cccorlew

My sweet wife bought me a bike fitting for my birthday. And no ordinary bike fitting at that!
Anyway, I worked way too hard on my blog post photos and writing to not want more than my regular three readers to benefit for my brilliant journalistic efforts. So, here's a link.
https://ccorlew.blogspot.com/2013/11/...d-getaway.html

Hermes

Nice write up and it sounds like you learned a lot and received a lot of value from the experience. Good luck.

gevad 

Cool write-up. Your wife is a saint, but you probably already know that. If you get the chance, give us another post in a few weeks, when you've got several hundred miles with your new fitting.

Bikey Mikey

Curtis, nice write up.

As for a wallet, I have a spare CC card, ID, cell, and 40 or 60 bucks with me on any ride. The cash is mainly in case I have something seriously go awry and I need to call a cab.

h2oxtc

My wife and I both had GURU dynamic fits done last winter. I just posted in another thread the virtues of the GURU fit, with a qualification, you still need a fitter who knows what they're doing. The system is still just a tool. But it's an amazing tool. For my wife the result was fantastic. The desire for the fit started with my wife having knee pain when riding - I was her original bike setup / "fitter". Tells you what I know. The outcome was no knee pain, more power / speed, and generally a more comfortable ride. For me the GURU fit resulted in minor tweaking. All in all, well worth the money.

rekmeyata

Sounded like yours went well, congrats, unfortunately for smaller cities in America is that they take a high school kid or a college age kid and put them through a 3 day class then charge $250 plus accessories and hang a banner saying they do pro fits. A pro fit will only cost you additional money for something that may or may not work. A true pro fit is really only necessary, and that’s debatable, for ordering a custom built bike (for the everyday rider not the pro). Debatable because there are a lot of custom frame builders like Rivendell, Richard Sachs, etc, etc; those make bikes all the time without a pro fit! I've know about a dozen people who have had a pro fit and about 1/2 came out worse then they did going into it. One guy I knew that came out worse spent over $800 for the recommended stuff and was in worse pain then before he went in. And I know guys who ordered bikes over the phone from Rivendell and got a perfect fit just by answering their fit questions. And really all a pro fit is an excuse to bring a customer into the store, charge $150 to $250 for the fitting and sell you a bunch of stuff that may or may not work. A pro fit that you and I can get at LBS is a far cry (much less extensive then the pro level) from a pro fit a pro rider gets, and theirs works, but a pro rider gets theirs for free. In fact when a marketing rep for a pro fit bike tool comes into an LBS, the selling point isn't: "it will make customers fit on their bikes better", the selling point is that it brings additional profits to the LBS in the form of selling additional and expensive parts. It's pure profit for the LBS.

There are places that can help you fit the bike to you such as:

https://www.peterwhitecycles.com/fitting.htm
https://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/sport/a/bikefit.htm
https://www.caree.org/bike101bikefit.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c_5Pkimb64 (for tri bike fit, but there are other films)
https://www.jacksbikes.com/contents/en-us/d40.html

It's just trial and error, you can do that on your own. I have 9 bikes, 7 road bikes; can you imagine the cost if every time I bought a bike I went and got a pro fit done? If I had to do that for every bike I would have quit the hobby!

B. Carfree

That sounds like a great birthday present. It rarely hurts to get informed input on one's set up (and training methods and nutrition and...) and often helps immensely. If it doesn't work out, you can always return to what seemed right before.

It must be nice to feel comfortable riding without a wallet. That's one of the things I miss about NorCal.

qcpmsame 

Trish is a sweetheart for sure, that s a neat present you got there.Does Guru give you a disk or flash drive with your data to use in the future? I don't remember if you said this in your blog (nice blog, I've bookmarked it, BTW!)

Bill

newbert

I live in a small city and have considered getting a bike fit next spring. (I don't do much, if any, riding in the winter). You've voiced my concerns about it very well. Thanks.

FrenchFit 

It's gratifying to hear you got your money's worth; very cool you got a gift that will keep on giving. Me? I think I would probably end up in a fight with the fitter - after all, I know it all. That loop in Monterey is a favorite, this pic should be familiar:

.

cccorlew

Yes indeed, I married above my station. In the rare moments I forget how lucky I am she's been known to ask me "How many of your buddies are out riding with their wives?" That pretty much set's me back to the proper mode.

As for the fit, rekmeyata makes a great point. I wouldn't have been interested if I hadn't got great reviews from fellow BF dude Lance OldStrong. Perhaps if I had a "normal" body I'd be fine. But I went in, not with pain, but with issues. I think I'm going to end up with an interesting adaptive solution to my unequal arm lengths. From what I can tell, Hall does work with pros, but also enjoys interesting problems, of with both OldStrong and I have plenty of. That's what will make this all the more worthwhile.

I'm not sure that's the case here. I think he spent 2.5-3 hours with me, and I have a follow up down the road. I have different issues and goals than a pro, but I don't know that his level of commitment was any lower. I realize this might not be the case with every fitter, but again, that's why I went where I went.

