As titled, could almost do with being a poll really.

And any recommendations in sunny Scotland wouldn’t go amiss. Don’t mind travelling a few hours to get it right.

Some people will tell you that anyone paying for a bike fit is a sucker, and that you should go read a book and spend a couple of decades working it out for yourself, at which point you can fit a bike based purely on your shadow on a mildly sunny day.

Some other people will tell you that it’s the best money they’ve every spent, and it’s solved problems that they didn’t even realise they had.

For a road bike? Absolutely.
For an MTB? Waste of time.

Tomhoward has it spot on.

This would have been a good pub discussion at the weekend.

I’m not a believer. I’ve seen and spoken to too many folk who’ve had a bike fit and then had to alter it to get comfortable. I also know folk who have had to change their setup as they got fitter. However, Craig Hardie is pretty close to you and has a good reputation.

I’ve had it done and it helped me resolve a knee issue I was having when I upped the mileage on the road bike.

I took the saddle pedal relationship across onto the mountain bike but obviously the reach and stack is a very different kettle of fish.

I’d also add that it’s not worth paying for someone to do it with static measurements, make sure they have a method of taking dynamic readings like dartfish or retul.

I’d also add that it’s not worth paying for someone to do it with static measurements, make sure they have a method of taking dynamic readings like dartfish or retul.

Very much this.

Also, it’s worth being honest for the kind of fit you want. It’s all well and good saying you want the fastest, most aero/efficient position of the pros, just don’t expect it to be fall asleep comfy.

I think they help, even for off road. I do them for free for friends and clubmate.

If it’s done properly then yes.

Sadly some people/places have done a course and therefore call themselves bike fitters. They’re not and in some cases they do a terrible job, in my case fitting me with a completely incorrect size bike!
After having a bike fit by someone who knows what they’re doing it made a huge difference to comfort on the bike.

A lot of this is down to common sense. A guy I used to ride mtb came over with his road bike. Was having lower back pain and general discomfort in riding. Set him up on his bike a turbo trainer and he didn’t even need to pedal for it being obviously too much distance between saddle and bars. Shorter stem and a non layback seatpost and adjusting saddle height to compensate and he is all smiles. I saved him £200 odd and he said ‘ I set it up like that as everyone in the club rides like that’ :roll:.
99% of it isn’t rocket science. 1% probably is blinding with science.

If it’s done properly then yes.

Absolutely agree. For any type of bike too IMO. You also have to acknowledge that it is an ongoing process and it isn’t an exact science. Sure, a lot is common sense, but very often it is common sense with fine adjustments

These threads often go downhill quickly so if you are curious or have ongoing issues track down someone with a good reputation, pay £100, take a couple of hours out of your day and go from there in making up your own mind 😀

For a road bike (IME) worth every penny. For a MTB not needed in most cases.
Would go for a Retul fit.

I would say ignore the doubters. If you have aches and pains whilst riding, and are not confident in setting up the bike yourself or have numpty mates, and are at the point where you are thinking of spending money on shiny bits in the hope that this will sort your issues, get a bike fit from someone who can do dynamic fitting. It could help and save you a load of money and pain.

Jon Allan at Dales in Glasgow knows his bike fit stuff inside out, worth it in my case.

A mate who pooh-poohed my recommendation on what they should be riding just spent 250 quid on a bike fit.

And came away with the same frame size and stem length I’d recommended based on sight.

A few basic well established guidelines and common sense sprayed with snake oil and dressed up with technology.

THIS

If you get pains then it may be worth it but its not that hard IMHO Adjust stuff till its comfy.

If you are riding 100 miles + to win races then it might be worth the time and effort.

Otherwise ask a mate or read some online stuff

Well, good to have a consensus on the matter 😀

The thing about a decent bike fit is that it could correct some bio mechanical issues as well as set the bike up to suit you. It’s almost a given that the bike is the correct size, but if you consider that every contact point has at least 3 planes of adjustment, it is easy to get it nearly right,but not quite right. For instance, are your cleats in the best position, do your feet need wedges or instep support to help correct knee / leg alignment. Are your cranks causing the knee over extension or compression by being too long or short?

You can do it by reading up and taking videos of yourself, but if you’re spending thousands on a bike, £150 could be money well spent to get the best out of it.

Of course, you would probably be fine with a clued up mate or setting it up using measurements and guides, but a lot of people have odd length legs, tight hamstrings, Achilles issues, bad backs, etc etc, and a good bike fit could help adapt the bike to fit you better.

Road bike, yes. MTB no.
Got mine done with Velocity 44 (Stirling). Its a Retul and sort of lasts in that if you buy a new bike you can hand over your fit document and they should be able to set the bike up exactly for you.
Could be viewed as a luxury but I never get any issues on the bike anymore. Especially worthwhile if you do long rides with a lot of climbing. They came up to Aberdeenshire and I got club discount so that was a bonus.

bad backs

I’ve got that for sure.

Not on a bike tho! The bike actually seems to help.

Especially worthwhile if you do long rides with a lot of climbing.

I like both of these things very much. I’m not good at them, but I like them.

Otherwise ask a mate or read some online stuff

As we’ve met, I’ll assume you mean the latter 😀

Never had one done myself, just experimented with set up.

