Bike fitting – any cheaper than £120?

If people want to buy them and it makes them happy then why should I give a ****? Or am I just missing the necessary superiority complex?

Its not a superiority complex it is just a sign you are not a stupid gullible moron who will believe any old shit a marketing department can conjure up
If folk buy this stuff then I think it is ok to point and laugh at them tbh

F.A.O. The OP of this thread:

Rob. It’s me here. Your brother. Remember?

Let’s run through a few facts shall we?

I work in a bike shop
We do bike fits
You’re coming to visit me
You’ll be driving, in each direction, within literally no more than 2 miles from said shop where I work.

2+2=4?

🙂

how ever i do think it has its place at a certain level.

Its not a superiority complex it is just a sign you are not a stupid gullible moron who will believe any old shit a marketing department can conjure up

Are you talking about a bike fit? Just so I’m clear before I comment.

Jim beat me to it.

I had a bike fit from York Cycleworks last year.
Was getting really bad knee pain. Turning the cranks was a struggle
and 10mph was about all I could manage.

Went to see Sam, was booked in for a 2-3 hour session. Took measurements, tested flexibility etc. Then did the bike fit, cleat set up. Ended up with some new parts.
Went for a ride and the knee ache was gone. Just got in from a 30 mile ride and knees were fine. So money well spent imho.

I had a bike fit from York Cycleworks last year.
Was getting really bad knee pain. Turning the cranks was a struggle
and 10mph was about all I could manage.

..and after placing stickers on knee’s,elbows,shoulders,ankles etc.. they only raised your saddle by 8 inches!

;O)

had 2 bike fits at Specialized Concept Store (for my 56cm Allez which was a little too large, then the 54cm Tarmac which was correct size fo me)

very, very skeptical until the 1st fitting, then no hesitation in doing the 2nd as it made a big difference to my setup, especially considering I’ve had shoulder injuries (dislocations) and one leg / foot are different sizes to the other leg / foot

I highly recommend Paul Hewitt in Leyland.
£50 well spent IMHO

Most people(who are not high level rau[*]cers) i find complaining of poor bike fit are infact suffering first of all from lack of fitness, second of all lack of core stability and third flexibility and just want to throw money at it.

I also think as others have said that fitness, flexiblity and core strength (and lack of) are huge factors that the rider can influence.

Not had a bike fit, but I’m interested in one and i rather thought that this was the key point.

They fit to your own flexibility and strengths, rather than berating you for being a terrible human being because you don’t crosstrain and do 12 hours of yoga a week.

i.e. Fit the bike to you, not you to the bike.

Not everyone has the time or inclination to “work on their core stability” – some folk just want to ride a bike without it hurting or exacerbating injuries.

That doesn’t seem unreasonable to me.

I had a bike fit at Planet X and it was really poor, would not go there again. Didn’t make a single adjustment to the bike.

Go to somewhere more specialist

So they deemed your bike to be perfect already? What’s the problem? Should they have made it worse?

Just find it hard to believe I had everything perfect already buy guesswork?

120 quid? Mwhahaha, youse are having a laugh right? 😀

had 2 bike fits at Specialized Concept Store (for my 56cm Allez which was a little too large, then the 54cm Tarmac which was correct size fo me)

Err… Hang on. You had a bike fit and the bike was the wrong size? Or do you mean you bought the wrong size so did a bike fit to force it to be right?

I don’t really understand the moaning about cost. Paying for a skilled person who has to pay rent/insurance/advertising costs etc etc is not cheap. I for one would certainly expect to be paid £50 or more an hour for my time which seems to be what most people charge for a bike fit. Whether you think it is needed is a different matter. Judging by the number of roadies that turn up to our club with bad bike set up I would say lots do need help.

I had a bike fit yesterday.

I didn’t intend to but I popped into my LBS and the owner (who I know pretty well) was in the prcoess of setting up his new bikefit system so he asked me if I wanted a go as a guinea pig.
Nothing flash, it didn’t involve stickers and lasers, it was standing on a height measuring thing which then took various measurements – inside leg, torso, overall height, arm length, shoulder width etc – and you plugged those numbers into a computer, told it what make/model of bike you wanted and it came back with some figures. Weirdly though, it told me that my saddle should be 3cm lower and my reach 2cm longer (it recommended a 140mm stem!). Some of the numbers were so far off that I couldn’t work out how they’d been reached.

He seemed a bit unsure of it as well cos it had given similar answers to various other people that he’d tried. He wants to offer it as a service but not if it’s giving answers like that!

I’m a bit mixed on them to be honest. I reckon it’s a mix of marketing and genuinely useful product but bike fit is an evolving process. A fat 40 year old getting into biking might need a relaxed position at first but then evolve into a longer, lower position over the years as flexibility/strength increases, weight decreases etc.

