Bike fit

trickydisco

So who here has had a professional bike fit?

What were your experiences like? Did you measure any increases in power? Less injuries?

Anonymous

Me.

Excellent. Yes. Yes.

trickydisco

How much of an increase?

Was it the retul system?

Anonymous

Various at different time periods, I was able to do what was my FTP before for a lot longer. Each other 'Critical Power' increased too by differing margins. Sprinting only a small difference as I'm out the saddle although front end better, I had more control. No niggles, leg length discrepancy identified and corrected, knee tracking issues identified and corrected. Lower back/shoulder pain eradicated also.

No. It was Adrian Timmis at www.cadencesport.co.uk

rdt

My experience after an Adriam Timmis fit was similar to NapoleonD's (and hat tip to him for writing about it last year, as it was that which prompted me to go see Adrian).

I've no power meter to quantify the improvement, but improvement there was. Most importantly for me, a knee problem that I'd considered permanent (also partly linked to leg length discrepancy and tracking) was resolved as a result of the fit.

Cracking value for money (best cycling money I've spent), hence all the glowing endorsements on here.

BigGar35

....

Xommul

Ive had a bike fit fir my first road bike which arrives in 3 weeks.

They took all my measurements and suggested a few bikes.

What was interesting is that the bikes i had in mind before the fitting would have been far too small and led to issues and pains very quickly.

When my bike arrives i take it to them and they set it up properly for me and adjust as necessry.

Very professional people at bike lab in richmond london.

Highly recommend it if yu are buying a new bike

doyler78

I had mine done in Bespoke Cycling in London which was a Retul fit. I had only started renting a power meter when I got the fit done so couldn't quantify any differences in power however that wasn't why I went. I was constantly injured through poor bike fit. 2 1/2 years later and I have had no bike fit related injuries since (though suffering with poor cleat alignment at min from not marking shoes properly before changing but I'll get there slowly ) Worth every penny I paid. I think the fitter is more important than the technology they use so go with the one that is highly recommended and appeals to you. Give them a grilling over the phone. They are going to be taking serious money from you so make them work for it Try not to fall for too much mumbo jumbo. Generally I find the more mumbo jumbo people take the less they understand It's like they are trying to prove something rather than just being very good.

cabbage1879

Anyone had a Bikefit through the Specialized system? Was thinking of that or the Retul sytem.

McConveys in Belfast for the Specialized fit (£120) or Roe Valley Cycles in Limavady (£175) for the Retul system.


Both take 3 hours, but Belfast is far handier than Limavady. Is the retul system a better one?

doyler78

cabbage1879 wrote:

Anyone had a Bikefit through the Specialized system? Was thinking of that or the Retul sytem.

McConveys in Belfast for the Specialized fit (£120) or Roe Valley Cycles in Limavady (£175) for the Retul system.


Both take 3 hours, but Belfast is far handier than Limavady. Is the retul system a better one?

Have you contacted either and are they the prices quoted?

cabbage1879

Yep, contacted both of them to compare prices. The prices above were the prices quoted to me. Obviously price is an issue, but i would pay the extra if the retul was the better system.

doyler78

OK that's good because when I checked with McConvey's 2 1/2 years ago they were charging £150 and the going rate was £120 so I refused to use them on point of principal. Having experienced a Retul fit and having suffered no probs since I would definitely recommend a retul fit (so long as the fitter knows what they are doing). That's not to say that I wouldn't have been equally as happy with a Spesh fit.

If the price had been closer ie £150 v £175 I would definitely have said go Retul because I just think there is less that the fitter can do wrong on that fit so long as they place the sensors in the right place.

I haven't met anyone yet that had either the Spesh fit or Retul fit done over here so I'm not sure how many they are doing and ideally you would want a place that does a lot because they will get better with practice.

Sorry not much help I know.

cabbage1879

Think i'll go for the Specialized one to be honest, mainly due to it being so close. Not that fussed travelling up to Limavady for a 3 hour fit and 2 hours there and back.

Thanks Doyler for the replies anyway.

cabbage1879

Right i got the Specialized Bike fit done in McConveys on Saturday past (11/06/2011).

