Perhaps I am biased being an old fart, but a skilled bike fitter who understands the art of the fit and not just the science of a computer has always served me best.
Sadly I lost my bike fitter who retired a few years back. He was the fitter for Specialized for many years. He would spend the first 30 minutes with a computer and then several hours using just his experience.
Bottom line, find someone who may use a computer but can do a quality fit without it.
The first was done on my cyclo cross bike. We modified it to be closer to a gravel bike set up, but couldn’t get it where we wanted.
The other two were done to find the right fit for me regardless of the bike - I used my wahoo kickr bike as the reference which is virtually infinitely adjustable.
I’m going to get a gravel bike.
Side note, I have addressed a few flexibility issues I had in my hips and lower back. Not sure if that’s relevant. I’d have thought being more flexible would make more positions comfortable.
Sadly no. I even drove 900 miles to get the velofit done, they went out of business shortly after.
Never trust online reviews I guess.
The other two are local and are supposed to be the best around.
I guess I could see about getting a bike fit done in Europe if I add a day vacation onto a work trip. Maybe even see if I can get done at the factory itself?
If you are interested, here is a good book on understanding what is involved in a good bicycle fit: Optimise Your Bike Position for High Performance and Injury by Phil Burt
I like my fitter. Did a pre purchase fit with him for my gravel bike
Never had an issue on it.
He also fit me on my road bike, and I do get sorr on that bike but only because it is super stiff and our rough chipseal roads beat me up.
He is very patient and takes care. I have funny proportions but he is fine working with that.
My next trip to Europe might have to include a trip to Manchester to see Phil Burt. Lots of recommendations here for him.
I never quantified it in earlier posts, but some of the measurements differ by 4-6cm. I’m not worried about millimeters, but 4-6cm seems like too much variation.
Never had a bike fit and never will. To me it is
expensive and generally unnecessary for most normal riders. Just ride your bike and tweak it as you go yourself, your body will tell you what’s wrong if anything so you can make small changes yourself. I have never had any issues TBH. There are loads of YouTube videos to assist you unless you have money to waste, cycling is expensive enough as it is.
I agree with that in many ways. I rode MTB for 20 years with no issues. But I’m older now, and what feels good for 30 minutes, feels terrible after long days in the saddle. I’m on my 3rd saddle, and not one of them has been a good fit.
When I’m back to full fitness, I ride 8-14 hours a week. It’s long enough, that I think it’s worth getting it right. Not as important as a good quality mattress for sleeping, but getting close.
Maybe I am just lucky? I have only been riding properly/seriously for 4 years. I am 70 now and ride a race bike/ geometry and compete in our clubs TT’s on the road bike. I will be using a TT bike for the 2024 season and seem to be fine with a slammed geometry. Plus, I use a solid carbon saddle with no padding. Possibly, my light weight and slim build helps.
You may have gotten lucky, and if so that’s great. I was the same way for a while but ended up needing to get a fit after Fizik changed the design of my favorite saddle (the Gobi) such that it didn’t really work for me anymore and I was getting discomfort as a result. Fit ended up being a game changer.
I totally see your point about how cycling is expensive enough already, but the other way to look at it is, people buy tremendously expensive bicycles and i see them, every day, with absolutely god-awful fit on the bike. Why not spend an extra 200 to make sure you get the most out of the bike you just spend 3000+ on? Look at it that way and–provided you’re having trouble with fit–it feels like a no-brainer.
@Fezzek, when i did my fit, at the end of it the guy basically said, try this and see how it goes, meaning there was an expectaiotn that for at least some people, it’d be an iterative process. have you considered going back to one of the fitters, maybe the one you got on with the most, and trying again?
I went back to the first guy 3x. He just kept selling me new seats, spacers etc. I ended up thinking he was just selling me whatever he had in stock during COVID, rather than what I needed.
The 2nd guy went out of business.
The 3rd guy hasn’t responded in two weeks. I will try again.