This (new?) trend of people paying for bike fitting services

Some right old tosh being spouted here tonight.

If folk are happy to part with their money for something that you dont feel they should – well, whats it got to do with you? It is their money.

Some of you need to get over yourselves, seriously….

Do give over.

I’ve been riding and racing mountain bikes, cyclocross bikes and road bikes for 26 years, fitting them all to me.

I’ve taken the books I mentioned out of the library, studied them and put what I learnt into practice. I’ve looked to see which pro riders were the same height as me and looked at their positions, worked out by measuring photographs to see what size frames they rode, how long their stems were, what changes they made through their career.
I’ve spent time reading on the net, learning what people think works and what doesn’t, learning what people regard as good, what people think is rubbish.

There are some people who have taken much of this information and use it in an intelligent way, but none of it is secret, none of it is a black art and all of it is available to everyone to learn for themselves.

I’ve never paid for a bike fit but then i spent years of trial and error to learn how to do it myself

i earn enough and value my free time highly so i pay somebody to do all that for me.

i earn enough and value my free time highly so i pay somebody to do all that for me.

problem is, your fit is wrong.

The fit will be one persons idea of what is right on one day. Your fitness, your flexibility and the reason you ride all determine what your fit should be, and it changes!

Learn what to look for and you can understand how and why to tweak the fit.

If you want to pay someone to fit you to a bike feel free, but unlike many things, which are right or wrong there is precious little point beyond a quick fit to get you to a starting point.

If only there was a cycling magazine that did proper journalism.
They could send a secret shopper to several bike fitters and see what each one recommended.
It would be interesting to see if there’s a standard formula they all work to, or if they’ve all got their own ideas

I’ve carried out bike fits and, judging upon results, still wouldn’t recommend it.

If you want to pay someone to fit you to a bike feel free, but unlike many things, which are right or wrong there is precious little point beyond a quick fit to get you to a starting point.

Really….

I dont think you know as much about as you think you do.

If what you say is true then why do pros spend so much time & effort on bike fit, when if as you say its not necessary???

🙄

Go on routes, elaborate, Share your wisdom..

Or do you think correct bike fit is only the realm of pros?

Seriously, my money, my choice – wheres the issue??

If what you say is true then why do pros spend so much time & effort on bike fit, when if as you say its not necessary???

Do they really? Spending time in a wind tunnel getting a position tweaked isn’t really relevant to the average rider.

Do they really? Spending time in a wind tunnel getting a position tweaked isn’t really relevant to the average rider.

You seriously think someone whose livelihood depends on being the best he/she can be will put up with “That’ll do….”?

problem is, your fit is wrong.

The fit will be one persons idea of what is right on one day. Your fitness, your flexibility and the reason you ride all determine what your fit should be, and it changes!

Learn what to look for and you can understand how and why to tweak the fit.

If you want to pay someone to fit you to a bike feel free, but unlike many things, which are right or wrong there is precious little point beyond a quick fit to get you to a starting point.

You presume a lot and know very little about my bikefit.

First one I had when buying my first roadbike at condor was rudimentary and did need further correction with an extra 1cm on the stem, the second at sigma Kingston after riding a lot more on the road was needed after having physio for issues with knee miss-tracking/weak glute medius and overdeveloped vastus lateralis. This was all sorted with a proper bike fit where saddle height was changed slightly custom footbeds formed and fitted with cleat shims and an insole wedge and the cleats positioned correctly. Previous to this I could only ride for an hour before knee and ITB pain and had to wait for 3 days before riding again. The fit, footbeds and 1 visit to the physio alleviated all issues virtually overnight once the underused muscles had developed.
Yes I’m aware fit changes, I notice its more comfortable the more I have been riding as core strength drops while off the bike (though I’m still happy to use the drops all day and have a daily ‘racey’ position)
In short 2hrs and a bit cash means I can ride all day with no issues which I would gladly have paid double for.

So don’t be offended if i ignore your opinion, to me it’s not worth a toss.

🙄

MrSmith’s bike yesterday

It looks a lot better now it has white bar tape.

