Bike fitting in Surrey/London area

[272BHP]

I am new to road bike cycling as a sexagenarian but as I near retirement I realise that I need to taper down my road running (it is starting to hurt!) and find something less impactful to supplement.

Everyone I have spoke to has said get a bike fitting before anything else once I have a bike.

So I have a decent secondhand bike and I am using flat pedals but have some SPD-SL pedals still in their box. I am unsure if I should buy shoes now or get a bike fitting and purchase shoes at that point?

I am leaning towards Sigma sports, has anyone used them? or are there other places in the area I should consider? what does the fitting entail? I hear some places take 3-4 hours?

Thanks.

[Rough101]

Try these people, your queries will be answered by the actual fitter, not a receptionist.

https://www.hackneybike.fit

[Siao]

272BHP said:

I am new to road bike cycling as a sexagenarian but as I near retirement I realise that I need to taper down my road running (it is starting to hurt!) and find something less impactful to supplement.

Everyone I have spoke to has said get a bike fitting before anything else once I have a bike.

So I have a decent secondhand bike and I am using flat pedals but have some SPD-SL pedals still in their box. I am unsure if I should buy shoes now or get a bike fitting and purchase shoes at that point?

I am leaning towards Sigma sports, has anyone used them? or are there other places in the area I should consider? what does the fitting entail? I hear some places take 3-4 hours?

Thanks.

Obviously you can ask whoever you choose directly, but I can answer a few of these from my experience.

The bike fitting I did took about 2-3 hours and then there was a follow-up session that was supposed to happen, but because of Covid it never did. It does take a while as they tailor fit your measurements. That is a good thing! It is not just putting your seat up or down a notch, it is everything based on your physique, so they will look at your stance, seat, handlebars, stem length, etc. Best money I ever spent on cycling.

They do also fit your shoes (where the cleats should seat, etc.). It depends if you like the SPDs or not, have you ever tried them before or would you prefer flat pedals? If you do, then get some shoes, then they should fit the SPDs properly for you.

I hope that helps a bit.

[deeen]

Siao said:

Obviously you can ask whoever you choose directly, but I can answer a few of these from my experience.

The bike fitting I did took about 2-3 hours and then there was a follow-up session that was supposed to happen, but because of Covid it never did. It does take a while as they tailor fit your measurements. That is a good thing! It is not just putting your seat up or down a notch, it is everything based on your physique, so they will look at your stance, seat, handlebars, stem length, etc. Best money I ever spent on cycling.

They do also fit your shoes (where the cleats should seat, etc.). It depends if you like the SPDs or not, have you ever tried them before or would you prefer flat pedals? If you do, then get some shoes, then they should fit the SPDs properly for you.

I hope that helps a bit.

This, plus you should get printouts and diagrams with all the measurements on, so you can apply them yourself to any bikes in the future. I thought my fitting was expensive, but it was good, then averaged over four bikes over eight years, it now seems excellent value!

[272BHP]

Rough101 said:

Try these people, your queries will be answered by the actual fitter, not a receptionist.

https://www.hackneybike.fit

Thanks I will look into that. might be trickier to get to by bike though

[272BHP]

Siao said:

Obviously you can ask whoever you choose directly, but I can answer a few of these from my experience.

The bike fitting I did took about 2-3 hours and then there was a follow-up session that was supposed to happen, but because of Covid it never did. It does take a while as they tailor fit your measurements. That is a good thing! It is not just putting your seat up or down a notch, it is everything based on your physique, so they will look at your stance, seat, handlebars, stem length, etc. Best money I ever spent on cycling.

They do also fit your shoes (where the cleats should seat, etc.). It depends if you like the SPDs or not, have you ever tried them before or would you prefer flat pedals? If you do, then get some shoes, then they should fit the SPDs properly for you.

I hope that helps a bit.

Thanks for the answer

The reason I have not fitted the SPDs is that I have never used them. I have used different clip ins a few years ago for a few months and remember falling off a few times - I don't want to do that on my new road bike!

My plan is to fit them to the train station hybrid and get used to them on that, when I have confidence with them then I will transfer to the road bike - I think getting used to a road bike and also clip-ins at the same time might be too much for my aged brain to handle

I think I might just get some shoes now so I can at least start on learning how to clip in and out etc

I am a little bit worried that a bike fitting might be more cost than I anticipated - 300 notes for the fitting but I am worried they might suggest different cranks, stems, seat post etc etc, they might even suggest I am on the wrong size bike and then I will really be in trouble with the wife - this road bike thing is tending to be costly already

[z4RRSchris]

i ride bikes alot, and have had a few fits with various people. all a complete waste of money and time.

the main questions. do you want to be comfy, do you want to ride short or long distances, or do you want to be fast. ?

if you sit on your bike and take some photos side on on a trainer or rollers. I can get your fit to 95% eyeballing it. (with spds on pls)

[Siao]

z4RRSchris said:

i ride bikes alot, and have had a few fits with various people. all a complete waste of money and time.

the main questions. do you want to be comfy, do you want to ride short or long distances, or do you want to be fast. ?

if you sit on your bike and take some photos side on on a trainer or rollers. I can get your fit to 95% eyeballing it. (with spds on pls)

Hmmm, you must have had some terrible experiences then. When you say "various people", do you mean experts or a mate telling you to do the string trick?

Either way, it probably highlights that it works more for some people than others I guess. Me and the wife definitely saw a difference, some hills that she was out of breath before, she could do without breaking a sweat after the bike fitting. Then again that was our experience, so maybe not all fittings are great.

