Fit First: The importance of measurement

Purely Custom’s Zeb Miller runs us through the best way to use measuring tools and software to identify the best fitting bike

Thankfully, more and more cyclists are realising the importance of fit — and some are even realising the importanceof getting a fit before buying a bike.

The days of a customer walking into your fit studio with a new bike and saying “it’s a different size to my last bike, but it was a great deal,” are waning; the fit first mentality has taken over and, thankfully, looks like it’s here to stay.

When you fit your client before they buy their next bike, the process needs to be a little different and two key questions are thrown up. Do you do the fit on their existing bike or on a size cycle? And how do you identify what new bike would work best once you’ve completed the fit?

Each of those questions will massively impact the final result for your client, so let’s walk you through what we’d suggest.

Size Cycle or existing bike?

It depends on the client. If they like their current position, start there, because it might not be far off and you’ll get an extra level of detail from seeing how they ride currently and what compensations they make than you would from starting with a blank slate.

If you see pretty quickly that the position is along way off, you can easily switch to a size cycle, but that information alone might help explain why the correct position you’ve given them at the end of their fit may feel strange to them.

If their existing position is fairly close, then by all means complete the fit on their existing bike. That way, if they plan on keeping the bike, they have a good position on two of their bikes and they can be riding in your suggested position while waiting for delivery of their new bike.

The point that you switch over to a size cycle is when you know you can’t achieve the position you want on their existing bike and you’ve gathered all the data you can from their current riding habits.

You don’t want the restrictions of the current bike to impact the decision making process for the next one. For example, if you’ve flipped the stem and just can’t get high enough at the front end, don’t guess, put them on a size cycle and find out how much higher they need to go so that you don’t suggest an expensive mistake.

How to identify the next bike

Start off with handlebar and saddle XY measurements. The XY tool is great for a quick and accurate measure of the handlebar and saddle position relative to the bottom bracket. With these key numbers and our Pure Position software, you can search a huge database of current bikes and find the best option for your client.

After nearly a decade of development, Pure Position was released in 2013, providing shops with their very own in-store geometry expert. The software can calculate the position of either a handlebar or a saddle to within a tenth of a millimetre. Even the most finicky of riders wouldn’t be able to feel that difference.

#ProTopTip

Normally, our software will find a bike within a millimetre but sometimes the closest you can find will be several millimetres away, so what do you do next?

The search results list bikes along with their suggested stem length, angle and headset spacer stack, but each one can be adjusted by you. So, if you want to use a handlebar with a little vertical rise on it to claw back some front end height, you can adjust the position to get you where you need to be. Check the reach on your client’s handlebar too. If you’re struggling to find a bike with the right handlebar X number, then a bar with a different reach might just help you get there. Remember, your rider will be spending most of their time in the hoods so the handlebar XY figure assumes you’re using a bar with the same reach.

If your client’s next bike will have a different reach, adjust for the difference in your handlebar XY figure. For example, if the current bar reach is 85mm, the new bar reach will be 75mm. Increase the handlebar X measurement by the difference (85-75=10mm).

Conclusion

There are lots of options when fitting someone for a new bike but the right tool for the job will always make your life a lot easier, and hopefully make the end result more accurate too.

There’s no better feeling than helping a client find a bike they love, but they’ll definitely love it a lot more if you use a fit-first approach and make sure whatever they buy will be comfortable and suitable for their intended purpose.

Zeb_miller@purelycustom.com