Eagle Jackson wrote:
> "HardwareLust" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:<Zjblc.69010
>> We couldn't even get some of them to swap out the stem or
>> the saddle (for a female model) unless we paid full
>> retail for the replacement!
>
> I had the same experience when I bought a road bike for my
> daughter last summer. She is 15 and has super long legs
> and short torso, so bike fit is a real challenge.
>
> The level of fit advice given by most local shops we
> visited was abysmal. We had to seek out the most
> experienced guy at one shop to get a decent fit, and even
> then, any changes such as saddle or stem, were done at
> full retail additions -- no swaps permitted.
This is unfortunately common, but perhaps we're expecting
too much of bike shops. There's probably no way they can
offer this stuff for free. It costs them a lot, and the
margins on new bikes aren't big enough to make up for it. It
may be possible with high end stuff, but the average buyer
is probably screwed.
What's really needed is for bike companies to support parts
swaps, by providing shops with a few extra stems, saddles,
etc., for fitting purposes, and taking the discarded ones
back for free.
Several years ago Cannondale was selling small-sized
mountain bikes with way-too-tall front ends, because of
their unique suspension fork system. Reverse-rise stems to
fix this problem were shown in their catalogs, but never
available in bike shops -- except as a special order item,
at some ridiculous MSRP. This is ridiculous -- Cannondale
should have provided a few extra stems along with every bike
order, so shops could fit their customers properly.
This is particularly maddening nowadays, when stems can be
swapped in a minute,
w/o undoing handlebar tape, etc.
Matt O.