Bike fits; how do they work?

furrag

How does a fitting work prior to buying a bike?

I've been invited to a fitting at a store which currently do not have the frame size of a Wilier Izoard I'm interested in purchasing. I thought the idea of a fit was to fine tune your set-up on the bike you are actually riding?

anto164

From what i gather, bike fits sometimes recommend bikes that will fit you. Not all bikes are the same, and there are some that will fit like a glove, whilst some won't fit you at all.

It'll also help fine tune your own bike.

Anonymous

A fit in the first instance will help choose the right size frame. Then when that's sorted you fine tune it...

furrag

Urgh. The said store is 60 miles away and only have the Izoard in medium, and I'm on the cusp between medium and large, which is why I want it pre-fitted. I understand that there's plenty of other places locally, but this store is £400 cheaper...

anto164

get it fitted, and if you are the large, make em get on in! :P

furrag

They do free home delivery on built bikes. Does that mean I could have a bike fitting and at a later date they would build the bike up customised to my fitting, and courier it to my door?

Valy

Furrag wrote:

Urgh. The said store is 60 miles away and only have the Izoard in medium, and I'm on the cusp between medium and large, which is why I want it pre-fitted. I understand that there's plenty of other places locally, but this store is £400 cheaper...

According to my calculations, driving 120 miles is cheaper than £400.

Suffolkwheels

I'll drive you there and back for £300. Deal?

morstar

But check if the large would be the same price if ordered in.

The medium may only be £400 cheaper because it's priced to sell off existing stock. They may want more for a special order. Perfectly reasonable to do so imho but find out first to avoid disappointment.
A bike fitting is still money well spent but make sure you have the facts.

sungod

a proper bike fit has several stages and includes a fair bit of time on a test bike mounted on a turbo, at the end you get a set of measurements you can use to select and set up whetever bikes you have in future

this video is from specialized, but it covers what happens in a typical fit...

http://cdn.specialized.com/bc/microsite ... bgfit.html

if you had your numbers from a bike fit, you could give them to the store and they could check if the bike can be set up to match