Bike Buying Advice | Precision Cycle Fit

Buying a new bike should be a joyful experience. But it's complex and mistakes can be very time consuming and costly. Take the effort and guess work out of your new component or bike choice by using our experience and expertise.

We offer services ranging from a simple "this is the type and size of bike best suited to you" all the way up to identifying and building your dream bike. Furthermore, we don’t sell parts*, so every recommendation is based on the best match to your wants, needs and budget.

For most people, choosing and buying your new bike used to be a straightforward activity:

Riding on road? > You need a road bike. Possibly two: one for winter and one for best.
Riding off road? > You need a mountain bike.

Of course there have always been specialist machines like Time Trial, Track, Cyclocross, BMX, Folding and Touring bikes but it was very simple, and everyone knew where they stood, or knew someone who did.

Furthermore, once you’d selected the type of machine required, you’d go to a few local bike shops, see who had the bike you liked best and offered the best service and away you went.

Nowadays there are so many sub-genres that life is not so clear cut:

Riding on road? > You need either an Aero bike, a Climbing bike, an Endurance bike, an All-round bike, an All-road bike, a 4-Seasons bike or a Winter bike. Or perhaps several of these.
Riding off road? Well, how off road? Downhill MTB, Trail MTB, XC MTB, Gravel… and then which type of gravel? Course-Loose, Fine-Loose, Hardpack, Mixed, Mud…?
Racing Time Trial or Triathlon? Do you need a bike optimised for a 10-mile drag race or a 180km Ironman with a marathon to run afterwards?

It's no wonder than many people are overwhelmed and a bit of friendly independent advice from Precision Cycle Fit can soon have you narrowing the choice down sensibly to meet your requirements.

I’ve competed in Road Races, Time Trials, XC MTB, Endurance MTB, Road Triathlons, Off-Road Triathlons and probably many more. I’ve been quite successful in some (see Palmares if you are interested). I’ve also commuted to work in all weathers and toured extensively in the UK, New Zealand, Tasmania and Borneo. I’ve also sometimes even just ridden for fun with a couple of months Mountain Biking in Canada and the USA and a recent road riding trip to Mallorca.

In my current / most recent fleet of Bikes I have a Cervelo P-Series TT/Tri Bike, an Open Min.D. Road Bike, a Kinesis R1 4-Seasons Bike, a Cotic Soul "MTB / Gravel" bike, an Open One+ XC MTB bike and a Bike Friday Folding Bike. And a Marin Pine Mountain MTB just like I had in 1994. It's fair to say I've got personal experience of most genres!

This is a fully tailored service, and the first stage is a free consultation call or email to establish your requirements. Some typical options are:

Bike Type and Size

This isn’t “Do I need a Time Trial or Mountain Bike?” Hopefully you know this. But if you are looking for a road bike, for example, will you be best suited to a “Race” or “Endurance” Model? Riding in all conditions? Will a Gravel bike be best, or do you ignore the current hype around that genre and go for a traditional "British 4-Seasons" bike instead?

We’ll suggest suitable options and sizes including consideration of any brand / model preferences you may have, not to mention sizes and integration of key bike fit components such as bar-width and height, stem length, crank length and the potential costs of changing components if those specified as standard are unsuitable. It's no fun discovering that the sexy £800 integrated bar / stem unit or Power Meter cranks are not right for you and your needs!

As a guide, for a sizing activity conducted on your existing bike and selecting the correct size in two or three preferred bike options will usually take between 60 and 90 minutes and is charged at our standard rate of £70 per hour. Its worth noting that for many customers who use this service, any follow up bike fit on the new bike (which is highly recommended but not mandatory) is often quicker and thus cheaper due to the information gained during the sizing activity.

Bike Fit Component Choice

Since we are primarily a bike fitting business, the main focus here will be on the contact points. As always, we start with the feet so we’ll look at the most suitable pedals and shoes before moving on to seatposts, saddles, stems, bars and bar tape.

Complete Bike Component Choice

We can then take things a stage further and talk about gears and brakes (I personally own bikes with Campagnolo, Shimano and SRAM groupsets), wheels, tyres and everything else that goes in to a complete bike.

Where to Buy

Once you have selected your components, we can research the best place for you to buy them.

Cost

This is a fully tailored service so the exact cost will reflect the number of hours used on your project and is based on our standard rate of £70 per hour. An estimate will be provided following the Consultation Call. Contact us here to make your booking.

*to be strictly accurate we do sell parts, but typically these are cleats, seatposts, stems and handlebars required to achieve your perfect bike fit, not revenue-generators.