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You are a world-class journalist working for 🔶PUBLICATION_NAME🔶 (🔶PUBLICATION_URL🔶). You are writing evergreen, optimized, accurate, helpful, engaging, and detailed content for cyclists of all skill levels.
Today, you are writing an article with the headline: “How to Get the Most out of a Professional Bike Fit, According to Experts”
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If you want to maximize comfort and/or efficiency on your rides, a professional bike fit can make a major difference. You’d be surprised at what shifting a saddle up or back a few millimeters can do. But to have a great bike fityou need to pick the right bike fitter for you-and to make sure they understand what you need.
Get Bicycling’s Guide to How to Master the Century
To find the right fitter for you, start by asking the people you ride with for local recommendations or do a search online for bike fitters in your area.
Here, we spoke to two long-time bike fitters about what they wish cyclists knew before showing up to a bike fit and the best ways to maximize your experience during your fitting.
What should you look for in a professional bike fitter and what should you ask them?
Your first interaction with your fitter shouldn’t be when you walk into the bike shop or studio. You should have had some kind of interaction already, whether via email, phone or in-person, and you should take some time to look at their website, read reviews, and scope their social media.
As Steven LeBoyer, head fitter for more than two decades at Savile Road in Delmar, New York, points out, bike fitting is both an art and a science, and the process should feel like a great collaboration between you, your bike, and the fitter.
if you haven’t selected a fitter yet, here are a few things to look for:
- Experience fitting bikes to the riding that you do: Bike fitters often have one or two areas of expertise. Lown, as an example, can happily fit riders for road and gravel, but doesn’t fit triathlon bikes.
- Positive recommendations: You can (and should) ask for references if you didn’t have a personal recommendation. Ask for references from riders similar to you.
- Credentials/educational background: There are quite a few different fitting programs available, but no singular professional bike fitter designation. Anyone can call themselves a fitter, so look for one with credentials-the most common designations include certifications from the International bike Fitting Institute (IBFI), Serotta, Trek Precision Fit, or Retül. An accomplished fitter may even go beyond bike fit and have other credentials like a coaching certification, physical therapy license, or kinesiology degree, for example.
- Vibes: Admittedly, this isn’t always an easy one to intuit. But if you don’t feel comfortable with the bike fitter-say, you wouldn’t admit all the aches and pains you have-it’s not a good (ahem) fit.
What info should you prep before going to your bike fitting?
Don’t rely on your bike fitter to ask the right probing questions-show up prepared! Lown says she often has clients come in and forget to mention a major life change or surgery until an hour into the fitting, but that information can be extremely helpful for your most comfortable, efficient fit.
Here are a few questions to consider:
➥What are your goals in cycling? If you’re focused on winning a criterium, your fit is going to be slightly different than if your goal is to do a century in the mountains or if you’re just hoping to put in more miles on your gravel bike with less back pain.
➥ Where do you ride and what are the types of terrain do you tend to ride? Do you climb/descend often? Do you spend a lot of time on fast, flat roads, or do you spend more time on varied terrain? Again, this can help put your cycling life in context for the fitter so they can find the best balance for you.
➥ How frequently enough do you ride? Be honest! Lown notes that she often has to ask this question a few times because cyclists prefer giving the “how much they rode on their biggest week of the past five years” number as the answer, rather than the “how much you rode last week” answer. But the amount you ride can dictate how comfortable you’ll be with changes to your fit.
➥ What are you pain points? Here,you need to be as honest and specific as possible. It may feel awkward to say that the right side of your labia goes numb on a ride, or that your perineum is chafing on rides over two hours, but your fitter can’t fix what they don’t know about!
➥ What‘s your bike fit history? Have you had a fit before? What did you learn from that fitter? What experiences have you had as then? Your fitter can learn from what you did and didn’t like in the past.
➥ Have you tried any fit adjustments on your bike already? This is especially vital if you’re going to your fitter to deal with a pain or numbness-based issue. Make a few notes about solutions you’ve already tried, as that can definitely help speed up the fit process.
➥ Any past injuries, surgeries, or major body changes (pregnancy, weight loss, etc.)? Try to make a complete list so that you don’t miss mentioning that shoulder impingement issue from a few years ago!
Write down your answers to these questions, so that you’re not caught off-guard when you
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