Bike Fitting

sketchley

Having just got over a trapped ulnar nerve, I need to go see a bike fitter and get properly fitted and adjusted on both bikes. Some of you where recommending someone on here the other day, any suggestions welcome.

cyclingprop

Cadenceperformance.com - Cadence cycling at Crystal Palace.

rubertoe

The Bike Whisperer is always mentioned

spasypaddy

bike whisperer
le beau velo

meanredspider

rubertoe wrote:

The Bike Whisperer is always mentioned

Definite +100

itboffin

Try anyone other than BW you'll be wasting your time and money.

sketchley

Email sent to BW. Looks expensive hope it worth it, I need to stop the knee pain and hand pain asap.

meanredspider

Sketchley wrote:

Email sent to BW. Looks expensive hope it worth it, I need to stop the knee pain and hand pain asap.

Well worth it. Think I was there for 4 hours. The proof (rather than "the poof" which is what I first wrote) of the pudding for me was the London to Edinburgh ride: my 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th centuries on consecutive days (440 miles) and nothing to report but a tight Achilles

bobinski

Sketchley wrote:

Email sent to BW. Looks expensive hope it worth it, I need to stop the knee pain and hand pain asap.

My experience suggests it will be well worth it. I was late 40's with a history of 2 prolased discs and persistent lower back and leg pain when cycling for more than an hour. And right knee pain.Sherrat spent a lot of time with me checking flexibility, laughing uncontrollably at my left calf muscle for some reason ( ), and sorting out my position on the bike so that I honestly have no recurrence of these issues. I ride a Planet x slpro and really didnt want anything other than a low down racey position and I just could not sort it. I actually feel indebted to him for increasing my pleasure cycling and thats despite him finding my calf so funny. Cadence at Crystal palace pretty much came up with he same position on my commuter 2 and 1/2 years later but I suspect my position was pretty much sorted by then.
The only negative thing I would say is that the coffee at BW is not as good as they think it is

Good luck!

Ben6899

I had a Retul fit by Tom at Swift Cycles in Spitalfields.

Quite a revelation, to be honest, and I feel great on the bike.

wandsworth

Ben6899 wrote:

I had a Retul fit by Tom at Swift Cycles in Spitalfields.

Quite a revelation, to be honest, and I feel great on the bike.

Same here.

stuboyer

I just had a fit on my TT bike at Bridgtown Cycles near Cannock. Mike is excellent and spends ages assessing you e.g. flexibility (hamstrings, hip flexors), taking time to understand what you're looking to achieve etc. I'd never ridden a TT bike before but went straight out the next morning and spent 3+ hours in the saddle, no soreness at all (and annoyingly quick according to my mates on road bikes that day). I now feel like my quads are working better (instead of getting tight calves before). He could quite easily have persuaded me I needed this and that to make it fit... total spend? £16, on a plate to adjust my right cleat to compensate for my hip alignment. Brilliant.

spasypaddy

did you buy your bike from him?

jonny_trousers

I was just thinking about my recent Retul bike fit the other day, and although I have no regrets and feel it was good value for money, it occurred to me that beyond the cleat fit (revolutionary) I could have made all other adjustments myself by listening to my body and trusting what it seemingly wants rather than accepting common internet based wisdom that, as I am X height, I should use X sized frame/stem/saddle etc. I think the best thing I got out of it was a casual analysis of my pedalling technique and advice on how to improve it.

I would definitely recommend a bike fit to anyone who can afford it, but if money's tight I'd suggest a pro cleat fit, time fiddling with different positions, and then chats with experienced riders.

Stevo_666

Jonny_Trousers wrote:

I was just thinking about my recent Retul bike fit the other day, and although I have no regrets and feel it was good value for money, it occurred to me that beyond the cleat fit (revolutionary) I could have made all other adjustments myself by listening to my body and trusting what it seemingly wants rather than accepting common internet based wisdom that, as I am X height, I should use X sized frame/stem/saddle etc. I think the best thing I got out of it was a casual analysis of my pedalling technique and advice on how to improve it.

I would definitely recommend a bike fit to anyone who can afford it, but if money's tight I'd suggest a pro cleat fit, time fiddling with different positions, and then chats with experienced riders.

Was that at Cadence in Crystal Palace? I know they do Retul fits.

jonny_trousers

Stevo 666 wrote:

Jonny_Trousers wrote:

I was just thinking about my recent Retul bike fit the other day, and although I have no regrets and feel it was good value for money, it occurred to me that beyond the cleat fit (revolutionary) I could have made all other adjustments myself by listening to my body and trusting what it seemingly wants rather than accepting common internet based wisdom that, as I am X height, I should use X sized frame/stem/saddle etc. I think the best thing I got out of it was a casual analysis of my pedalling technique and advice on how to improve it.

I would definitely recommend a bike fit to anyone who can afford it, but if money's tight I'd suggest a pro cleat fit, time fiddling with different positions, and then chats with experienced riders.

Was that at Cadence in Crystal Palace? I know they do Retul fits.

