[Closed] Professional Bike Fitting/Set-Up

Is it that different to an mtb?

I have a road bike, but ride it so infrequently that I've not really had to do much to it, so I don't really know much about it, though...

I had it done by mike veal at bikedynamic. Well worth it I'd say. The knee tracking from the front was really useful and I felt at least one cog stronger after having things adjusted.

Onzadog it was bike dynamics I was looking at. Riding LEJOG in under a month now and last thing I want is bike set up as an excuse...

There's a place in London that gets very good reviews. A roadie friend of mine went there and was most impressed. He's been riding for years and was amazed at the difference their recommendations made.

Can't remember the name, will do a search.

Here you go:

http://www.cyclefit.co.uk/

Mike was excellent. I went with the bike and shoe option. Ask lots of questions of him. He loves to explain the ibs and outs. He's got a real Passion for what he does. Highly recommended. I took my tricross commuter and my pace 305 down to him.

Edit. I went into cyclefit before I saw mike. Can't put my finger on what it was, I just didn't fancy giving them lots of money to do what they were taking about.

/interested

How much we talking for this kind of thing?

Jamie have a look, it's about £100.

If we get married we can get a discount when we go together?

Thanks C_G I'll have a look at that!

Jamie, like most things, depends on exactly what you want. In a similar way to skills days (and asimilar price) it makes a massive difference to your riding but there's no shiny bit to show where you spent the money.

Well, I pick up my bike tomorrow. So will probably have a few rides on it first to see what happens, and then go to one of these places to get them to fix any problems I found.

£100 seems reasonable if it allows you ache free mileage in the long run.

£250 for Cyclefit.

When I get a road bike, I will definitely get this done. Surely correct setup and positioning is even more important on a road bike? For my purposes my body is shonky/wonky so would not want to put any unnecessary strain on it.

Years ago I did have a cheap bike fit thingy for my road bike, to be honest it wasn't in-depth and wasn't impressed.

Frankly if I'm going to be spending hours in the saddle, I would need to know that I was in the most comfortable and efficient position, taking account of my body's uniqueness. 😉

worth every penny.
got mine done in sigma sport kingston, had custom footbeds done there too.
sorted out some knee tracking issues. can ride all day without problems now.
unlike mtb's a 5mm change here or there can make a big difference.

As above, worth every penny. I came away from my fitting with marker pen lines on my body 😀 My bike fits me perfectly, there wasn't much that needed changing it to - longer stem, narrower bars, and have never had any issues with it.

C_G, when you get a road bike? Are you joining us then? 🙂

DirtyG... who did you use?

I've had another reccomendation for CycleFit from a mate at work. If bikedynamic do the same thing it's easier for me to go there. I in all honesty haven't a clue what's really involved.

Tri centre in edinburgh... was 4 years ago, cost me £30 extra as i was buying the bike with them.

I've a roadie pal who lives in london, i'll check with him who he recommends/has used to let you know. I'll em you with whats involved later on.

Ta! 🙂

Specialized Concept stores do something similair for about £150 I think, just useful if there is one near you ,only chatted to them and don't have any anecdotal tales.

I could do it for you *gets out marker pen and draws random lines on yeti* 😆

*worries about what exactly is being drawn on my back*

C_G, when you get a road bike? Are you joining us then?

Dirtygirl - you never know 😉

Couldn't possibly not wear baggies and backpack though.

TSY - do let us know how you get on please.

i did it. well worth it imo.

used [url= http://www.carltonroadclinic.co.uk/Cycle_Position.html ]carlton road clinic[/url] in southampton

@ TSY

Might be of interest:

Ask Magnus to pop round to give you a fitting whilst hes in town http://twitter.com/magnusbackstedt Job done...make him some dinner. 😆

Not convinced. We used to offer this as a service and found that most customers then went away and tweaked things themselves to find a better position. I've even had it done for me and was happier adjusting things to my own liking.

I had a Retul fitting done by Bespoke Cycling. Expensive, but worth it in the long run as I'll now be able to accurately fit any future bikes and that includes mountain bikes (reach may different, but the lower half 'cockpit' (saddle distance to pedals, fore/aft distance from BB, etc) will remain the same).

Somebody said a 5mm change can make a big difference - that's a huge understatement. Even a 1mm change in certain measurements can dramatically change how you feel and adjust your efficiency.

