for many years.
Am I just a sap ripe for his plucking or is something else wrong with this picture?
I was just stating a truth for my particular situation. I wasn’t attacking Mr. Howard. I should have prefaced my reply with I was doing a Tri-fit, not a road fit. Secondly, Mr. Howard theories do not apply to everyone. I will say that raising the saddle a full 3cm and dropping the tilt of the bar compromises your body angles. If the net result is a gain in 10-20 watts but you have pain in that position then it is not worth it. The art and science of a tri-fit is combining speed with efficiency and comfort. If there is a FIST certified shop in your area, I would suggest visiting them first for a tri fit. If you want to get fit to your road bike, perhaps Mr. Howard is a better choice.
I’m not so sure that one fit is practical, particularly if someone has flexibility issues or some other physical limitation. John would probably be the first to tell you to try the position and then come back if you’re having problems.
I have a lot of respect for John Howard so I cannot imagine him simply taking money without giving something in return.
I still fiddle with my position depending on the type of ride and how aggressive I feel.
-Robert
Robert,
Thank you for your feedback.