Recommend me a bike fitter

flimflam_machine

The short version: I think I'd benefit from a proper bike fitting, but I'm not even close to being a racing or even serious, cyclist. Does anyone have experience of a good value bike fitting in or around London? Specifically I'm after someone who can sort out some knee issues.

The long version: I only use my bike for commuting (12 mile round trip), but I enjoy doing that quite fast. For a while I've been having issues with one knee as a result of my ITB getting wound up incredibly tight. I'm doing physio for this, but I'd like to be able to ride my bike without undoing all that good work. I've tinkered with my saddle and cleat positions in various ways but, not having found a magic position that eliminates my knee pain, I have no idea whether I'm making things better or worse. Since cycling to work saves me a few hundred pounds a year I reckon I can justify spending some cash getting a proper fitting. I'm not after a new bike, just some tweaks to my current position and a set of measurements I can take away for future use. So has anyone had a bike fitting to remedy similar problems and can anyone recommend a relatively cheap fitter in or around London who would be good for this?

EKE_38BPM

The Bike Whisperer gets a lot of recommendations. I've never used them so I'm not saying they are any good, but don't be surprised if this post gets lots of "+1"s.

UndercoverElephant

Yeah, I was about to say the same. They certainly aren't cheap, though. I think a bike fit is pushing £200, I guess that there's cheap and there's thorough.

supersonic

Have you tried flat pedals and shoes?

sampras38

Depends on how serious you want to go but I'd go with Bike Whisperer or a Specialized BG fit. Experienced both and BW imo is probably more thorough and personal, plus they'll give you a free follow-up visit for any tweaks. They aren't cheap and appointments at the weekend are booked around a month in advance from memory.

As a couple I felt what they don't know about bikes isn't worth knowing..

spasypaddy

Bike Whisperer. went twice. cant recommend them enough.

flimflam_machine

supersonic wrote:

Have you tried flat pedals and shoes?

Not for ages, I switched to (MTB-style) SPDs while back and I think I'd find it hard to lose the extra power and sense of being connected to my bike. I also thought that it would lead to me mashing the pedals and so overusing my quads even more. I used to use clips and straps, but my impression was that they gave me basically zero float and so would exacerbate any problems.

Do you reckon it would help?

Tricycleboy

spasypaddy wrote:

Bike Whisperer. went twice. cant recommend them enough.

Why did you go twice? i thought these were to iron out positions that you could transfer to any other bike. Or was this for a TT bike or something with radically different geometry?

been thinking about this too- but at considering the cost i'd hope to only have to go once in a lifetime!

davis

spasypaddy wrote:

Bike Whisperer. went twice. cant recommend them enough.

+1 (apart from going twice). Lovely people, really good service.

You'll coincidentally learn a bunch about bikes, too.

EKE_38BPM

EKE_38BPM wrote:

The Bike Whisperer gets a lot of recommendations. I've never used them so I'm not saying they are any good, but don't be surprised if this post gets lots of "+1"s.

Told ya.

supersonic

I would try flats - it often lets your foot (and therefore lower leg) drop into a more natural position, and can help with knee pain. Sometimes the float causes the problem. For the sake of £15, I'd give it a try!

Bikefit people I have mixed thoughts about. I have seen the same person go to two different places and get totally conflicting and different set ups. Similarly you could have twins who like different set ups anyway - is so much personal preference.

I think there is a lot most people can do off their own bat to tailor fit, and if you are seeking advice on a specific medical problem, make sure they are a qualified sports physio that specializes in bikes.

flimflam_machine

supersonic wrote:

I would try flats - it often lets your foot (and therefore lower leg) drop into a more natural position, and can help with knee pain. Sometimes the float causes the problem. For the sake of £15, I'd give it a try!

Cheers I might give it a go. It won't cost me a penny since I'm running M324's, which a SPD one side and flat the other.

Koncordski

I used these guys, fantastic! I'm so much better on the bike now, should have done it years ago.

http://www.athleteservice.com/

Wrath Rob

Bikewhisperer for me too. Scherrit is a great guy. Not cheap though! Alternatively I'd suggest Sigma Sports in Kingston, cheaper but still very good.

tailwindhome

flimflam_machine wrote:

as a result of my ITB getting wound up incredibly tight.