Wallets: I always wear my road ID, and almost always carry a "jimi" plastic box/wallet with my DL, ATM card and a $20. This time, due to all the stuff going on, I left it, fully loaded, in the car. Oops.

qcpmsame asked about data. I got a PDF with images and all the measurements and comments.

FrenchFit, that Monterey is so amazing. I'm lucky I didn't run off the road gawking like a tourist from the midwest. I honestly believe visiting the ocean just being close enough to hear the waves, is good for the soul. Oh, nice photo too.

dbg

Well I'm jealous. I doubt I'll ever get a pro fit because I like to tinker with it on my own (pretty sure I'm getting what I pay for). Cool write up.

cccorlew

Oh, just for fun, or maybe more.
There is an iPhone bike fitting app! Here's a grand review of it.

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2013/10/a...nt-review.html

Lanceoldstrong

cccorlew deserves his wife and his Wade Hall fit.
Now he has Wade Hall at 1 in his 6 degrees of separation from Cancellara, Cavendish and the U.S. Olympic team. Pretty cool.

John_V 

Nice write up on your blog. Sounds like you really benefited from the pro fit. I had one (Retul) done right after buying my first road bike. While there are a lot of people that say it's a waist of time and money, it was the best money I have spent on anything cycling related, except for the bike, of course. Shortly after my last fitting session, I did an MS 150 ride and never had any pain or discomfort on either of the two days of the event. I don't think that would have happened had I decided to save a few bucks and do a "trial and error" on adjustments and do the MS 150 on a bike that wasn't properly adjusted. I think that you will enjoy the benefits of the fitting as you put more miles on the bike.

h2oxtc

For my GURU fit the LBS sent an email directly from their bike fit computer with a PDF showing the bike fit information. For those not familiar with the GURU dynamic fit, Google it and check it out. It really is a different process of bike fitting than most (not all) others. I suspect that each LBS is setting their own prices - we had ours done in January when the shop was very quiet and they had lots of time on their hands and paid considerably less than has been suggested. My wife was so pleased with her outcome that she returned with a plate of freshly baked cookies for the guys!

cccorlew

That's right, I failed to name drop sufficiently in my blog post.
Let's review: Cancellara, Cavendish, Ned Overend, and of course Lance Oldstrong. And now, me. Yep....

billydonn

Gawkers and merlot drinkers from the coastal areas often are amazed and distracted by the amber waves of grain in our lovely Midwestern landscapes. I swear the sound of corn rustling softly in a good 20 mph wind refreshes the soul!

I will read the blog with interest Curtt.

Road Fan

If you go get a full fit for each bike, then it will be very expensive. But if you can replicate the "calibrated" fit on your other (presumably road) bikes, you only bought it once.

Something about trial and error: it ain't easy, either, and to go back and forth endlessly can be frustrating and even harmful if you make mistaken adjustments. "Two steps forward, one step back" is a useful adage, but how do you know which move is forward and which one is back? And how do you know how small an adjustment is needed to only be a "step?" An expert (I won't call the fitter a pro because of your 3-day wonder story) has a strategy and a basis for seeing how much of each adjustment needs to be made and how much is too much. Trial and error can result in a huge time investment to develop that depth of trustworthy understanding.

Granted, with a fitter you pay for some assurance and even, perhaps a guarantee. But you also pay for efficiency - what's it worth to get it all fixed in an afternoon, with a credible commitment of future support?

Getting cheated is a risk, but it's also a risk to go into a bike shop and say "I want a better saddle," "make my bars more comfy," or "make my gears better." Caveat emptor is never a stale rule! Don't just walk up to a struggling merchant and offer to hand him money. If you have decided to shy away because you have been cheated or fear it, that doesn't mean the success stories of others are not of interest.

rekmeyata

It usually only takes me about a week to 2 weeks at the most to get a bike where I want it, so for me the casual non frustration process of fitting it to me over 2 weeks tops is worth saving the $250 our local LBS charges for their college age kid and new employee to do it, and I do it without buying a bunch of parts on top of the fit cost. This new "kid" is about the 5th or 6th "pro fitter" they've had in the last 10 years and some of the people I know who went to get fittings done have had to go back and forth several times to the point of frustration on them too.

I wouldn't call these 3 day wonder "kids" pro fitters either but the LBS does and people going in think they are because they have some sort of computer thingy they use and the kid sounds good.

The LBS has a guarantee all right, not a money back one though, the guarantee simply says if you are having problems with the fit simply come back in and they'll relook at everything for free! Well bless their little hearts. Problem is that as you go back and forth in the process of using the guarantee you have to spend more money according to their analysis of your problem.

Unfortunately this problem with fitters is not unique, it's widespread across the nation. The LBS here that is in question in particular is not a struggling merchant either. This LBS lays off 3/4ths of their staff in the early fall until spring so the "pro fitter" gets laid off, sometimes they come back the next year but most of the time they find another job during the layoff period. Are there success stories from that LBS? I'm sure there are, but like I said it's a 50/50 thing.

Getting cheated at any business is a risk and that's why internet sales in all categories are rising because people are tired of it, and most internet businesses have superior customer service to the brick and mortar places.

GFish

To funny!

Now I'm curious, need to check out your blog.