Paul Hewitt is your man in Leyland Preston it must be the best road shop ever. Only charged me £25.00 for fitting on my last bike build. Put the bike together using his numbers and nothing need to be touched
I use all the numbers for the mtb where possible.
No concept bike shope sh#t mind washing to found.

As cycling has become the new golf, so bike fitting has become the new golf swing.

£100?
£250?

Get a grip, its a bike, ride it and learn how to adjust and fit it to you instead of paying through the ****ing nose.
Bike fit is a dynamic, ongoing, non-static process, stop being lazy and learn about yourself and your bike.

****ing middle class, too much money and no ****ing idea.

TSY, one of our chaps is only down the road from you. Fire me an email, we'll sort you out.

Just to chance a slight hijack if someone with no idea did want to get their mountain bike better fitting in order to spend some of the money currently propping up a wonky table (nothing to do with the knee pain I am currently suffering) who would people recommend? The same people/places or somewhere different?

As cycling has become the new golf, so bike fitting has become the new golf swing.
£100?
£250?
Get a grip, its a bike, ride it and learn how to adjust and fit it to you instead of paying through the ****ing nose.
Bike fit is a dynamic, ongoing, non-static process, stop being lazy and learn about yourself and your bike.

****ing middle class, too much money and no ****ing idea.

but no matter how much you know it's never enough which is why you go to the experts. £100? £300? i don't care because a cycle fit and custom footbeds got me pain free and able to ride 100+miles, you can get away with it on a mtb but road fit especially cleat/shoe set-up is quite critical.
yes if you spend ages researching and reading up plus photographing yourself on the bike and measure angles/flexibility plus a video of your pedaling action(how else are you going to assess knee tracking etc?) you could get there eventually. i would rather pay somebody to do that.

if you have such a good '****ing idea' why don't you do it? it's piss easy and you can fleece the bourgeoise for £250 p/hr. you could fit 4 people before lunch, earn 1k and have the afternoon off.

knee pain may not be bike fit but could be worth getting a sport physio to look at whether you need inserts in your shoes.

Had a bikefit a year or so ago, was worth it for me, probably in the region of £60 I think. I was just starting using spds and was getting knee pain so sorted that.

Think it's more important on road bikes though

I may be completely wrong here but didn't Tiger Woods screw up his back years ago due to his style of swing? Too much power or something?

Some riders have battered bodies/injuries/weaknesses so surely it makes sense for a professional to assess your biomechanics.

Be interesting to see what sort of conflicting advice you'd get if you went for a few fittings at different places.

They can't all give the exact same advice, but would love to see how much the recommended positions varied by.

People have been fitting bikes since they were invented:
Why not have a look at some of the written advice and theories on fitting first before spending your cash?
Won't cost you a fortune to try some of them out.
Lots of good books out there.

There is, and I did and I've helped others set their bikes up using it. However, it's not easy to ride and watch yourself. I didn't realise that because I have really flexible hips and a natural tenancy to point my toes, my saddle was too high. By feel, it always felt fine to me. However, after the fitting session and me thinking about my technique, it all feels a lot more powerful on the bike. I'm happy I did it and it makes more sense than upgrading my forks so similar.

Paul Hewitt is your man in Leyland Preston it must be the best road shop ever. Only charged me £25.00 for fitting on my last bike build.

It was either £60 or £80 when I asked (about 6 months ago). My mate has been very happy with the fit he had done there, so much so that he is reluctant to buy a new bike as his old beast fits him so well. BUT 'best road shop ever' !!! get the flip out of here.

I've used Richard Salisbury - Pedal Precision - at the Mcr velodrome. Fairly new outfit, but seems to know his stuff, and he's won a couple of awards en-route.

[i]Well, I pick up my bike tomorrow. So will probably have a few rides on it first to see what happens, and then go to one of these places to get them to fix any problems I found.[/i]

chicken, egg...

chicken, egg...

Now either that is the start of a interesting sandwich filling, or you are trying to tell me something......

Fitting advice has changed over time. Remember investing in compass and squared paper and using the Hinault Genzling bike fitting method. Against all the odds after much measuring and drawing of lines I found my Gazelle 531c race bike, which I had bought a few years earlier was in fact bang on for size and set up.

When changing to a new frame about 10 years ago I had a bike fit at Racescene in Barnsley. The frame size I came out with was 3cm smaller in seat tube and top tube. I have stuck with the sizing from this test thereafter and it has worked well for me, So would happily recommend them they really do know there stuff.

Have to say though after the bike fit I was no faster and never had any problem riding either bike. The newer bike looked much better though!