It's thrown up a few interesting differences. The main one being that my top tube is to long for me. Basically i ride a Specialized Roubiaux Elite 2007 with a 53.7 TT, basically according to the fit i should be on a bike with a 51 TT. So now i'm trying out a 75mm stem to see how it feels. I reckon i'll be looking at a new frame to be honest as a stem that length would leave the front end a bit effy i reckon. I haven't done many miles on it atm to tell for certain.

Also my saddle was too low and too far back, i got it raised nearly 2cms!! and brought forward nearly an inch!!

Bike feels alright bar the shorter stem, saddle feels good and i'm not as streched forward as i usually was, but again i don't think i could get used to the shorter stem.

doyler78

You wouldn't mind giving us a bit of info on the fitting process itself and how you found that cabbage1879.

cabbage1879

Too be honest, having never had one done before i found it surprisingly indepth. I thought it just be an hour of tweaking and moving things about.

They have a large folder that goes through everything from shoulder width, arm length, they also check how subtle you are. Basically i think this is so they don't end up giving you to severe a position on the bike.

They check arm drop, leg drop, the arches on your feet, posture, flexibilty, the width of the bones in your arse so that you're on the right width of saddle. Leg length is also checked.

There is a few other things that i can't really remember, but all in all it seemed to go well.

As i may have stated in my other post, it worked out that my TT is too long for me but in all honesty it's never really caused me any real problems. So much so that i put my 90mm stem back after they said i should have a 75mm one. I went out on Tuesday and it just felt to effy at the front to be honest.

Also need a set of 40cm bars instead of my 42cm ones atm, my arms are sitting like / \ instead of l l on the hoods.

So all in all it threw up some good things and some bad, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating i suppose. One other good thing is the lack of leg cramps during any ride i did regardless of milage.

doyler78

Thanks that's interesting. Did you get a sense that the fitter knew what they were doing or did it seem they spent a lot of time looking at the manual to makes decisions for him/her?

I've no problem with taking measurements however I would be worried if they didn't ask you lots of questions along the way about how the fit felt?

Did the position that they initially came up with become the final position or was there fine tuning?

Is there any sort of support offered if you find the position isn't working out and was that backup chargeable?

Sorry for all the questions. I've a second I'm looking to get set up as I've never been able to replicate the position of my properly fitted bike well enough to not annoy me so I'd consider this if I thought I would end up with a useful position afterwards.

cabbage1879

doyler78 wrote:

Thanks that's interesting. Did you get a sense that the fitter knew what they were doing or did it seem they spent a lot of time looking at the manual to makes decisions for him/her?

To be honest it was a bit of both. I wouldn't be the easiest person to do a fit on as i have a fair amount of problems. Having had a broken hip, ankle and left leg nerve damage along with knee troubles. So in that case he done well to get me any sort of decent set up.

I've no problem with taking measurements however I would be worried if they didn't ask you lots of questions along the way about how the fit felt?

Plenty of questions asked along the way. Nothing was done until i was in agreement with it, so he couldn't just do something and leave it at that.

Did the position that they initially came up with become the final position or was there fine tuning?

Is there any sort of support offered if you find the position isn't working out and was that backup chargeable?

The position they came up with was one that was comfortable at the time, but taking into account actual conditions on the road it can and has indeed changed already. ( i've changed back to my ordinary 90cm stem until i get a bike with a shorter TT)

There is back up available, yes. Never asked if it was free or not but they seem keen on my feed back in relation to the fit. I doubt anyone would get their perfect fit 1st time round, a bit of fettling would be needed.

Sorry for all the questions. I've a second I'm looking to get set up as I've never been able to replicate the position of my properly fitted bike well enough to not annoy me so I'd consider this if I thought I would end up with a useful position afterwards.

No problem about the questions mate, happy to help. One other thing he told me that they intend on charging 99.99 for it from now on.[/b]

doyler78

Thanks for all that. Good news about the price. It makes you wonder why they don't market the service. I only found out about because they were listed on the Spesh website.

I'm testing a saddle at the min so might combine that with a bike fit now.

I totally agree that the position shouldn't be set in stone once you leave however I was more worried that they would take your money and run ie not help you sort any issues that might arise. Glad to hear that there is a backup service (free or otherwise).

stonehouse

I had a very positive result from my bike fit with "The Bike Whisperer", I wrote a few words about some of the experience:

http://www.ciclobyron.com/the-bike-whisperer

Can't really recommend them more highly to be honest.