You seriously think someone whose livelihood depends on being the best he/she can be will put up with “That’ll do….”?

They will be fitted but it is not an exact science, any fit is no more than a starting point. Hence the point about wind tunnels, fit depends on purpose there is no right position. With the wind testing there is always compromise between what is right and what a rider can actually use. Why do so many pro road bikes have a slammed stem? surely it suggests that bikes are made with headtube’s that are too long…. or maybe it is a compromise on what is rideable and mechanically sensible….

Have a read about the Lemond and Hamley fits, then tell me why they are different if there is one magic fit?

What is the “correct” bar width, what is the “correct” crank length. Now go to a velodrome and look at a track bike, or go to a cross race and tell me the bikes are right, or maybe go to an Audax, a pro road race, etc.

It is your money to spend, it gives you some ideas, but it is not an exact science and you would be better off getting some information on how and why. So you can get the position right, can understand what may be niggling. A decent fit will get you so far, it won’t be perfect, whatever that is!, but beyond that there are no quick fixes.

A few years ago one of the French? pros had to change position because of arterial problems where his thigh hit his torso. (i think iliac Arteriopathy) so again i ask if there was one answer why did he have to change?

You can’t buy real fitness, you can’t buy skill, you can learn, and you can be given advice, but the rider has to put the time and miles in and to a certain degree experiment.

I think Crikey has it largely nailed, a bit of intelligent reading will get you all the info you need. There’s enough adjustment on a bike to move things around until you’re comfortable. Where I think folk are going wrong is assuming that the sort of riding position used by incredibly fit and active young racers is going to be just as good for an occasionally active somewhat older person.

If you are an audaxer or a racer and chasing the last watt, then I’m sure bikefit will get it for you, but I can’t see it as essential for the rest of us.

crikey – Member
“The more upright you put yourself the less problem you have with bike comfort.”
…Until you start riding your upright bike up hills and for long distances; I’ve ridden a trad Dutch bike around Amsterdam for 4 hours and was uncomfortable after 1 hour…

I initially found the same on my ancient British roadster, but the beauty is it has one more adjustment than modern bikes. You can raise or lower the handlebar several inches. I did this and now it’s good for hours on end, and it climbs hills just fine. The descents with rod brakes are another matter. 🙂

[/url]

Edit:

As far as I know, all the research into riding positions and the resulting data are intended to enable athletes to produce max power, and not to provide comfortable positions for the rest of us.

Blimey, rod brakes, you want to be careful with those !

The last thing you want is arm pump, leading to fatigue and then before you know it carpel tunnel will set in and you wont be able to ride for more than an hour, you wont be able to sleep, you will wake up in the midlle of the night having to stretch your arm out ! the pain will become unbearable and it will ruin your 45 min mini TDF every weeek,

Try googling BIKEFIT, not to be confused with being Fit on a bike, you just need to be shown the error of your ways, as soon as they sculpt your body round a bike then all will be revealed, because it seems to me that those that have had it done have found that it is beneficial,

no doubt this debate will rumbe on, i’ve come from Road biking and have never been fitted to a bike, when i went to bed on a night with an ache and a pain i knew i’d had a good ride, it was usually acompanied by a grin like a cheshire cat !

Can i just add this, its Physical Excercise, its suposed to **** hurt, your suposed to feel like shit when you have been in the sadddle for 5 – 6 hours, if you dont then your bluffing bikefit or no bikefit !

Its riding a bike and beleive it or not it is a very complicated process, the fact that you pull against an opposite effect just to keep upright means that you are always straining in some way.

mrmo, you’re slightly missing the point.

There are no hard and fast rules for setting up every different person on every different bike….obviously, there are too many variables.

There is no such thing as the ‘correct’ bar width, stem length etc….

However all the bike fitting services i’ve seen advertised are about getting the rider set up on their own bike, not some one else’s bike at the velodrome, or the local time triallist’s machine but time spent experimenting with stem length, cleat position, layback posts, inline posts, carbon posts, aluminium posts, wider bars, narrower bars etc etc….you get the idea.

