Here is my question with professional fit, where do I start; as in, at what stage in the process do I get the fitter involved? It seems to me that there is a certain amount of logic in involving the fitter before I even purchase the bike.

Seeing as it is a road bike forum I will point out that, where I am living, I don’t even have a road bike. I have a couple of recumbents and a utility bike (a REI Novara Gotham). I would like to get a traditional road bike (in reality I tend toward the cross-bikes) because they are easier to use with services like Amtrak.

The trouble is that, after about ten miles, conventional bikes are just plain painful. I am not talking about mild discomfort; I am talking about ‘all I can think about is the pain’ level of discomfort. In the last ten years I really cannot think of a ride that was more than about seventy miles that did not leave me with blood in my shorts from the perineum being abraded (and I was in a club that did every weekend rides of over 70 miles for about four years).

Like I said, I am again considering, yet another stab at, an upright (conventional bicycle). Why? Like I mentioned, increased utility and a bit of concession to conventional ideas of style. I am 5’6” with a crotch height of about 30.5”. Based on this I suspect I should get about a 52cm frame.

Here come the problems. About 10-15 years ago I crashed and broke my coaxial. Since then it has always hurt. Yes, I mentioned it to my doctor and he said there was pretty much nothing that can be done. It still hurts and is hurting as I write this. Next problem, I am significantly asymmetric, the last time I was measured to it my right side was over 20Lbs heavier than my left. Next, leg length discrepancy, my right leg is about 1.5-2cm longer than the left.

I mention all this to ask how I would even go about starting to get fitted (or should I just give up on the idea and stick to recumbents?