Mountain - Plains - Coach to help select/fit new bike?

Hi -

Me - 50 year-old male, Denver area, reasonably fit and working on getting fitter. Currently riding Scattante R670 - I like it, but I'd like to do some longer/mountain rides this summer and would like a better bike for those rides.

I'm thinking of finding a coach to help me select and fit my new bike - an expert on what's available and preferably someone unaffiliated with any specific shop or manufacturer. The number of different manufacturers and models is overwhelming, and once I'm on the new bike, I want to be sure that when something starts hurting it's not because the bike doesn't fit right.

Is this a reasonable plan? Any recommendations (either for or against specific coaches)?

Thanks for your help.

Brian

Hi Brian,

I'm a Denver area rider of similar age (53) and riding interests. I recently had a bike fit with Todd Carver of Retul. They have offices in downtown Denver and Boulder, as well as trained fit experts that work in shops. They have a computerized fit system that is extremely precise! They travel all over the world and fit many of the professional teams in the Euro and American pelotons. I believe that they have a new software at this point that can take your fit dimensions and compare them to most of the new bike frames and tell you which frame would be a best fit to your body type.

Look them up on the web. There are lots of articles and some You Tube videos that demonstrate the fit process. It was actually really an interesting process. It's not cheep, but it was worth every penny I spent.

Mike

Hi Brian,

I'm a Denver area rider of similar age (53) and riding interests. I recently had a bike fit with Todd Carver of Retul. They have offices in downtown Denver and Boulder, as well as trained fit experts that work in shops. They have a computerized fit system that is extremely precise! They travel all over the world and fit many of the professional teams in the Euro and American pelotons. I believe that they have a new software at this point that can take your fit dimensions and compare them to most of the new bike frames and tell you which frame would be a best fit to your body type.

Look them up on the web. There are lots of articles and some You Tube videos that demonstrate the fit process. It was actually really an interesting process. It's not cheep, but it was worth every penny I spent.

Mike

Hi MIke -

Thanks for the info - I'll check it out.

Was your fit for a new bike? If so, what did you end up getting? If not, what are you riding? What were the differences before/after the fit?

Thanks again,

Brian

Hi Brian,
I went in thinking that the frame I was riding was to big. So I went in to see if it was OK in terms of size. If not, then I was going to get Todd's feedback on an appropriate new frame. It turned out that the Trek Madone 56cm frame was fine. He made significant changes to the bike's setup (ie., raised handlebars, lowered the seat and moved it back significantly). Todd is a really nice guy and it was a very worthwhile 90 minutes. Please don't take this as an advertisement for Retul, but I did have a really good experience there.

Good luck!

Mike