London Bike Fit Recommendations?

[crazyjoe101]

Does anyone have experience with a bike fitter in London? I don't really want to spend more than £150 and I'm based in SE London. I don't mind travelling a bit or stretching the budget if it will get me a much better service.

I've done the basics myself but with a new frame on the wishlist it'd be nice to be sure of frame geometry.

Thanks in advance.

 

[ianrauk]

Cadence in Crystal Palace get's good reports

 

[vickster]

Cadence in Crystal Palace get's good reports

If performance is key, yes. If it's about minimising injury, use a cycling specialist physiotherapist

I have to confess to being disappointed by cadence but I have specific and numerous joint issues which he didn't really account for other than making the position more efficient (to be fair, the physio I have seen subsequently didn't change much even though I'd lowered the saddle after feeling very unstable trying to get my foot down on less than perfect road surfaces in crystal palace)!

Getting the best position for performance e might be what you want. Note, they fit you to the bike, they don't use a fancy jig, so if you are using it in advance of buying a bike, cadence isn't the best option Probably

Pearsons in Sutton offer the service using a machine rather than your bike on a turbo. There's a company in central London that gets very good feedback and the fitters are physios, expensive though from memory

http://cyclefit.co.uk

Pearsons use the same kit http://www.pearsoncycles.co.uk/bike-fitting/

 

[crazyjoe101]

Thank you for the recommendations Ian and Vickster. It looks like I'm going to be on one 'good' road bike for the foreseeable future and thus it must be set up as a nice all-rounder for my different types of ride. I also don't see why performance and injury prevention should necessarily be at opposite ends of a spectrum, they'd surely go hand in hand; I understand there will be a balance between a 'fast' position and a 'comfy' position but that's something I'd talk about with the fitter as depending on the distance and intensity, comfy is faster than aggressive and visa verse.
At first glance it would seem that Pearsons are a nice balance but I am going to ring around and discuss what I need with each option I look at. The other thing I need to think about is whether or not to make the switch to road shoes before I get the fit done, so that this isn't a factor which needs to be reassessed later.

 

[vickster]

They aren't at opposite ends but I didn't get the impression that the guy at Cadence took my knee and other issues into full consideration when setting the bike up. The physio did. She had the advantage however of having my full relevant medical history and had been treating me for a couple of months prior to the on bike assessment.
He seemed to be more interested in setting up for optimal power output (he races so that makes sense and he works for a company focused more on racing than recreation), but this isn't actually important to me. The point of the fit was to check nothing would exacerbate my issues, especially knees.

 

[HarryTheDog]

My daughter had her road + TT fit done in Putney West london http://www.velosport.co.uk/pages/bike-fitting . She won a national title afterwards so they did something right.
I had my road + MTB done by yellow jersey in Billericay in Essex http://www.yellowjerseycycles.co.uk/fitting-studio/bike-fitting/
Only thing they had to change on both bikes was seat up and back a few mm, however seemed to have made a difference to my PB's on certain sections. I was suprised my back was happier with the more stretched out position. A guy came into the shop whilst I was there and gushed praise on the fitter, a few people from my club have been fitted there and no complaints.

 

[crazyjoe101]

They aren't at opposite ends but I didn't get the impression that the guy at Cadence took my knee and other issues into full consideration when setting the bike up. The physio did. She had the advantage however of having my full relevant medical history and had been treating me for a couple of months prior to the on bike assessment.
He seemed to be more interested in setting up for optimal power output (he races so that makes sense and he works for a company focused more on racing than recreation), but this isn't actually important to me. The point of the fit was to check nothing would exacerbate my issues, especially knees.

Okay, got you. I've had knee problems caused by poor fit before and I still have some discomfort in the first few miles of riding still but other than the occasional thing like that I don't have any specific issues which I need to work around so I wouldn't imagine I'd really need to much of a physio-esque approach; the main objective is to buy my new frameset with as much certainty as possible on geometry. I do have somewhat strangly shaped feet and have a nightmare finding shoes which do not cause me pain on the top of the ankle or around the ball of my foot so I might enquire with the different fitters about what options there are for trying shoes etc.