Bike fit didn’t really exist a few years back, you got a custom frame. Is it needed now? Well the shops making money from you having it done would definitely say it’s worth having it done because they get you to part with lots of cash, and then get you to buy even more components from them…. I wonder why more and more shops are offering this service ? ££££££ !

Lots of this.

My boss is very proud when he tells people how he had a bike fit done on his TT bike to get a really aggressive position.

Have another conversation with him, and he says how his TT bike is really difficult to control, you can’t ride it on uneven roads, can’t ride in cross winds, can’t brake except in a dead straight line.

Clearly the two are not connected ! Hmm.

He’s had the bike over two years and never ridden a time trial…

100% worth it, race xc then use the same numbers on your race bike, within reason for saddle height/layback

Might be. Might not. I got one done when I was struggling with drops, it made everything worse. I don’t think it was wrong, exactly, it was just totally by the book and it didn’t work for me at all. I don;t think humans are that simple.

its not that hard IMHO Adjust stuff till its comfy.

It’s not and that’s what a lot of us do, getting to the actual cause of any discomfort is difficult though and how changes affects the balance or handling of a bike can also get complicated.
There’s some really good fitters out there, there’s also a lot more places where you can pay to have data averaged and a print-out done. The quality of the result may depend on what you’re expecting and asking of them. I’ve been fitted twice for a road bike and didn’t get any ‘better’ info than a few years of bike design and a few 1000 miles of tweaking, so I could say they weren’t much use or I could say that for them to do that in an hour shows good ability. I didn’t learn anything from either fit ‘system’, but I have done from conversations with other fitters. The best advice came from a fitter that talked in the same way I talk with a few riders about bike layouts – balance, weight distribution etc, no mention or use of formulas or systems beyond his understanding of his own beliefs and methods.

The one question I have about fitting is that if I went to a bike fitter and asked to be set up for comfort over long distances on or off-road, would they put me in the position that my Jones bike does? ie, a quite unusual position and a unique set of geo numbers, how far will they push your position away from your current norm and how far would you accept? My Jones felt very odd for a while to start with and as I adapted to it it became by far the comfiest riding position I’ve experienced. But in a fitter’s workshop my feedback would have probably been ‘nah, feels odd / too upright’ etc – unless perhaps I had total trust in thier ability. So I think the quality of the discussion and your openess to stick with what initially feels odd may be the key to getting the best from a fitting.

EDIT: Slight hijack, sorry.

dartfish or retul.

Local shop (Spesh dealer) advertises ‘BG fit’, is that equivalent to the above?

Tempted to get a fit to help with a knee pain issue on rides over 2 hours on the road bike.

BG fit is the Spesh version, basically the same, yes. The training is standardised across Spesh, using the Andy Pruitt bible.

I think a better way of doing it (rather than spending a couple of hundred quid on a bike fit) is go to a decent physio (preferably one who has knowledge of sports/cycling); get an assessment; they should be able to tell you if there’s anything obviously wrong with your functionality and how to go abou correcting it. Should cost you £50 or less

Get some good insoles. Should cost £50 or more

Go and see someone local (in your club?) like TiRed who has a bit of experience with fitting people to road bikes. they’ll guide you in the right direction.

The rest of it you will work out for yourself. Your bike fit will evolve over time anyway.

The most important things are saddle height; cleat position; foot correction; not sitting like you’re on a bar stool. Once this is sorted, the rest is pretty straight forward.

I see alot of people on road bikes with short/high stems, inline seatposts, bars rotated at a funny angle; this is not how a road bike should be ridden!

I would recommend one. I messed around for 3 years trying to get sorted and lost confidence in myself. The fit put my saddle where I had it 3 years and adjusted my cleats. I could have figured the former out but now have a better understanding of which way to go. So from a huge sceptic I would now say yes.

just spent 250 quid on a bike fit.

😯

Blimey, I paid about half that and had a very involved service.

I’d recommend NJD if you’re in Lancs or nearby…
http://www.njdsportsinjuries.co.uk/Cycling.htm

Good advice from David Taylforth up there though. I was diagnosed with wonky legs and now use wedges and orthotic insoles – which appear to have cured my knee pain and improved my balance and power on the bike.

Blimey, I paid about half that and had a very involved service.

I’d recommend NJD if you’re in Lancs or nearby…
http://www.njdsportsinjuries.co.uk/Cycling.htm

Yeh, that’s who I’d recommend and I’ve not even used them. I did email Nick for some advice a couple of months ago and he sounded like he knew what he was talking about.

I thought I’d been bent over and ragged raw when I paid £50 for the insoles, but they’ve been worth their weight in gold.

😀

My boss is very proud when he tells people how he had a bike fit done on his TT bike to get a really aggressive position.

Have another conversation with him, and he says how his TT bike is really difficult to control, you can’t ride it on uneven roads, can’t ride in cross winds, can’t brake except in a dead straight line.

Sounds like me (minus the bike fit bit)
Spent the winter riding a tt bike on a turbo, getting use to the most lowest narrowest position possible.
Tried it on an actual road last month – it’s a **** ing death trap 😀
Sticking to the road bike till I can get a valium prescription for the TT pig bike.