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Old 07-21-13 | 06:42 AM
  #5  
Pedalocity
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Joined: Jun 2013
Posts: 156
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Bikes: 2014 Giant Defy Advanced SL 1

Originally Posted by billsmetro
Bear in mind I am new to road biking but it seems to me that though careful trial and error and using small changes and evaluating how these changes feel and improve or degrade your ride you can get very close to a perfect fit.

Maybe naive on my part but that's my question
That basically depends on whether you have the patience, the analytical skills and the cash to take a trial and error approach.

Early on after getting my bike, I got a free fitting done at another LBS while I was shopping for saddles. Some of the adjustments made were helpful, but others ended up not really being what I needed or wanted.

In the end I got far more out of messing with things myself. I eventually found the saddle position that works for me, and eventually ended up with my stem inverted and slammed with one set of bar ends inside my grips (which have had the inside 3/4" cut off both of them to get the inside bar ends close to shoulder width apart) and Ergon GP 2 grips with outside bar ends. Both sets of bar ends are set very close to horizontal. My controls are also set up with my brake levers tilted very far down and my shifters rotated as far forwards as possible. This lets me brake, shift to smaller cogs on the cassette and larger chain rings without taking my hands off my inside bar ends which iI am using about 80%+ of the time.

I've also been through 3 saddles (returned two of them), 2 sets of bar ends (with a third being delivered), 2 sets of grips (Ergon GP1's which I donated to my GF's bike, and now GP2's), 1 set of platform pedals, and a lot of time spend fiddling with settings. Hell I've got a longer stem on order in case I wanna try that at some point.

All of this has been over the ~1 month I've had the bike. Its been a bit of time and money invested, but the result is not only that the bike fits me really well, but that I have learned a lot about what I like and don't like.
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