Originally Posted by
sam
Im not yet building frames myself, but do deal with other framebuilders for my customers and consider fitting a big part of my bike shop so I will chime in. I usually get asked for the numbers from there current bike, as well as numbers we came up with on our fitting cycle. I also get asked for their body measurements. In addition to being asked for these things I also supply a picture of them on their current bike as well as the fitting cycle. Most of the builders that us bike shops deal with, usually I.F., serotta, seven and the like, tend to build from the numbers supplied from the fit cycle- unless it does not seem to jive for some reason.
I like suppling pictures, I am having a frame built for a customer right now, where he needed 9cm of bar drop on his mtb. The builder questioned this and suggested 5cm, after he seen the picture he could see this guy has arms as long as a silverback gorrilla and is actually sitting pretty upright for 9cm of drop.
As a fitter and dealing with all sorts of people, I find a good number of people who think they have a good fit- but dont and when trying something else find out they were wrong. Or simply ride the bike how it came out of the bike shop and never even moved the saddle. I think for a lot of the everyday cyclist you cant trust there numbers.
As far as trusting a fitter, I dont know how much you can do that either as many shops have so-called fitters, so unless you know the fitter I dont know I would trust their numbers either.
so I think it depends on the customer and thier background if you can trust their numbers, i think you need to get all the info you can and find a system that works well for you
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