Dryvlyne

Curious if anyone here has ever had this kind of fit done and what the experience was like? Did you find it worth it?

Retül Fit - Triformance : Your Cycling Authority :: Road, Mountain, and Triathlon Bike Fittings

valygrl

yes and yes well worth it for me. it took about 2.5 hours, and there was a lot of analysis, some adjustments, and a bit of trying some variations to see what felt best. it's both an art and a science, so you might want to see if you can find someone who has worked with the specific fitter to see how they liked him.

HiFiGuy1

I got one when I was building my bike, in large part to make sure that component choices were correct, like stem and bars, etc., in addition to the obvious. I think it is well worth it. Since I didn't buy the bike from the LBS that did the fitting, I had to actually pay for the fitting out of pocket, but would gladly do it again. The one caveat I would mention would be make sure you get fitted by a truly qualified person. I was fortunate that the guy who did mine is the only RETUL certified fitter in my state, and actually gets paid to travel to other shops and do fittings there, because of his reputation as an excellent fitter.

thatcycleguy

Yes and it's worth it IMHO. As stated above it takes close to three hours. My guy spent considerable time measuring my flexibility and getting to know me as a rider. He made some considerable adjustments that made a considerable difference in my performance. I would spend the money again given the opportunity. Walking out with a blueprint of my measurements was a nice added bonus. If I ever disassemble my bike, I know exactly where it should be put back.

RNAV

Judging by the multiple grammatical and spelling errors on his website, I'd question whether or not his attention to detail is on par with what you'd expect to receive from the price he's charging.

datlas 

My understanding is that Retul is the instrument to make measurements but the results are quite operator-dependent. So it probably depends on the experience and/or competence of the fitter rather than the "system" per se.

Dryvlyne

Thanks for the feedback guys. I watched the videos and a couple of people in my local bike club recommended the guy. Just wanted to get some opinions from others that have actually had this done since it's a considerable amount of money. I'm hopeful something like this will help with both my efficiency and comfort (I have back issues).
[MENTION=197775]RNAV[/MENTION] - that's a silly way to judge the quality of this shop's work as they likely outsourced the development of their Web site. Granted that doesn't leave the most positive impression, but I'm not going to discount his ability to perform a quality fit on that.

Dryvlyne

I was under the impression you had to be certified in order to be a Retul fitter? Surely it's not an inexpensive system so I would think the people that have one are likely qualified. At any rate, like I said a couple of people from my local bike club specifically said the owner is really good so I'm not too worried about that. Was just more interested if the science behind this tool was real and worth it and by all accounts it is.

roadwarrior

Correct. But like anything else there are really good ones and less good ones.

BTW...Retul is what Trek Pro Cycling uses...they carry the set to races and can check fits about anyplace.

KantoBoy

I did it before and I do think it's worth it.

However, I got a fit done by my ex-pro coach last week and he put me on a good position with my new bike. There's nothing like a pair of a vet's eyes to fit you on the bike.

zrossiter

I am getting one on friday, actually. It is both for a custom bike build (to get frame measurements) and to get measurements to adjust/fine tune other bikes.

I have heard it takes about 2 hours, i think is about $250 (near me at least), but that is totally worth it. The place I am getting it done has a dedicated fit studio with a nice gallery of vintage/custom bikes, so that alone will be awesome for a couple hours. If you are in/near Ohio, I think Bikeworks in Toledo is the only place that offers Retul. They're a great shop, I will be coming from Cleveland just for that.

Bob Ross

The criticisms I've heard about Retul pretty explicitly address "the science behind this tool"...specifically, that the margin of error when placing the body sensors tend to be the same orders of magnitude as (if not greater than) the typical variance in design changes.

iow, when trying to identify, say, the acromial process (or whatever bony landmarks Retul takes measurements from) a fitter could locate it within a +/- 5mm window...possibly even wider...just because, absent x-rays or c-scans it's impossible to accurately locate those landmarks with any greater precision. And then he's going to tell you your stem needs to be 10mm shorter?!?!

That's why irrespective of the science, there can be good Retul fitters and less-good Retul fitters: Experience trumps all.