Bike Fitting

[Cyclist33]

If you say so.

I could make my own bike too.

Go on then. Give you something to do instead of lurking around a cycling forum all day

 

[triangles]

I was chatting with a LBS owner in Bristol yesterday who happens to be a three-time Olympic professional cyclist.

He offers a bike fit service for less than £100, then if you buy a bike, the cost of the bike fit is deducted from the price of the bike.

When my bike fund is back in the black, I think I will probably take the opportunity to have a proper fitting even though I don't want a new bike.

Which shop was this Arjimlad? I'm looking into getting a new bike/bike fit in the not too distant future so would be interested to hear what he's like.

 

[400bhp]

Go on then. Give you something to do instead of lurking around a cycling forum all day

no

 

[Rob3rt]

I proffer we can tell what works for our own body better than a bike fitter can. No one from a bike shop has ever diagnosed any physiological issues for me, nor would I ever go to one for such a service. The ones at my LBSs can't even service a bike!

You assume all bike fitting sessions are done by some shop monkey in the local LBS?

 

[Nosaj]

Good illustration of my point. Let's look at some of the variables to attain a good fit.

- Own body
- Own mind
- Own instinct
- Own empirical evidence
- Own technical knowledge
- The bike
- Fitter's empirical evidence
- Fitter's technical knowledge
- Fitter's instinct
- Fitter's empirical evidence
- Fitter's knowledge of rider's body

I wonder what would happen if there was some way to combine the knowledge of the person with the body and the bike with the fitters knowledge. What would happen if the two spent about 3 hours together discussing and analysing these variables and bringing the two together to form a hypothesis or a theory, what what happen if that hypothesis or theory was then tested, if it didn't work then the theory or hypothesis was tweaked a little and then tested again and again .....

Pooling the knowledge of the owner of the body and the knowledge of a well trained fitter with an understanding of A&P and Bio mechanics could prove to be quite illuminating.

Just saying.......

 

[screenman]

Seems like the negatives are only coming from people who have no experience of a professional top quality bike fit. Unless of course I have missed that post.

 

[Risex4]

Thanks all. I was pretty much set on going for it anyway - I'm not joking when I said my previous 'experience' was a DIY hammer job. I was just making sure there wasn't a deluge of red flags by means of "waste of time, they just change the saddle height and say try that" type comments. There's enough positive here for me to think its definitely worthwhile

Anyone can learn how to do it, and having learned, no one could assess one's own body's (and mind's) best fit better than oneself.

It's self-evident.

Sorry, not to pick on you personally C33, but as your post I think sums up the nay-sayers in a nutshell. Of course, with years of experience and refinement, in theory you should be able to carry out the most optimal bike fit on yourself. I'm sure the bike fitter I go to see won't go to another bike fitter himself to get his own set-up done. Or, in the spirit of learning and increasing one's skill, maybe he does. Anyway I guess, that's the key words; skill and experience. I don't has it, so therefore it seems advisable to seek the advice of someone who does and who will undoubtedly think of different things and how certain aspects balance out which I wouldn't even be aware of.

To flip what James said on its head "why live with being poor, when you can see the riches?".

Or something.

Genuinely thanks for your input though, once I've had the first "lesson" on how its done and what to look at, I'll certainly be looking at "improving and personalizing" the technique for self-use if I can in the future!

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

I proffer we can tell what works for our own body better than a bike fitter can. No one from a bike shop has ever diagnosed any physiological issues for me, nor would I ever go to one for such a service. The ones at my LBSs can't even service a bike!

I have a leg length discrepency and roll my knee in to compensate, which caused discomfort. Although I was aware that my knee hurt like buggery, I lacked the understanding of my own biomechanics and what was required to address these issues, no amount of tinkering made me comfortable.
A cleat wedge was required and shorter cranks. I honestly believe that if left to my own means I would have never come to this conclusion.... I now ride free from any discomfort at all thanks to a bike fit

 

[Arjimlad]

Which shop was this Arjimlad? I'm looking into getting a new bike/bike fit in the not too distant future so would be interested to hear what he's like.

BW Cycling in Bristol - Oli's a top bloke.

http://bwcycling.co.uk/

 

[Alan Frame]

I'm still wavering in the "is a bike fit worth it?" camp for the simple reason that no matter how much self-induced tinkering I do with my bike, it doesn't seem to cause me any problems.
I can get away with significant alterations in position on the bike and my body seems to adapt, but I am apparently very flexible for my age.
Having said that, I have yet to find that elusive sweet spot where cycling nirvana is achieved, so I'll continue to tinker.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

I had a bike fit thrown in for free with the Specialized road bike I bought in November. The overall purchase was $4500 (about £3000) and the bike fit was worth about $300 (about £200). This $300 was for a 2.5 hour fairly thorough assessment. One nice thing about the bike fit is that the fitter explained to me why he was taking various measurements, and so I now understand more about bike fitting than I did previously, so bike fits for subsequent bikes are probably unnecessary .

By the way, I couldn't help noticing the Australian dollar vs British pound exchange rate is looking good (for my CRC purchases, anyway ), as it's almost exactly 1.5. I'm pretty sure it used to be about 2 - 2.5 several years ago.

 

[Risex4]

Oooo. What Speccy did you get?

 

[Shut Up Legs]

Oooo. What Speccy did you get?

The Roubaix Expert SL4, a 2013 model. It's a beauty to behold and very smooth to ride .

 

[deadpool7]

Yes but you could've done that yourself with a small bit of reading around and your own empirical judgment!

My lbs specced me up on a 58cm racer based on an inside leg measurement and nothing else. I had even gone in there and said "I want either a 56 or a 54 and then adjust it round that". The guy is a qualified fitter apparently but the bike he put me on was dangerously hard to control, and no pleasure anyway as a result.

"Body knows best" as my sister always says of her skating training. No amount of professional fitting will better what you can do yourself, though if paying someone you've never met or ridden with to decide how you should be positioned makes you feel better, go for it!

Stu

I COULD have, but at my current knowledge and skill level, I definitely felt that a trained fit specialist could do a much better and faster job than I could. At only $30, since I bought my bike there, it really was a no-brainer.

 

[cyberknight]

Since reading this thread I have started to wonder about a professional fit and guy from my LBS came in to my shop and I asked him and he has quoted a similiar price to this so I might risk this amount instead of messing about with my own spanners and measurements!

Have to let me know what they do , i might consider it as well for that price but it depends what they do for the money.I currently have both my roadies set up the same and i cant say i have any problems but it took a fair while of tweaking till i found my sweet spot, for anyone who has problems or is unsure about what to do to alleviate problems a bike fit can be a good investment.