I’m not biased on this as i havent had a bike fitting but i have spent a few pennies buying different saddles, different seat posts, stems etc in my quest to find a good position for me….not to mention the time spent on the uncomfortable rides when i’d tried something that didnt work.
I can fully understand someone wanting to wheel their bike into the shop, get fitted properly for their build and that bike and ride out again without the trial and error nonsense that some on here are advocating and i myself went through while it took me months to finally get comfortable on a road bike.

It is no different to paying for lessons, coaching, custom equipment etc in any other sport.

My issue with fits (not that I’ve had one) is that they seem to be sold as final. If you can’t work out what size bike you need yourself I assume you are a total novice. So a fitter sorts you out, what then. Are you told to come back in a few months or a year so it can be re adjusted to fit?
Couple of first hand experiences. A guy was sold wedges and is obsessed with this 4mm plastic spacer, he must have his seat post at the height marked on it by the fitter, it must be milimetre perfect or he suffers. yet he has fitted a saddle that’s at least 1/2″ lower in profile and changed his shoes…same thickness sole? but as long as that post is in the right place his fine.
Another fella 2″ taller than me came to buy my bike. He has been fitted on 57/58cm bikes mines 54cm. He came for a try anyway. We had to lower the saddle 1/2″
And seeing some of the customers bikes being changed after a bike fit…**** me

From my pretty long experience on the road, most issues aren’t exactly fit related. New riders in my old club with ‘problems’ came mainly from –
Poor riding technique. Like bobing head, arms, shoulders and hips for no reason?
Challenging their gears, rather than using them i.e thinking it’s cool to do everything in the big ring.
Cleat position. I still find it hard to believe that a sensible bloke will just fit and forget!
Pointed up/down/left/right saddle.
Having saddle too low so they can touch the ground when they stop.
keeping levers where the shop put them, and instead moving the whole bar to get them in the right place rather than spend a tenner to rw wrap them.
And stuff.

Oldgit, not so much an issue with bike fitting, more what people choose to do with the information it provides them.

I’d hope that if I did go for a bike fit then I’d get an optimised fitting on specific bikes for a specific purpose (e.g. I’d expect the position on the TT bike to be distinct from the road racing bike.) I’d take that information and add it to the pot of existing knowledge and just not blindly apply the results. And I wouldn’t expect that information to then be carved in stone with the passing of time and bikes.

I suppose it’s like any other tool, power metres being another good example, you need to have a bit of understanding to interpret the data that they are providing you, otherwise it’s a bit of a waste of time and money.

MrBlobby, but the problem is some people are taking a bikefit as gospel, that it is the only way.

My point is that get fitted by all means, to get an idea of what is roughly right, but don’t be afraid to fiddle. You the rider will change physically over time and it is quite likely the reason why you ride will change. However to get the best from any fit it makes sense to know what is going on, to know how and what to tweak.

Ypur comment about specific fitting, the position i ride now is more extreme than it used to be but it is no less comfortable because I have changed. I could get a TT fit, which at its most extreme could be very uncomfortable but fine for a 10, but not a 12hr.

Challenging their gears, rather than using them i.e thinking it’s cool to do everything in the big ring.

You mean it’s not?

I’m in two minds here. Easily the biggest dick on the thread is Crikey, the dancing duck isn’t far behind. I don’t remotely understand why some are so adamant that its the wrong thing to do. Crikey – good for you that you’ve spent 26 years getting books out of a library and measuring photographs (seriously? FFS) so you can not share your experience with anyone. **** that. I don’t have enough time in my life to ride my bloody bike, I’m not wasting hours and hours on crap like that.

That said… I’ve never had a bike fit, and likely wouldn’t. I’m reasonably flexible, happy to try things out, can ride for 6+ hours if required in total (relative) comfort. But I completely understand that some people have niggling injuries that could be solved by using a 10mm shorter stem, or shifting the saddle 5mm, and I absolutely understand not wanting to spend hours and hours trying things which may not work, when you could just pay someone with some expertise in the area to sort it for you.

