I have to go with AzTrailRider here. When I got my first road bike, the shop set it for me and said, "other than a few tweaks, you're good to go." That was great, but never owning a road bike and not knowing what to tweak, if I needed to, was an issue for me. After a few rides, my body was telling me, "this is not right." Since the initial fitting was done at no charge, I decided to start asking around and was told to get a professional fit. After researching the various types of fitting systems, for several weeks, I decided to go and talk to a Retul fitter and see if he could help me. I don't race and don't intend to. For me, comfort for long distance riding was the primary reason for going with the Retul fit. After talking with him for about 20 minutes, I decided to go ahead and do the fitting.

I'm not that familiar with the Dartfish system as there are no shops in Tampa that offer it. The Retul system is a real-time fitting system and measures position, angles, pressure points and movement while pedaling. Everything down to foot angle and cleat position is measured by the system and tracked on the computer. You are hooked up with eight electrodes from the toes to your hands and each side is measured separately. The system uses a laser wand that works similar to a Total Station that is used by CSI techs to get an image of a crime scene. The wand is passed over your bike and measures everything down to the mm., using it as the initial settings. The first fitting usually takes about an hour and changes are made to the bike to match the computer recommendations. You ride for a few weeks and come back for a second session (part of the initial cost) and more changes are made, if needed. Depending on the fitter, you can come back for two more sessions, after the initial session, without being charged. I went back for three and he didn't charge me. Like Az, I also had shims put in my shoes because the angle of my feet on the pedals was not correct. Placing shims in my shoes and adjusting the cleats accordingly, kept my knees from going outward on the upstroke. After the final session, the bike was scanned again and the measurements kept in the computer.

I know that a lot of riders like to tweak their bikes to get the fit that they want, but if you don't know what to tweak and how to teak it, it just means more time in the saddle riding in discomfort or pain while trying to get your bike set up correctly. The first session I had pretty much set the bike to where it needed to be. The rest of the sessions was just optimizing the fit for more efficiency and power. I now go in every six months to have the fitting checked to make sure that nothing has changed that much and to correct anything that has. The fitting check runs between $15.00 and $30.00, depending on how long it takes to make any needed changes.

The bike that I did the initial Retul fitting on was my Giant Defy. When I wanted to get a carbon fiber bike, I looked at the frame geometry of each bike I was interested in. As it turned out, the bike I wanted had an almost identical frame to the Defy. The bike had to be ordered as they didn't have my size in stock. When the bike was put together, they put it on the Retul system and set it up according to the measurements from the Defy. I went in to pick up the bike, was put on the system to verify the settings and walked out with a perfectly fitted bike. If I had to do this again, I would get the Retul fitting the same day I bought the bike. I have over 8,000 miles of comfortable, pain free riding between both of the road bikes; 5,200 of those miles on the Colnago (it will be a year old on Jan 31st). Sorry for the winded post, but I just can't say enough good for this system.