I’m sure I read there is a type of bike fit where you get measured up on a jig and then can narrow down to the brands and frame sizes which would suit you best.

Rather than the other way round, of buying a bike and then making it fit…

Does this exist?  What is the name of this type of fit and does anyone know of someone who does it near Southampton?

Would rather not be tied to a shop which feels the need to push its own brands, unless they have a good selection.

If you google ‘Guru’ Bike Fit, then they use a database of geometries to determine what would be a good fit.  Retul have something similar but as they’re now owned by Specialized their may be a little bit of bias in there.

Both will use a fit bike and motion capture to work out the best numbers and compare that against their database to see what’s close and in what size.

Not sure, but give Vankru a call. They are in Upham, so close to Southampton. They use Retul I think.

Retul is a fitting system that might help you.

This guy is near Abingdon (so maybe an hour from you) http://www.take3tri.co.uk/

He really knows his stuff and did a fit with me recently where we did jig adjustment on the fly (actually while pedaling in some cases) until we came up with a good fit then looked at bikes that I would fit to with the geometry. A session with Mark is a few hours and can include a current bike on a turbo too. Recommended.

Thanks all – I thought retul was about post purchase fitting – I used Vankru quite a few years ago (2011ish I think) when I bought my first road bike – I believe he was using retul back then – there was no jig just my bike on a turbo and some sort of adjustable stem, I ended up with a shorter +16 degree stem which I rode with for a year or so.  I always felt a bit sit up and beg and eventually moved to a flatter longer stem.  Would be interested to see what a return visit would say – as it is still used as my main road bike.

Do these fits take into account flexibility / experience or are they set calcs?

Any idea of rough costings?

VanKru do a pre bike fit assessment.

Ive not used them for that but my wife & I have had full bike fits from them and she’s had a cleat fit that ended up with them basically doing a bike fit.

Heartily recommend them, Garth really knows his onions.

Rough costs – £150 – 250 depending on what you have done… cleats, custom footbeds etc etc.

What you have to remember is that Retul, Guru, the Shimano one or a bloke with a Goniometer, they’re all just measuring tools and totally dependent on the guy fitting you to interpret the data.  Retul in particular do give some suggested angles you should aim for – however it’s the skill of the fitter to know when to apply them and when not to.

The fit bike isn’t dependent on the system used, although both Retul and Guru have their own… the new Guru bike is really cool as all the contact points are motorised so the fitter can change positions from the app while the client’s still pedaling.

The fitter should really do a few exercises and stretches off the bike first to see how flexible you are / check for any imbalances etc. so that should all be considered during the fit.

New bike fit at VanKru is £210, involves fit on your existing bike plus advice/measurements for potential new ones (think they say they will look at 4 bikes) plus a follow up session with the new one to fine tune the fit.