Quite late to this thread, but...
I used to think I rode enough to know what felt right or wrong. Only now that I'm just beginning to ride enough to even begin to know do I realise how true this is.
Some of the worst money I ever spent was getting trained to use Retül before I moved to Australia, thinking it would be the key to a new career when I got here. I got so put off by how easy it was to put these 'tools' into someone's hands and allow them to believe they could fit someone to a bike - with zero regard for the bike handling - that I couldn't face the prospect of trying to buy into what I had been taught and, more to the point, to impart this 'knowledge' onto others and make them believe I was a 'Bike Fitter'.
Too true, unfortunately - and I say that as someone who previously "needed" that therapist (rapist?).
Fitters who aren't prepared to tell their clients the real truth (e.g. [and, yes, to draw on what I have realised from my own experience] "Sir, you spend 40-60hrs a week hunched over a laptop – your bike is not the problem") are – perhaps quite understandably – simply watching the $$ roll in.
There was a post on here from Dave Kirk about saddle setback, which he followed up with a comment about *actually thinking* about pedalling – testing the suggestions in those posts helped me understand more about my bike fit and position than anything else I have got out of my bike fittings over the last few years, or was taught on my Retül course. Coupled with recent focus on core, flexibility and off-the-bike posture, I am the strongest and most comfortable I have ever been on a bike, and without significantly upping my effort or mileage.
I think I just ate a chunk of humble pie...
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