Bike fitting experience
February 2025
Giles Hundleby
Having booked it a few weeks ahead, the middle of December saw me taking two bikes up to C&N Cycles in Redhill to a bike fitting session for me and my son. I’d asked around for advice from other club members and had some good recommendations, but also lots of requests to share my experience when it was done.
So here it is.
What is bike fitting?
Bike fitting is a process whereby the geometry of your bike and your contact points with it are optimised for you, the rider, according to the objectives you have. It usually takes place on your own bike, but can also involve trying out different geometries on an adjustable bike-jig.
Initial assessment
On arrival, the bike fitter, Paul Smith, took me and my bike to the first-floor bike fitting studio, and set the bike up in a turbo-trainer. I had already provided the make and model of the bike, and Paul had downloaded the basic geometry into his spreadsheet.
He then recorded all the specific details of my current setup: saddle height and set-back, bar height, reach. We then discussed my objectives for the fitting, and he did some measurements of me and some exercises to establish my range of motion and flexibility.
Even before getting on the bike, the exercises had shown that my cleat position was not right (too far back and toes-in rather than toes-out), so Paul fixed that. We also checked the width of my sit-bones (thankfully a hands-free procedure) and the height of my foot arches in case insoles might be beneficial (spoiler alert: they were).
Main fitting session
It was then onto the bike to do some spinning at various speeds and loads while Paul looked for problems with my position. The main issue was that my saddle was too low and too far forward. We tried a few different positions to reach an optimum nearly 40mm higher than baseline, and with the seat a few mm further back on its rails. At the front, I was immediately getting lower on the hoods due to the higher seat setting - maybe too low, so we moved one spacer below the stem to raise the bars about 5mm.
Another consequence of a higher seat is that you put more weight on it, and my original seat was on the narrow side for my backside. While I had got away with it with a lower seat position, it was less than comfy at the optimum height, so we changed to a slightly wider seat, which was much better.
At this point we also tried riding with and without insoles to fit my arch shape. The difference is subtle, but feels worth it as my feet feel much more connected with the right insoles in place.
Conclusions
The whole session lasted just over 2 hours for a cost of £145 plus £40 for the insoles. It was a thorough one-to-one session with Paul, who really does seem to know his stuff.
I came away with changes to various settings of my bike and shoes, and the knowledge and details of what to looks for in my next bike, which in my case will be something similar to what I have now (an endurance bike at the racier end of the geometry scale) but with a few of the modern gizmos and better wheels.
I took the current, newly-optimised bike out for a quick spin while my son had his session, and it felt good, though I did stop after 10km to drop the seat back down by 3mm as the large change was taking a bit of getting used to. Will it make me faster and more comfortable? I’m expecting it to, but time will tell.
Since the fitting, I have managed to replicate the set-up on my winter bike and winter boots as far as possible. After a longish ride with the Thursday Ride Group and another with my son, I found the new position comfortable and I could definitely get lower on the drops and hoods if I wanted to. Overall, I’m very happy with my bike-fitting experience.