C'mon guys.

Nobody?

Cafewanda

I couldn't believe no-one commented on that either. I'll check back later

spasypaddy

Tricycleboy wrote:

spasypaddy wrote:

Bike Whisperer. went twice. cant recommend them enough.

Why did you go twice? i thought these were to iron out positions that you could transfer to any other bike. Or was this for a TT bike or something with radically different geometry?

been thinking about this too- but at considering the cost i'd hope to only have to go once in a lifetime!

cos i bought a new bike and wanted an expert eye cast over it before cutting my seat tube down too low. the visits were 18months apart

the_fuggler

Koncordski wrote:

I used these guys, fantastic! I'm so much better on the bike now, should have done it years ago.

http://www.athleteservice.com/

They've been very helpful with me, even though I've not been for a full fit. I buy kit from them and they dispense tips and tweaks while I'm there.

Their shop is located on a site feels like part of a set from Dad's Army though!

the_fuggler

Quick question on this subject - do most people select a bike and then use the bike fit to get it set up correctly or do you go for the fit first and let the outcome dictate which bike they go for? I've had different responses from different shops. The latter makes sense, but would restrict choice.

CiB

The Fuggler wrote:

Quick question on this subject - do most people select a bike and then use the bike fit to get it set up correctly or do you go for the fit first and let the outcome dictate which bike they go for? I've had different responses from different shops. The latter makes sense, but would restrict choice.

I suspect most of us buy the bike that makes us go 'phwoar!!!!!!!!' in the shop, then pay someone to make it work properly under our disfigured hunched & ageing bodies. That's what I did. Well worth it though, my fit transformed my bike from the ok to quite good scale to Gordon Bennett territory.

Not London but only a blast up from Euston + 10 minutes ride; I'll big up 23C at Stony Stratford, on the edge of Milton Keynes. They did me an excellent job; took a couple of hours, lots of prodding, tweaking, measuring etc. Best thing I ever did bike-wise, probably.

UndercoverElephant

The Fuggler wrote:

Quick question on this subject - do most people select a bike and then use the bike fit to get it set up correctly or do you go for the fit first and let the outcome dictate which bike they go for? I've had different responses from different shops. The latter makes sense, but would restrict choice.

It depends how you want to view having a restricted choice, if your choice is restricted to only those bikes that are within the realms of fitting, that's less of a bad thing. They can make tweaks and changes to any bike, within reason, but if you buy a bike that plain doesn't fit, it's never going to work as well for you.

the_fuggler

The restricted choice is my concern, but the shop in question does stock Giant, Trek, Bianchi, Colnago, Wilier, Genesis, Merx, Ridley and a few others, so they're not that limited. Only Scott and Cannondale missing from that list for me.

davis

The Fuggler wrote:

The restricted choice is my concern, but the shop in question does stock Giant, Trek, Bianchi, Colnago, Wilier, Genesis, Merx, Ridley and a few others, so they're not that limited. Only Scott and Cannondale missing from that list for me.

Errr, you'll probably be fine. You're very unlikely to rule out any major manufacturers, and you'll probably come away with something along the lines of "most 58cm top tube bikes could be made to fit me" (it'll probably be more involved than that, but you get the idea.

redhanded

+1 for bike whisperer, however he does get booked up for a long time in advance so you either need to go for a less popular time during the week, or be ready in case there is a cancellation.

the_fuggler

Great - appreciate the advice. I'm hoping this bike will last for a good while, so I think a fit first is a good plan. I have a long list of bikes I like so at least one of those should work for me.

essex-commuter

I had a Retul 3D capture bike fit last week, as used by Team Sky apparently.

Was really good but I have nothing to compare it against.

meanredspider

Great advice in here - I'm down in London at the end of May so I'm going to try to get a fitting set up with somebody for the Volagi before I do Malin to Mizen. Need to get some shoes sorted too.

Butterd2

I had a Retul bike fit at Swift Cycles in Spitalfields a couple of months ago, they were doing an intro rate of £100 which was pretty good. Shifting the saddle forwards a few cm's made a huge different to the handling of the bike and the balance of the muscles used - well worth the money.