Retul Bike Fit Review

KatLA

Here's my requested Retul bike review:

 

I went today to get a Retul bike fit. Totally worth the money (ended up being $200). I'm 5'2" and bought a Quintana Roo Dulce XS tri bike about a year ago, and never thought the other store's 'bike fit' was done correctly (it was done with eyeballs, by someone who was rushed). When I got there, he started by looking at my right side. He stuck these sensors to my shoe, ankle, knee, hip, and shoulder. Kind of like an EKG. There was also a camera on me. He was on his computer, and you could see me petal, then he would switch to a screen with all kinds of numbers, and another screen which showed the outline of my legs. Along with all that, he would stare for awhile, and tell me things like my right leg is angled out too much and I point my toes too much. With the computer, he was able to tell me that my left leg is significantly stronger than my right (weird), and then proceeded to tweak just about everything on my bike that could be tweaked. The big changes included height of seat (it was lowered significantly, so I wasn't wobbling anymore), raising the degree of aerobars, moving the seat more forward and tilted up (helps with back), and he highly suggested I remove my vertical bottle that I had between the aerobats (helps with steering). I was never big on that water bottle anyway. He then spun me around and reviewed me from the left, and did a few more tweaks. He suggested I ride for a few weeks and return to let him know how I feel. He claims all of the changes will help with my power (and comfort)… time will tell!

 

I asked other questions I've been wondering about (about my 650 wheels, seat positioning, etc.) and got a lot of good answers.

 

So bottom line, I was really happy with it. I'm sure an excellent bike fitter can do without all the gadgets and sensors, but it seemed like every time he consulted the numbers and tweaked me, I felt better. 

 

Worth the money IMO. I'm also intrigued by the TT bike fit (I just found out about it)… maybe the next time around! 

 

[Deleted User]

Cool. I'll be interested to know how it feels once you've been on the road a few times.

cathleenwhite

good to hear, thanks for the review, I think I'm
going to get my bike refit with a retul.

Daniel Huhn

I had a Retul bike fit two years ago and it was definitely worth the time and money. They corrected just about everything they could adjust on the bike. It took a couple months before I really could notice the difference in comfort and power output. Give it time and you'll be telling everybody you know about Retul.

Dino Sarti

Awesome investment of time and money. It did wonders for me. I even went back and had roadie done.

Swimkathy

I just had a Retul bike fit this past Friday! I was highly impressed and can't wait to play on the road to see the differences. For me, the main adjustments that were done were raising the saddle even more to allow for proper leg extension and pushing my saddle forward to bring my knee forward of my foot into the nominal range for Triathletes-my leg extension and hip angle were closed and this should allow for more power to be available.

I also really appreciated the 5 page printout of what was done and all of the exact measurements in case I ever have my bike shipped to a race, I can simply hand a copy over to TriBike Transport.

Paul Hough

I've had a Retul on both of my race bikes at two separate shops. Both were excellent. After a year though, I removed one spacer from the head set to lower my front end on my QR CD0.1 (tall and narrow bike) and added one spacer to the base of my seat mast on my Giant Advanced Trinity (long and low). I.e., I'm slightly more aggressive now than what they set me at, but I would say I've retained 98% of their settings.