But I completely understand that some people have niggling injuries

We all have niggling injuries – whether we choose to moan about them or let them effect us or not is a different matter.

the way cycling has become an aspirational activity

A recurring point and seemingly a niggle for some. Is it just ‘the way people have more disposable income and less free time in general these days’ (maybe not, maybe just prioritising spending on fun stuff)? Or ‘the way our society is geared towards the service industry these days’ or ‘the way people who discover something they enjoy in their 30s or 40s can jump right in and spend money to increase their enjoyment, playing catch up almost’
etc

It’s not unique to ‘cycling’, it’s just about people.

We all have niggling injuries

I don’t. Nothing whatsoever.

I know when I change to my winter shoes my cleats always feel wrong and I think ‘I should adjust them’, forget, and after 100 miles they feel normal, until I change back to summer shoes. I know friends who struggle with knee problems and what not if cleats aren’t aligned properly.

We’re not all the same, what business is it of yours to tell folk they’re wrong?

I don’t. Nothing whatsoever.

Good, I’m pleased for you. Don’t believe a word of it though.

What injuries do I have then?

We all have niggling injuries – whether we choose to moan about them or let them effect us or not is a different matter.

Not wanting to sound too dramatic, but niggling injuries that go on and on are the ones that would really worry me. Ran on achilles tendinitis for a couple of years, not letting it effect my running. It’s now pretty much put an end to my running. If something’s not right, get it sorted.

MrBlobby, but the problem is some people are taking a bikefit as gospel, that it is the only way.

Can’t blame bike fitting for people’s stupidity 🙂

Njee, I’ll elect to put you I’m 3rd place then, and to add to what crikey said, I did similar to this in the 80’s when I started riding, there was no place to hide behind a monitor giving it big licks and belittling people on forums back then, if you called some one a Dick then it was sorted out face to face,

I went to the paper shop as a young lad and bought cycling weekly every Saturday morning. I spoke to guys at the club that were far more experienced than me and I read the articles cover to cover. All these tips were printed in there and experiences are passed from person to person whilst out riding.

You have your opinions and others have theirs, the fact that you have not yet picked up an injury is astonishing, you really must be as good as you make out !

When’s the next forum ride by the way ?

I didn’t say I’ve never been injured, just that I don’t have any niggling injuries that dictate any set up specifics.

I’d gladly go for a ride with you – most people are far less objectionable in real life than on here, so I’d give you the benefit of the doubt. Ironic you’re saying I’m the one who thinks he’s all that. Pot… Kettle…?

Same question to you though – what is wrong with people paying money to skip the years of ‘research’ you deem necessary?

The car/plumber/electrician analogy is a good one. Give it a few years and you can gain the knowledge to do just about anything.

What injuries do I have then?

Pruritus Ani.

🙄

Can I get a slow clap gif please?

njee20 – Member

….. what business is it of yours to tell folk they’re wrong?

I think Gulpton’s in the busines of “curing” people of niggling injuries they don’t know they have 😕

Mmm, I ought to pay him so he can identify these injuries I must have. That’d be fine. However he wouldn’t be able to offer me bike fit tips to alleviate it, as I need to spend decades compiling that knowledge handed down by the elders of cycling.

The elitist snobbery being exhibited by some here is all sorts of special.

Same question to you though – what is wrong with people paying money to skip the years of ‘research’ you deem necessary?

Also I can see how some people could get into the whole analysis paralysis thing and get into a right muddle about which way to go. In such cases it may be good to have a fresh perspective, which may be getting a mate or someone at a club to have a look and see what they think, or if you are happy to spend the cash, go for a bikefit.

njee20 – Member
Mmm, I ought to pay him so he can identify these injuries I must have

Naaah, it’s only stuff he’s read in books, just do your own research and save a few bob.
I mean who needs professional advise when there’s Google and Wiki 😉

Same question to you though – what is wrong with people paying money to skip the years of ‘research’ you deem necessary?

Answer the question please.

Cycling is a simple activity. Everything about it is simple. Some people want to make it appear complicated so that you think you need to purchase their specialist services at premium prices.

A very limited number of those specialist services – the ones that I would pay for – strip everything back and show you just how simple cycling really is. They tend to be the ones that people rave about and get most from.