[SoliD]

z4RRSchris said:

i ride bikes alot, and have had a few fits with various people. all a complete waste of money and time.

the main questions. do you want to be comfy, do you want to ride short or long distances, or do you want to be fast. ?

if you sit on your bike and take some photos side on on a trainer or rollers. I can get your fit to 95% eyeballing it. (with spds on pls)

Polar opposite for me, I had a fit 10 years ago about a year and a bit into taking cycling more serious and it's the best money I ever spent, I wasn't in a bad way with aches and pains, but he highlighted a number of items that I hadn't spotted or had put to the back of my mind and still use the fit as my base, albeit slightly adjusted to account for improvements in my overall capability. I was there for 6 hours doing a road and TT bike. Instanly improved my times on the TT bike by 20s from memory.

Bit of a trek for you, but if you don't mind going down the M3, Vankru near Southampton are highly recommended.

[272BHP]

z4RRSchris said:

i ride bikes alot, and have had a few fits with various people. all a complete waste of money and time.

the main questions. do you want to be comfy, do you want to ride short or long distances, or do you want to be fast. ?

if you sit on your bike and take some photos side on on a trainer or rollers. I can get your fit to 95% eyeballing it. (with spds on pls)

Comfort is not really a consideration as I rarely do long rides currently. I do want to be faster though, I have a few time trials I did during Covid that I want to have a proper crack at again - I was 5 years younger of course but I was on a heavier hybrid and had not really done any targeted training.

[boyse7en]

I've been looking at maybe getting a bike fit too. I have done a couple of longer rides recently, and while I do a 40-miler without problem, it seem that 60+ miles seems to show up issues as I get pins and needles in hands and feet.

Local (within 60 miles) bike fits seem to be £300+, and are done at bike shops, so I'm worried that they will go "oh, you need a longer stem/bars, this one is £150" rather than me being able to shop around and get a cheaper one from Ali Express

[z4RRSchris]

Siao said:

Hmmm, you must have had some terrible experiences then. When you say "various people", do you mean experts or a mate telling you to do the string trick?

"top tier" bike fitters.

[esuuv]

Richard is very good - nice guy too.

https://www.freespeed.co.uk/

[S6PNJ]

This chap would entail a little travel but I've used him previously (about 12 years ago I think!). I travelled from High Wycombe to him. Used his bike fit, then (outside of his reccomendation) did the Ride London about 2-3 days later - had no issues or pain (other than the obvious after 100 miles) so can heartly reccomend him. Oh a and few weeks after Ride London I did the Raid Pyrenees - again, no bike pain issues!
https://www.vankru.com/bike-fitting

[Siao]

z4RRSchris said:

Siao said:

Hmmm, you must have had some terrible experiences then. When you say "various people", do you mean experts or a mate telling you to do the string trick?

"top tier" bike fitters.

Fair enough. If you had a few of them, then maybe something else may have been affecting your experience. Or you were unlucky enough to get a few bad ones indeed!

From my side, apart from my own experience, whoever I have talked to that had a bike fit, they all had good things to say, all saw improvements of various degrees in their cycling afterwards.

[Siao]

boyse7en said:

I've been looking at maybe getting a bike fit too. I have done a couple of longer rides recently, and while I do a 40-miler without problem, it seem that 60+ miles seems to show up issues as I get pins and needles in hands and feet.

Local (within 60 miles) bike fits seem to be £300+, and are done at bike shops, so I'm worried that they will go "oh, you need a longer stem/bars, this one is £150" rather than me being able to shop around and get a cheaper one from Ali Express

Jesus, I did mine in 2021 or so and it was about £120 or something. And I had just missed out on a promotion (the wife was lucky enough and got it a few weeks before me) that would have made it £70 or something. £300+ sounds mad.

The stem is indeed the one thing that I changed, but that was personal decision in a way, I wanted something more upright and relaxed, so a shorter stem was the easy win (about £30 or so). The important bit though is that it wasn't "forced" upon me by the fitter to make a quick buck, the stem I had before was quite long for me.

[z4RRSchris]

In my opinion most are used to taking people who are uncomfortable on a bike, and making their bike (which is prob wrong for them to begin with) more suited to them.

saddle forward
saddle down
stem up and shorter
bars wider
cleats back
sell you some innersoles.

i couldn’t really care less about being comfy, as displayed by my track bike:

[oddman]

If you're 60+ and have had a lifetime of running and switching to cycling due to injury or injury potential then I'd suggest seeing a fitter that's also a physio.

I'd be very surprised if you don't have some mobility and muscle imbalance issues which a fitter needs to take into account.

Might not be just stem, bars and cranks, be prepared for them to suggest your current frame is the wrong size/geo

Road race frame geo is wholly unsuitable for recreational riders especially older ones. See the number of spacers under the stems at any sportive for evidence.

[bigdom]

272BHP said:

I am leaning towards Sigma sports, has anyone used them?

Yes I did, although James has moved on and setup his own shop. He solved my issues in 2018.

https://www.bicyclerichmond.co.uk

Have a look at Bikefit James on youtube.

[z4RRSchris]

bigdom said:

272BHP said:

I am leaning towards Sigma sports, has anyone used them?

Yes I did, although James has moved on and setup his own shop. He solved my issues in 2018.

https://www.bicyclerichmond.co.uk

Have a look at Bikefit James on youtube.

i have been here and thought he was terrible, he designed custom geo for a bike frame i had custom made and i had to change stem, saddle height, bar width, set back etc. The frame is too small.

i had massive issues with the G8 inner soles he was intent on selling me and he couldnt care less.

others i know have had similar.

The only guy i think is worth his salt is george fox.