My bike fit tale

I was out this morning on the road bike and dropped into a local-ish bike shop to ask about booking a bike fit. It was mid-ride and more of an enquiry really but I’d had a twinge in my right knee for a couple of days now and thought why not.

I built my own bike as I do all of them and fit myself by feel and by eye really. I’ve seen all the videos out there and read all the articles but I’ve never hung a plumb line off my knee, I just go by how it feels, keeping the rules in mind.

Back to the shop.

To cut a long question short, is it normal* for a full bike fit to last no more than 10 minutes and to be conducted by a bloke crouched at your side holding onto your seat post whilst you wobble side to side; not once stepping back to look at you, not once asking you if there were any injuries or specific discomforts etc, not once watching you pedal. Oh yeah, and no cleat adjustment, no saddle adjustment in any direction, no hood adjustment or bars etc…

You get the idea.

By normal I mean right, proper, the done thing.

It cost £25. Did I get what I pay for or should it have been more thorough?

The shop in question is the hub for a big local club. It’s not a tiny little family leisure type place if you know what I mean.

Cheers

I reckon you’ve been ‘ad mister

Waste of £25, although my Planet X one wasn’t much better. My advice is go to a specialist

That sounds like the sort of bike fit that halfords do when you by a fifty quid bso from them.

I had one at Epic a few years ago. Took ages and they were very thorough. I then went out for a couple of half hour rides on their test bikes before buying.

Strangely, I had to raise the seat by 10mm after a few rides as it felt wierd…

The specialized BG bike fit take 2 1/2 hours.

never had a bike fit, per se, but before buying my road bike the shop made me try three different sizes, adjusted the seat, made me bring my pedals and shoes and messed with my cleats. I was also told to work on my posture and to not grip the bars so tight. based on my big hands little fingers they moved the brakes in a bit and put thicker tape on the bars…. that was just part of buying a £2k bike but I’d expect similar from a proper bike fit

years ago I had a bike fit done in Canterbury. They had some sort of dedicated franken-bike with all sorts of adjustable stem (both height and rise) seatpost cranks. They took measurements and got the right fit with the stationary bike, then put my mtb on the turbo trainer and tried to replicate them.
…aside from them telling me that my giant anthem was too small for me, I couldn’t fault them.
they also look at my pedal stroke and re-aligned my cleats in my shoes.
… think it was about £50 but you got a copy of the exact dimensions needed for a good fit.

£25 for 10 minutes work seems extortionate! 😯

Sounds like you got the square root of fudge all. I’d ask for my money back, or at least an explanation of what he thought he was doing.

My BG Fit took about an hour and a quarter. I’d rather they didn’t waste my time to make me feel like I’d had my money’s worth. Most of the things that take time to change out, like bar, stem lengths, heights were already pretty spot on. It helps to have a good idea of what you’re trying to achieve before you book your fit though.

Changes that worked for me:

– Saddle height (mine was too high).
– Saddle position. Mine was too far behind. Not by much.
– Cleat position. Moved it further back I think.

Changes that didn’t:

– Fancy Spesh insoles using the thermal image thingy. The soles they gave me hurt like billy-oh. In all fairness, they did swap them out for free.

Things it fixed:

– Occasional knee pain.
– Hip discomfort.
– Back soreness.

Things it didn’t fix:

– Numb plums on extended climbs.
– Persistent saddle sore on my inner right thigh. I think I need a saddle with a narrower nose.

Thing(s) I changed later on:

– Stem. Shortened it to 90mm from the original 110mm. Bike feels a lot nicer now except on those very rare steep climbs we have in the Southeast. May change to a 100mm stem at some point. Can’t help feeling a lot of it is due to a loss of upper body strength due to riding a lot more for exercise because the bike felt nicer to be on.

I paid £100 for it as a special offer at their Kingston Concept Store. However, for the next bike I will probably use that guy trained by the Bike Whisperer. You can find him by searching the internet if you’re interested. I get the feeling that a more experienced bike fitter will be able to dial the fit in a lot better due to experience than a young lad who has been trained using a “by the numbers” approach, as that’s what the BG Fit feels like. No offence to Specialized. I thought the fit was a great thing, but it didn’t solve everything. They offer a follow up service, but I’m not sure if their recommendation to use a saddle with a cutout will sort out my testicular issues.

ignore this post of irrelevance! what curious’ said

What’s the plumb line knee thingy then?

What’s the plumb line knee thingy then?

To see how far forward your knee is over the pedale spindle.

I’d a similar experience, all they did was raise the saddle when I said the front of my knee hurt, plus a few derisory comments about my unbranded Chinese frame. Result was pain at the back of the knee.

Get what you pay for like anything else.

Thing is, it’s a shop thats central to the club; a club which I’ve just started riding with and had intended to race for etc. I don’t want to upset anyone and make my things awkward.

Chalk it up to experience. It’s never easy to swallow that sort of thing though. Clearly a ‘tarmak your drive for £100 Guv’ moment. 😐

Voila

You don’t say whether it helped the twinge in your knee? If it has, you’ve probably not wasted your money.. proof of the pudding etc.

Bit too early to say I think. I’ve done a couple of rides since then and t seems to have helped. Will just have to wait and see how my body responds.