Plan A) I am Joe and I want bike X. Call 7 bike stores, see who will give the best price. I did this with my road bike, and found an awesome store and got an awesome fit, while paying 20% under retail.
Plan B) I am Bob, and go into a bike store. I can get a custom fit on a Guru machine. The fit cost $300 OR free with purchase of bike. So I go on machine, find out I can fit on bikes X, Y, or Z. How can I negotiate with the store? I want $100 off retail? Nope, we already have you suckered in with the fit cost. So then I pay $300, and go back to plan A, except $300 poorer.
Of course a good bike fit is important. But I hate how it is kind of scamishly incorporated into the bike purchase program. $300 is a pretty stupid amount of money to pay to have someone tell you what is comfortable sitting on a bike.
Crazy? Suck it up and spend the extra $500-$1000 to buy a bike at full retail? Pay the $300 for a fit and then shop around?
To qoute you " $300 is a pretty stupid amount of money to pay to have someone tell you what is comfortable sitting on a bike. "
Well if you believe choosing a bike by being comfortable sitting on it…Then have at your purchase of a few thousand. Please post here later on how that works out for ya
I would go with Joe and Plan A, no doubt the most economical, unless you just buy a good used bike that also fits you. I tend to agree that the bike fit biz may be a bit of a scam, but we are treading in thin ice here since our sponsor is the the “father of modern bike fitting”, so to speak. We could be banned for questioning part of the theology of ST:)
To qoute you " $300 is a pretty stupid amount of money to pay to have someone tell you what is comfortable sitting on a bike. "
Well if you believe choosing a bike by being comfortable sitting on it…Then have at your purchase of a few thousand. Please post here later on how that works out for ya
Well they had bike fits before they had $300 guru fits, right? You sit on a sample bike, measure the width of your shoulders, measure the height of your inseam… that gets you kinda sorta close, and then you tweak until you like it.
A bike fit changes as you get used to a bike anyway, so even if you got a perfect fit for $300, is it really the right fit in 6 months?
You’re complaining that the store is giving you a 300 dollar bike fit for free? Ok then…
Its not free. If the bike is $1000 more than the cost I could get the bike at another store (or even the SAME store if I didn’t get the fit), it is a $1000 bike fit.
$300 is a pretty stupid amount of money to pay to have someone tell you what is comfortable sitting on a bike.
I completely agree. Unless you have physical issues that require specific attention which you cannot work out in any other way, then it sounds completely ridiculous to me.
There is always the “pull the top tube up 2” and if it touches your crotch, you are good" fit. I think it is worse to spend a lot of money on a bike that doesn’t fit. $300 sounds like a bit of exaggeration, except maybe for a full hands on setup.
There is always the “pull the top tube up 2” and if it touches your crotch, you are good" fit. I think it is worse to spend a lot of money on a bike that doesn’t fit. $300 sounds like a bit of exaggeration, except maybe for a full hands on setup.
Well, if most frames can be made to fit most people, the pull up to 2" trick would work. If frames are fairly different (which seems more accurate), it seems a pretty basic set of tape measure measurements could tell you “Dude, you are all torso, a Felt B series is total crap for you”. $300 machine is not needed.
Well, if most frames can be made to fit most people, the pull up to 2" trick would work. If frames are fairly different (which seems more accurate), it seems a pretty basic set of tape measure measurements could tell you “Dude, you are all torso, a Felt B series is total crap for you”. $300 machine is not needed.
The people from fitkit have a quick fit, measure crotch, measure torso and arms, use a slide chart and it gets you in the neighborhood. Then you refine once you have the actual bike. It sort of addresses what you are talking about.
Not sure how adaptable that system is for the current crop of tri bikes.
To qoute you " $300 is a pretty stupid amount of money to pay to have someone tell you what is comfortable sitting on a bike. "
Well if you believe choosing a bike by being comfortable sitting on it…Then have at your purchase of a few thousand. Please post here later on how that works out for ya
Well they had bike fits before they had $300 guru fits, right? You sit on a sample bike, measure the width of your shoulders, measure the height of your inseam… that gets you kinda sorta close, and then you tweak until you like it.
A bike fit changes as you get used to a bike anyway, so even if you got a perfect fit for $300, is it really the right fit in 6 months?
Well.you obviously know.nothing how.fits.have been.done for years…yes. they were done before guru bikes and.charged then…you simply do.not understand about fit and I am not going to educate you
To qoute you " $300 is a pretty stupid amount of money to pay to have someone tell you what is comfortable sitting on a bike. "
Well if you believe choosing a bike by being comfortable sitting on it…Then have at your purchase of a few thousand. Please post here later on how that works out for ya
Well they had bike fits before they had $300 guru fits, right? You sit on a sample bike, measure the width of your shoulders, measure the height of your inseam… that gets you kinda sorta close, and then you tweak until you like it.
A bike fit changes as you get used to a bike anyway, so even if you got a perfect fit for $300, is it really the right fit in 6 months?
Well.you obviously know.nothing how.fits.have been.done for years…yes. they were done before guru bikes and.charged then…you simply do.not understand about fit and I am not going to educate you
I would pay the $300 and then shop around. Fit is not a scam so long as you’re working with a good fitter on a good system AND you take full advantage of it. Last year I got on a Trek fit bike and experimented with crank lengths. That alone was worth $300 to me as crank length isn’t exactly easy to play with at home. Seeing my fit on video helped me see that my right knee was flaring out at the top of my pedal stroke to compensate for cranks that were too long for my body position.
I would pay the $300 and then shop around. Fit is not a scam so long as you’re working with a good fitter on a good system AND you take full advantage of it. Last year I got on a Trek fit bike and experimented with crank lengths. That alone was worth $300 to me as crank length isn’t exactly easy to play with at home. Seeing my fit on video helped me see that my right knee was flaring out at the top of my pedal stroke to compensate for cranks that were too long for my body position.
The problem: how do you know you have a “good fitter?” For 300 bucks, I want a really good fitter.
Plan C) Do plan A. Then realized the bike you bought because it matched your kit and athlete X rode it to a fast bike split in Ironman Outer Mongolia is the wrong size or geometry for you. Get mad at the bike shop for selling it to you. Sell it on ST for 50% retail. Spend $1500 with your PT for injury relating to the wrong bike. Go online and buy because they have fit coordinates, but find it doesn’t match your style and is not a good match for your terrain and racing. Head to a real, true professional shop and spend the $300, but have that shop find you all the bikes that will work, whether they carry them or not. Buy the right bike at the fair market value, get fit properly, then wish you’d this in the first place 6 months and $15,000 ago.
There is always the “pull the top tube up 2” and if it touches your crotch, you are good" fit. I think it is worse to spend a lot of money on a bike that doesn’t fit. $300 sounds like a bit of exaggeration, except maybe for a full hands on setup.
yeah, i think that’s a relic of the days of horizontal top tubes.
among myriad other issues.
Plan C) Do plan A. Then realized the bike you bought because it matched your kit and athlete X rode it to a fast bike split in Ironman Outer Mongolia is the wrong size or geometry for you.
