Velo Atelier & Lee Prescott

A bike fitting journey

Okay, let’s get one thing clear immediately: Lee Prescott and indeed Velo Atelier are not just another bike fitter and bike-fitting studio. To call them this would be to fail to understand what Lee is working to achieve and what drives the whole team at this Warwick-based cycling centre of excellence. For example, they don’t just carry out bike fits at Velo Atelier. Lee and the team also design and create bespoke bike frames if you really want to have that truly personal bike, made and fitted just for you. That’s certainly a step-up from simply changing a few components on a frame.

Lee is passionate about the geometry, the science, and the engineering of the bicycle. He’s fascinated by the way in which the human body can - and indeed should - interact with it. Coming from a background in the field of industrial design, and with a father who was a motorcycle designer, Lee recalls spending summers in his dad’s workshop, tinkering with tools from an early age. He remembers building his first bike frame when he was only 10. Since that time, he’s built many more bikes, and he’s measured and fitted hundreds of cyclists, improving their rider comfort and performance.

A passion for the technical side of cycling

He’s moved onwards since those days, designing and building exquisite, well-engineered high-performance frames himself. He’s also using his passion for bike-fitting, as the recently elected president of the now 10 years old IBFI (International Bike Fitting Institute) by helping to drive forward and to develop bike-fitting as a recognised technical skill around the globe, bringing together bike-fitters into what he hopes will become the number 1 recognised bike-fitting ‘institute’, sharing standards, practices, training, and registration, and driving bike-fitting forward as a recognised career.  

Speaking with Lee, this passion comes through, as he talks about ‘taking bike fitting to the next level’, and how ‘we really need to get it set in the right way, developing a sound base to support it, standardising the science behind a bike fit.’

Every bike fit begins with talking

From a cyclist perspective, and especially so with most men, if they’ve never had a bike fit and have been cycling for a while, they’re often reticent when they first come along. Lee talks about that reluctance and describes how it soon lifts during the initial interview phase, which is the foundation of every bike-fitting session. He talks about they’re brought into the process and soon become willing to take the information on board, understanding the basics and principles. Conversely, and it maybe has a lot to do with the work that still has to take place across the cycling industry, to properly balance how men and women are regarded within cycling, ladies often feel that they’re not worthy of a fit. As Lee says, there’s more work needed to balance the placing of men’s and women’s cycling on equal terms, at all levels—and that includes within cycling retailers.

Velo Atelier and Lee focus on the cyclist in their purest form, and in doing so, generally have a 50-50 split between men and women. However, in many cases, it’s predominantly men who attend bike-fitting studios. His drive to standardise this new industry also includes a desire to show it as being accessible to everyone. That, for Lee, includes making the bike fit studio comfortable and relaxing, and not a clinical space. When he teaches bike fitting, one of the big things that he focuses on is spending time on the interview—a whole day. There’s a recognition that, at times, the bike fitter is talking about quite sensitive subject areas for people.

Finding the fit with Lake cycling shoes

More often than not, cyclists make similar mistakes in choosing their bike; and the handlebars and cycling shoes are the most common areas to change. There’s a misbelief that handlebar width is related to height, when it’s far more detailed, and embraces other body measurements and physiology.  Cycling shoes are frequently too small, being tight, uncomfortable and causing hotspots and numbness, and other issues. Add to this that few cyclists use a custom insole, despite knowing about the uniqueness of their own feet. Hopefully thou, with experienced cyclists, the changes should be minimal and feel natural to the rider, as they immediately feel the benefits.

CX201 – the problem-solving shoe

At Velo Atelier, every bike fitting session starts – after the interview – with the feet. For Lee, it’s an area that if this is wrong, then there’s likely to be more issues further along the chain. Due to the numerous fitting options that Lake cycling shoes provide, Lee and the team at Velo Atelier naturally drifted towards the brand. In his words, Lake is ‘the only one who do widths in all of their shoes.’ He believes that Lake design and create cycling shoes to solve problems, and he cites our Lake CX242 and CX 201 road cycling shoes as a good example. Talking about the CX201, Lee believes that it’s a great shoe for cyclists with a quite flat and wide spreading foot, allowing the cyclist that necessary comfort whilst still delivering stability and power transfer.  It’s built on our Comfort Plus last, which has the most generous forefoot platform of all our CX lasts. This last will accommodate a multitude of foot shapes and allow for toe splaying. It’s a cycling shoe made for those riders who struggle to find an unrestricted shoe for the shape of their feet.

CX238 & CX333 – cycling shoes for all seasons

The two best-selling shoes for Lee are the Lake CX238 and the new CX333.In terms of the CX238 he describes it a shoe with a great shape and with lots of width options for the variety of cyclists feet. The new Lake CX333 is also popular with his customers, who are drawn to its aesthetic appeal and awesome performance. Here at Lake, we strive to bring cyclists that golden trilogy of comfort, performance and style, and Lee believes that our CX333 delivers this.

The benefits of bike fitting

Each and every one of us is built differently. The subtle ways in which we each ride our bikes are different and we all have different needs and fitting requirements. We’ve been working to make cycling shoes that fit each and every cyclist in their own way, for over 40 years now. Lake have been striving for innovation and excellence in every cycling shoe that design, and the Lake CX333 is the culmination of all of those years of work – it’s the evolution of the cycling shoe.  However, as Lee Prescott says, ‘the bike, the footwear and everything else, all have to fit the individual needs and physiology of the cyclist’, and that’s where a bike fit will benefit all riders. As he moves forward with his plans for the first ever institute for bike fitting, we’ll be watching events closely, and we’ll keep working hard ourselves, to design and create what many people believe to be some of the most comfortable cycling shoes in the world – by Lake.