I guess I’m quite lucky in that I’ve ridden and worked in the industry for so long that I know what works for me and how set-up can be changed to suit.

The real question I suppose is what are you getting for £120?

Is it an all singing all dancing “Dynamic” bike fitting with fancy doodle motion capture/analysis software, or “Static” bike fitting where some chap with a plumb-bob measures your knee position at 12/3/6/9 O’clock and then moves your saddle 10mm?

I’m not saying either is better or worse, but I’m like most people I really wouldn’t know what to expect for £120 worth of bike fitting, does your money go on paying for someones knowledge, tools or a bit of both?

Do you get any useful notes or information that you could apply to your other/next bike, or are you expected to return and pay for more wisdom…

My wife had that same type of bike fit done at sigma sport. The bike fitted well but because they didn’t ask her any questions about her riding she got a well fitted aggressive riding position with 100 mm drop from saddle to bars. She was a complete novice and the position was totally unsuitable.

I’m having a car fit next week as I’m not sure what position my seat or steering wheel should be or the seatbelt height….. Or perhaps I could just try adjusting it myself until it feels right for me.

I think PP’s post should have closed this thread really..

I think PP’s post should have closed this thread really..

If it didn’t the phone call did!! 😳 😀

I think some of the people above who are taking the mick out of bike fits don’t really get it. On a road bike you are in the same position for hours and hours, any slight problem in the set-up of your position is amplified so much more than on a MTB. Ok so you might stand up for a few seconds on an uphill but that’s it.

Also if you’ve never suffered pain which you just can’t seem to get rid of (becuase your position is wrong) then you’ll not see the £120 value, much in the same way that if you already think you are a MTB riding god then spending £180 on a skills session with Jedi/ukbikeskills will seem foolish. I’ve spent that money with Jedi and I can say it’s money very very well spent!

I’m having a car fit next week as I’m not sure what position my seat or steering wheel should be or the seatbelt height….. Or perhaps I could just try adjusting it myself until it feels right for me.

But what happens if you spend a few weeks with that car and you always have back ache? No matter what position you are in? Maybe you’d seek professional advice as to what the problem is, maybe as a result change the driving seat. Same thing.

I’m after a bike fit near Sheffield, anyone got some suggestions?

try as I might I cannot get comfy on my road bike, every time I change one thing something else pops up.

It’s fine for the dickheads to scoff at the idea of a bike fitting, but I do think there is some value at least considering the fit of your bike and perhaps paying an appropriately experienced and qualified individual to assist you when you run out of ideas, rather than just setting the saddle height and putting up with all the niggles.

I have a number of bikes and I’d not just like to have them fitted by an expert, I’d like to understand what effect each adjustment has on my body, how one tweak might interact with another and how I might apply what I learn on one bike to another perhaps.

The whole MTFU approach to a bit of lower back pain or an aching knee might work for some, but I’d prefer to apply a bit of logic a (sports)science and not injure myself because I’m just too manly to address a problem.

A bike is a piece of sporting equipment with a lot of possible adjustments, most sporting equipment needs to be appropriate to the user, you don’t cram your foot into a size 8 pair of football boots even though your a 10 because that’s all that was in stock do you? so why put up with a poor/amateur bike fit when there’s some expertise available in the field?

I would be very interested to know how close the bike fits are to the KOP method of setting the saddle part at least. I do however realise there is a lot more too it than just the saddle setting.

What an interesting thread!

This is something I will consider when I get back on the road bike. Thing is, not everybody has a perfectly symmetrical body or they’ve had accidents where they’ve become lop-sided or whatever.

In my case it would be good for a professional bike-fitterist to take a look at my mishapen body, work out what’s needed and minimise any oddities. 🙂

I’ve gone from lop-sided to symmetrical, back to lop-sided, op next week to drain haematoma on leg so fingers crossed that I go back to less lop-sided.

Great if you naysayers have a perfect body. 😉

I bought a new Spesh from a concept store; they did a full measurement and set the bike up right, changed the stem length and saddle and bar tape and it felt perfct; I haven’t changed anything since and I’ve done 250 mles on it now. That wasn’t the same as a full Body Geometry fit session though, which takes much longer asnd involves rollers etc.

I’ve done 250 mles on it now

I hope you’ve not had it longer than a week !

🙂

But what happens if you spend a few weeks with that car and you always have back ache? No matter what position you are in? Maybe you’d seek professional advice as to what the problem is, maybe as a result change the driving seat.

I don’t know anyone that’s done that.

Do you ?

I highly recommend Paul Hewitt in Leyland.
£50 well spent IMHO

That price I can understand, 100-120 us daylight robbery of ATGNI’s.

Sorry, it doesn’t need to feel reassuringly expensive to be a good service. I always believe in a fair price for a product or service.

That price I can understand, 100-120 us daylight robbery of ATGNI’s.

Depends what is involved surely??

