I've been reading reviews of the Seven Axiom and it's just a long series of poetic waxings about how sublime custom fitting is, the great difference a millimeter makes here or there, and how much lesser mortals are missing.

My LBS says that unless you are oddly shaped there is no need to go custom. That's one opinion.

Then there is what I gather just by thinking about it.

Successful brand names spend a lot on R&D to design an approximation to the ideal bicycle. To my mind there must be a combination of geometry and size that constitutes the ideal road bike. Deviate from that and it gets farther from the ideal. Therefore if you can ride comfortably a bike of geometry and size close to the ideal, that should be best. If instead you have to alter the geometry here or there to fit your body, fit it may, but that does not imply that will be experiencing the best ride quality. You can't.

What do you think?

I never had a custom bike. I am lucky that a stock Cinelli and a stock Cannondale CAADX fit me like a glove, but all these ah! and oh! about custom bikes have me thinking that may be I have no clue as to how much better it could be. Also, I gather the most custom jobs entail only minute variations of stock geometry (small corruptions of the ideal), and if that is the case why bother pay the high premium?

What's the low down on this?