Fit
The frame is drawn to your numbers.
This is the step that separates a custom frame from an expensive stock one. I am not going to ask your height and guess. I need a real fit — measured by someone qualified, on a bike, with you pedalling. If the numbers aren't real, the build waits until they are.
If you have a fitter
Send us the report
Upload the PDF as part of your order and we will read the numbers straight off it. A MyVeloFit report imports automatically; anything else we read by hand. Either way you get to check every figure before it goes anywhere near a drawing.
Start your frameIf you don't
We'll find you one
Tell me where you are and I'll point you at the closest good one. This is the one part of the process I will happily slow down — a custom frame drawn to guessed numbers is just an expensive stock frame.
Ask for a recommendationWhat we need from it
Any competent studio's report will have all of this. If yours doesn't, that is worth knowing before you spend money on a frame rather than after.
- Saddle height, and saddle setback from the bottom bracket
- Saddle-to-bar drop and reach
- Stack and reach targets, or the equivalent handlebar X/Y coordinates
- Crank length
- Handlebar width
- Cleat position
Bring an older report if that is what you have — we will tell you honestly whether it is still good enough or whether your position has moved on. A fit from five years and one injury ago usually has.
Fitters I would send you to
One of these I have used myself and can vouch for personally — it is marked. The rest are practices whose credentials I have checked and would happily send you to, but I have not been fitted by them and I am not going to pretend otherwise. If you go somewhere good that isn't on this list, tell me and I'll add it.
Seattle & Eastside
Corpore Sano Physical Therapy
I've used themKenmore, WAErik Moen, PTPhysical therapy-led fit; founder of BikePT
The one I have used myself, and the one I would send my own family to. Erik has been fitting cyclists for over thirty years and runs BikePT, the certification programme a good number of the other fitters on this list trained through — so if you go elsewhere, there is a fair chance you are being fitted by someone he taught. He is a physical therapist first, which means a fit with him starts from your body rather than from the bike.
VisitMétier Racing & Coffee
Seattle, WA (Capitol Hill)Retül 3D motion capture
A proper fit studio inside a racing shop, on Retül's 3D motion-capture system. Convenient if you are in the city and want the fit and the coffee in one stop.
VisitThe Fitting Room
Seattle, WA (Capitol Hill)Dynamic motion analysis
Fitting is the whole business rather than a service bolted onto a shop, which tends to show.
VisitPro Bike Fit
Issaquah, WARussell StevensonMotion analysis; former pro and masters world champion
Fitted by someone who raced at the top of the sport. Useful if your riding is on the sharp end and you want a position argued about rather than merely measured.
VisitWoodinville Bicycle
Woodinville, WA
A long-established Eastside shop with a fit service and unlimited follow-up visits, which matters more than most people expect — a position takes a few rides to settle.
Visit
Portland
West End Bikes
Portland, ORJoe HolcombCertified Retül fitter
Joe has been fitting since 1999 and is, as far as I can find, the only Retül-certified fitter in Oregon. If you are in Portland, start here.
Visit
Central Oregon
Evens Physical Therapy Collective
Bend, ORTim Evens, PTPT-led fit, indoor plus on-road assessment
Another physical therapist rather than a shop, and one of very few anywhere who will also watch you ride outdoors rather than only on a trainer.
VisitBowen Sports Performance
Bend, ORBart BowenGURU Dynamic Fit Unit
A GURU dynamic fit bike lets you change position while pedalling and feel the difference immediately, instead of guessing between stem swaps. There are very few of them in Oregon.
Visit
Inland Northwest
The Cycle Point
Spokane, WAPaul SwiftBikeFit system; Paul founded it
Paul Swift founded BikeFit and wrote a good deal of the material the rest of the industry learned from. If you are on the dry side of the mountains, this is the stop.
Visit
Not near any of these? Tell me roughly where you are when you send your brief and I'll find you the closest good one. Wherever you go, look for a fitter working in a proper system — Retül, GURU, BikeFit, Trek Precision Fit or myvelofit — and expect to spend two to three hours and a few hundred dollars. A twenty-minute size check against a chart is not a fit and won't give me what I need.
If you genuinely cannot get to a studio, myvelofit.com is a credible remote option and its report imports directly into the order flow. It is second best to a real fitting, but a long way ahead of guessing.