bike fit at Paul Hewitt's
kamil1891
Posts: 658
I have booked a bike fit at Paul Hewitt's cycle store, for this friday and I would like to know your recommendations. What is the process like etc? 
I am wondering because the price is relatively low at 50 pounds and it only takes 45mins whereas other fittings take approx. 2-3h.
I am wondering because the price is relatively low at 50 pounds and it only takes 45mins whereas other fittings take approx. 2-3h. 0
Posts
Despite travelling 130miles to get there Paul wasn't ready for me (I had to wait about an hour in the finish whilst he completed another bike fit and other shop tasks)
Fit constantly interupted in order to deal with 'regulars' despite another seemingly competent assistant in the shop. This inclued a break to do the final prep for a new bike that was being collected.
Throughout he was not very interested on my feedback. In fact when I pointed out that I felt very stretched out and it didn't feel right the response was '...if you knew what was right you wouldn't need to be here, so let me tell you what is right because that is what you are paying for'. Fit only done on jig, at no time did I actually sit on MY BIKE!!
Regular comments on how the bike was not the right size and not good quality. It wasn't bought from Hewitts which was also pointed out to qualify the previouse points
All this would have been OK if the fit had been right. However after struggling for a few months I went to Adrain Timmis at Cadence sport where my seat was lowered 25mm, moved forward 15mm and the reccomended (but never fitted) 140mm stem was set at 110mm. This provided a great fit and the experience was very good indeed.
I am sure he is not bothered, as I am not a regular, but I wouldn't even shop at Hewitts now let alone have another bike fit.
This is just my experience though and others will tell you differen.. Please make your decision based on all the inputs, my experience MAY have been a one off.
(But you never see any negative reports about Cadence Sport!)
Re the last posters negative comments, yes his fitting is done on a jig, because everything is movable. All the variables cannot possibly be quickly changed on an existing bike. If he was saying that your bike was the wrong size then I would assume that to be the case. It would have been bad practice to pretend otherwise. Paul is not a smooth talker but says it how it is. That is all good as far as I am concerned. I have always found him to be polite, interested and scrupulously honest. Re not listening to feedback, on the contrary he constantly emphasised that the fit was a two way process, and that is how I found it. Getting different fitting advice from another source doesn't mean either of the parties was wrong. Bike fitting is as much an art as a science and there is no one perfect fit. Different people will have different ideas and both can be right.
I have no hesitation in highly recommending Paul Hewitt.
(edited to say that the saddle has gone up by 7 not 70mm as originally posted)
Sorry but in my case one source was wrong and I suffered for it. The differences I state in my post are pretty big in bike fitting terms.
But as I allude to, if all Paul Hewitt bike fittings were as bad as mine he would not keep getting recommended.
It just sounds to me as if you didn't give the fit a chance. You were specced a 140mm stem which was never fitted. Did you actually try to ride the bike in the setup provided by Hewitts?
Did you get back to Paul if you were unhappy with the fit? I would be amazed if he didn''t try to put things right if you were unhappy.
Paul Hewitt set your saddle and then you raised it by 70mm
:shock:
70mm is a bloody long way off, unless you're a teen and have grown a lot.
45 minutes for a fit?? My fit at cadence sport was near 3 hours!
I have no experience of Paul Hewitt and a club member works there but going off what you said and what I had done at Cadence sport it wouldn't fill me with confidence.
Also I would always prefer to get fitted on my actual bike rather than a jig, unless of course I was having a custom frame.
Like I said I have no experience of Hewitt and I'm sure he is great and lots of people suggest him.
Just the opposite, I've lost 21lbs and am much more flexible than I was. I've always understood that bikefit is something that changes over the years.Sadly at 54 I'm no teenager but would argue that as an older rider, bike fit is even more important than it is for people who are younger. In the end we all have to speak as we find, and along with many other people I've been very happy and comfortable over my 6000+ miles a year!
(edited to say that I meant 7mm not 70mm) see embarrassed post below)
I thought bar height, stem length is affected by how flexible you are. But like I said i'm probably wrong.
Like you said you had a great time at Hewitt, I had a great time at Cadence Sport.
Rozzer32 you were quite right to be sceptical. If my saddle had really gone up 7 cm even I would have been doubtful re the original fit. To reiterate, my saddle has gone up 7mm over 3 years. I'm sure you'll agree that isn't a big change.
I'll now go back and relearn my metric measurements!
I will vouch that Paul may not have the best rapport with the customers but Nickwill is quite right. I am quite frankly amazed by your experience coach h. If you bought the bike elsewhere then take it on the chin, you get the bike to fit you not the other way around.
As Nickwill also mentioned, if you were not happy with it then why did you not flag this up and give the shop a chance to listen/react?
The jig may not be the best fitting method in the world but it works. Comparing others with time spent is not a fair comparison. How much does the cadence session cost?
I don't mind a fair dig as it's nice to see all feedback not just the positive ones. However I feel that your experience would be a rare occasion, shame you didn't express this at the time.
I came away dissapointed and ended up driving from manchester to Epic cycles where the experience was so much better in every way.
I RIDE A KONA CADABRA -would you like to come and have a play with my magic link?
I think the phrase "does not suffer fools gladly" springs to mind-I am reasonably new to cycling but immeadiately he fires off questions about saddles, wheel sets, crank lengths etc. Fair enough because he needs to know these things to do the bike set up, BUT he should be aware that all his customers are different and he needs to pitch his questions with this in mind-I got the impression that he just wants to deal with "pros"
I do not doubt that he really knows his stuff, but it all appears to be a pain to have to deal with customers
Just my opinion
Paul 'says it how it is' and his enthusiasm for bikes and cycling shines through.
As far as I'm concerned his shop combines the best of the old fashioned bike shop with the advantage that he sells a wide range of quality products.
So regardless of what the man himself is like, recommended!