I had my bike fit at Fit Werx way back in July. Through a combination of getting my new bike, setting it up to the exact fit measurements and wanting to give enough time to evaluate the fit, I'm only just posting this review.
First of all, Fit Werx is a beautiful store, filled with gorgeous gear. The trouble is, the gear is top of the line and really expensive. A lot of it doesn't even have price tags. It's definitely intimidating - like walking into a Porsche dealership when you know you can't afford anything.
The new bike fit costs $375. It's definitely spendy for me, but I didn't want to make a mistake buying my first expensive bike and you get $200 back if you buy the bike from them. I was really hot on getting a Trek Domane at the time and Fit Werx sells Treks, so there was a good chance of recouping that $200.
I spent about 2 hours at the store. First they take your body measurements and check your flexibility. They didn't find anything drastic. I have obviously poor flexibility, but I knew that going in. They did also find that my feet are moderately heel in and we talked about how that could be contributing to some mild, but nagging knee issues.
Then I got a bit of a shock. The fitter said, "OK, let's go try on some shoes". I didn't have my own clipless shoes and pedals yet and I guess I was thinking they had some demos for me for the fitting. Instead, they had me trying on new shoes. "Hmmm...", I said, "...I really wasn't planning on buying anything else today". The fitter basically said that it's an important part of the fitting (which I do now understand) and then said something like "well nobody likes spending money" (which I didn't appreciate at all). It was super awkward. I loathe being pushed to buy anything, but I didn't want to make the fitting pointless. Very, very reluctantly, I said OK. The shoes cost $260 and the pedals $130 and my total for the day climbed to over $750. At that point, I'm dying inside for the rest of the fitting. I had no idea how I was going to explain it to my wife, who was already questioning the $375. Now I want to be clear and fair. I think it's great to have the shoes and pedals for the fitting, but when I phoned up in advance and told them I didn't have clipless shoes and pedals, the guy said that was fine and there was NO mention that I would really have to buy something.
Next I got on the infinitely adjustable fitting bike and he started to experiment with my fit. There was a lot to this piece and frankly, I don't think I remember all the details. I remember being a little disappointed with the saddle test. I thought I was going to get some super accurate saddle specs, as in "you would be best on saddle X in this width". Instead, it was just something along the lines of "you are applying pressure evenly on each side - that looks good". The videos were impressive. You start pedaling and they shoot a really quick video of your pedaling action. They then look for specific angles at different parts of the pedal stroke. They kept tweaking the geometry of the bike until all the those angles were as good as they could be for me. I got the impression that this was the most important part of the fit. The end result is a very specific set of bike frame angles and lengths that work the best for my body.
We then got off the bike and went to the computer to look at real bikes that would fit me. I got 2 options - a Trek Domane (which I already knew I liked) and a Cervelo R2 (which surprised me a bit). Interestingly, my fitting numbers dictate that I need a really big bike and I even need to adjust that big bike with a long 13cm stem. My instinct with a bad back would have been to go shorter with the stem and therein lies the value of a proper bike fit. Another surprise was that I most definitely need a seatpost with zero setback. In hindsight, this makes a lot of sense as I was always finding myself moving forward onto the nose of the saddle.
Did I buy one of these bikes? No. To be 100% honest, those super expensive shoes and pedals completely blew my (absolute max) $2000 bike budget. Plus, I still wasn't completely sold on a skinny tired road bike. In the end, I used my bike fit numbers and bought a very lightly used Salsa Vaya. It fits my numbers really well, it's much faster than my old hybrid and I LOVE the comfort and go anyway nature of the fatter tires. It's a great bike. I did need to tweak it to exactly fit my numbers. I swapped out the 110mm stem with a 130mm one and I swapped out the seatpost with a zero setback version. After making those changes, the bike feels GREAT. I feel like I can really push the bike along, but still be comfortable.
So would I recommend a bike fit? I have to say yes. I got the right bike and it's set up in the right way for my body. It wasn't cheap, but I would even say that $375 is worth it to not make an expensive mistake. If it wasn't for those shoes and pedals, I would give FitWerx a big thumbs up, but I have to admit that being pushed to buy something I didn't want did sour the experience for me. I only tried the shoes and pedals one more time when I got home. I liked them a lot, but I ultimately didn't even want road shoes and cleats that I couldn't walk on, so I sold them on eBay. I got almost full price for the pedals, but I took a beating on the shoes.
Ultimately, I'm faster, more comfortable and I have a bike that I love.