Yes it was. Really great experience.

cyclingprop

Stevo 666 wrote:

Jonny_Trousers wrote:

I was just thinking about my recent Retul bike fit the other day, and although I have no regrets and feel it was good value for money, it occurred to me that beyond the cleat fit (revolutionary) I could have made all other adjustments myself by listening to my body and trusting what it seemingly wants rather than accepting common internet based wisdom that, as I am X height, I should use X sized frame/stem/saddle etc. I think the best thing I got out of it was a casual analysis of my pedalling technique and advice on how to improve it.

I would definitely recommend a bike fit to anyone who can afford it, but if money's tight I'd suggest a pro cleat fit, time fiddling with different positions, and then chats with experienced riders.

Was that at Cadence in Crystal Palace? I know they do Retul fits.

Me Retul was at cadence. Has been great.

Stevo_666

@Jonny and Cyclingprop - ta, good to know for future reference.

sketchley

Does the Retul bike fit at cadence include cleat set up?

JamesFree

I had a Retul fit and they didn't change anything at all but was useful at finding out an issue with my shoulder/back that was causing me to sit a little to one side of the saddle which I'm trying to resolve with a few exercises my physio has given me.

jonny_trousers

Sketchley wrote:

Does the Retul bike fit at cadence include cleat set up?

It did, yes. Totally sorted my knee twinges and I only now get tingly toes after many, many miles when I let technique slip. I also feel I have a much more powerful, constant cadence now, but that came more from Des watching my technique and showing me how to adjust it. It's £140 for almost 3 hours and you get a follow up session included. Cadence is a nice place to grab a coffee in too. I should be on commission.

cyclingprop

Sketchley wrote:

Does the Retul bike fit at cadence include cleat set up?

Yes.

The eye opener for me was swapping out to a 2cm shorter stem.

Wrath Rob

Velosport on Putney do the Retul fit too.

Re. Bike Whisperer, they're great but have a correspondingly long waiting list

sketchley

Hmm what to do...

I had bike fitting as part of Enigma purchase, due to issue with seat clamp, now resolved, found out on Friday saddle was 1cm to low. That's now sorted. Hopefully with everything else the bike is setup correctly is certainly is from the point of view of bikefitting.com..... I do feel like I have too much weight on the handle bars though....

Next problem is pain on inside of knee, I think this is cleat positioning so going to have a play and read up on it.

Option are

Do it myself through research and trial and error
Cadence and a Retul fit (£100 - £150)
Bikewhisperer and (£200 - 250)

Is bikewhisperer worth the extra £100? Are there thing they will do that Cadence won't, thinking things like shims in shoes....

redhanded

+1 for Bike Whisperer. I'm not familiar with Cadence, but BW will do wedges and shims for shoes if this needs adjusting.

They do have a long waiting list. I think it was a couple of months when I used them 3 years ago, however I live in London and was able to come at short notice when they had a cancellation so only needed to wait a couple of weeks.

styxd

How do your knees look whilst pedalling? Do they move in toward to toptube/brush the toptube?

Get some angled cleat wedges and have a play. You'll probably be able to solve the issues yourself, it's worth having a go at least, and it'll cost you next to nothing, only your time.

sketchley

Made some progress. I think the problem is to do with shoe and pedal choice and q factor having gone from a compact on the genesis to the tripple on the Enigma. I've moved cleats so shoes are as narrow as possible and it's much better but not perfect. This was following working out my left foot felt like it was pushing over the outside edge of the pedal. I also adjust float on speedplays to force heals out which in turn is keeping my knees in. Next I'm going to try some shoe inserts I had made a few years ago by a podiatrist following a 3d scan of my soles.

The combination of higher saddle and different (less padded and loser) gloves have help the hand pain. With a higher saddle I don't feel like as much weight is over the front, not sure how that works but it seems too. The less padded gloves followed going back on Genesis and working out handle bars were not as thick as on Enigma which has lots more padding.

Not sure where to go next mind I still think a bike fit is good idea, but I'm also questioning my shoe and peddal choice, going to take bike for longer ride and see if changes have helped when I do 50 miles. Might order a pair of those fiziks from planet x. Any recommendation for pedals from those with wider feet would be welcome.

bigmat

JamesFree wrote:

I had a Retul fit and they didn't change anything at all but was useful at finding out an issue with my shoulder/back that was causing me to sit a little to one side of the saddle which I'm trying to resolve with a few exercises my physio has given me.

I thought they changed your cleat position and you ended up knackering your legs which you only resolved when you changed them back? And Ben had similar issues - put me off the idea of a bike fit!

JamesFree

BigMat wrote:

JamesFree wrote:

I had a Retul fit and they didn't change anything at all but was useful at finding out an issue with my shoulder/back that was causing me to sit a little to one side of the saddle which I'm trying to resolve with a few exercises my physio has given me.

I thought they changed your cleat position and you ended up knackering your legs which you only resolved when you changed them back? And Ben had similar issues - put me off the idea of a bike fit!

Yeah I forgot about that, I got new shoes at the same time and they positioned my cleats much further back than my usual position and felt odd from the off but gave it a few weeks to adapt to the point I actually started to get an injury in my quads (mainly my left one) that went away after I changed back to my preferred position.