£120 sounds very reasonable for a fitting that lasts two or three hours, including flexibility assessment, video analysis, etc

But pretty expensive if it’s just 10 minutes with a guy with an Allen key and a plumb bob.

What’s your hourly rate hora?

What’s your hourly rate hora?

More importantly whats the bikeshop employee being paid to do this?

Are we inferring that Paul Hewitt’s method doesn’t reach the correct conclusions?

Also are the pre-tech bike fitting techniques crock/wrong?

What’s your hourly rate hora?
More importantly whats the bikeshop employee being paid to do this?

I’ve asked this question before (can’t remember who to) but you don’t work in retail do you? I can tell you know. 🙂

Bike shops would be ACE if all you had to do was pay the employees wages.

Bike shops would be ACE if all you had to do was pay the employees wages.

Oh I wholeheartdly agree. I used to work in retail when I was younger and feel your staff are your face and should be rewarded/paid well in incentives/bonus/etc too.

Our bike shop is in Leeds and we have just employed John Hobson to do bike fit for about 100.
but he is very highly regarded and from what i hear well worth it, also got Steve Ward doing soft tissue massage, he is doing this for the pro’s and it’s well worth it.

Are we inferring that Paul Hewitt’s method doesn’t reach the correct conclusions?

Also are the pre-tech bike fitting techniques crock/wrong?

Well….

You could spend an hour in the shed with a good friend,a tape measure and a plumb bob and fit your bike according to rules that have been handed down for generations of cyclists. And probably work for 90%. That’s what most bike shops can probably do for an hours labour rate(£50).

But bikes have moved on since the 80’s/90’s, we’ve now got SPD’s meaning your foot’s in a far more fixed position, so there’s a whole world of alignment issues that probably wouldn’t show up without vidoe/lazers and stickers. Add to that the ever increacing number of hours spent at desks or on sofa’s and resulting changes in flexibility. 50 years ago a cyclist probably rode 20 hours a week, wore toeclips and did a manual job, these days I ride 5 hours in a very good week and still end up in the top 25% of strava’s challanges and do a desk job.

They do look good VFM if you compare £120/3 hours against what 3 hours of physio costs!

Oh I wholeheartdly agree. I used to work in retail when I was younger and feel your staff are your face and should be rewarded/paid well in incentives/bonus/etc too.

Cool. So we can up the labour rate then, yes? £40/hr is astonishingly good value.

But what happens if you spend a few weeks with that car and you always have back ache? No matter what position you are in? Maybe you’d seek professional advice as to what the problem is, maybe as a result change the driving seat.

I don’t know anyone that’s done that.
Do you ?[/quote]

Yes.

If I owned my own car and had a problem with the seating position, I would certainly try different ones, starting with the top of range of that model which might give more support etc. But I’d probably get a feel for it before I bought the car anyway which would alleviate more problems.

As I drive a lot for work we are told that if we have any issues with pain in our lease cars we need to flag it up and if necessary get a workplace assessment to see if the position could be improved. Starting points would involve basic setup by a qualified person able to assess my pain and see where my “normal” position is wrong. I have colleagues who have custom made cushions to give more support. I would probably be able to change car if it were such as issue and it couldn’t be resolved easily.

Any responsible employer would do the same.

Anyway, back to bike fitting. Back in the day if you wanted a quality frame you went to your local frame builder, got measured up and he made a bike to your size. Nowadays its seen as a luxury to get a custom frame but surely that’s the way it should be done!!

I’ve no problem at all with bike fits. It’s a service that’s offered, completely up to the individual whether they use that service or not.
I am curious about how it works though.Take a group of identicaly sized people Some riders like to sit up a bit, some stretched flat out. How does a bike fit decide who is right and that a saddle should go forward 2cm, or a stem should be 10mm longer ?? Everyone has different preferences, so how can one way be the right way and everything else the wrong way.

If I’d done one of these before I knackered my knee, rather than after, I’d probably have the correct amount of meniscus. Money very well spent, subsequently.

I had one of them BG fits, did both my all of my bikes (cx, road, MTB) took many hours, probably cost me at least £500 after all the component changes and the actual costs of the fit itself. Probably worth mentioning was that the saddle height, position and fore and aft is the same for all three bikes.
Had new stems, bars, having the pedal spindles turned to make them shorter, narrower cranks, pedals with lower q factor, saddles etc, new shims and insoles – list goes on.

Best £500 I ever spent cycling wise. Spent less on physio fees since, less pain, had a noticeable improvement in metabolic efficiency (the percentage of a calorie that gets used for turning the cranks) and get complemented on how good I look on a bike pretty regularly.

Easily worth it if you ask me.

Show do we explain the current fashion for short stems and wide bars?

Is it just good fortune that everyone can fit to this, or is it more the case that people are actually quite adjustable, and bike fitting is largely do-it-yourselfable?