Originally Posted by Fastfwd01

Thank you everyone for your input. I dove pretty deep into the cycling thing possibly too quickly. I bought that Cannondale Synapse in about September 2014 after riding my old Cannondale Mountain bike with street tires most of 2014 and getting into much better shape. I was out crushing top ten Strava segments all over town once I got that Cannondale Synapse. Maybe there weren't as many people here even on Strava in 2015, but nevertheless. I went on to tackle metrics and century events in 2015 and totally crushed my goal of just getting a century completed in under 7 hours at the Hotter than Hell in 2015. Something like 6 hours 20 minutes maybe.

Cycling was whipping me into the best shape I had been in since I was a teenager. That's why I was so hot to buy an even nicer bike when I bought the Cervelo toward the end of the 2015 season. I would never have dreamed of going for a $300 bike fitting BEFORE even buying a bike at that stage in the game. I just trusted the general advice I got from salesman. The place I bought the Cervelo from did not say one word to discourage me from purchasing the 51 and sent me out the door with it 'fitted' to me having only the 1/2" of drop.

I just checked my Synapse. It might be a 52cm I can't remember. It actually had a slight rise from seat to bar. So, I did finally move the stem on it all the way down giving it about an inch of drop now. We'll see how that goes. I only moved about half of the Cervelo spacers giving it just over 1" of drop. I think it still has another 1" to give. I'm eager to see how it feels to me now that I've lost some of the weight I gained over the last few years.

I talked to some of the bike shops around town today about one of those computerized fittings. One shop is like $300 for their fitting. It's the Retul machine. The guy working there certainly seemed like he knew what he was talking about. He cited that there is a certain angle that would be different for every rider that isn't just about getting low for aerodynamics, but that you are at your peak power capacity when you are in that peak angle. I didn't pry further as to how that angle might vary between the hoods and the drops, but I assume the answer would be that their fit attempts to put you in the range that accommodates both. I would be curious if I can't find more information online to confirm what he was telling me regarding that.

There's also an independent guy that has a Guru machine and I haven't talked to him about it. Another shop has a different machine, but it isn't even working. They were like $225. I think I would want to be in my ideal condition before being serious about getting a fitting that cost several hundred dollars. I'm a pretty long way in terms of my fitness level from a few hundred dollars worth of bike fitting making the biggest difference in my speed imo. I did get a little advice while inquiring about it that might be helpful.

Thanks again to everyone for your encouragement and advice.