Quality cycling shops in Melbourne?
- Thread starter pivoxa15
- Start date
pivoxa15 said:
Because i don't agree with his fit style, including his custom bikes. John Kennedy is a good enough bloke, but that doesn't mean i'll recommend his service.
He's done plenty of custom bikes, does plenty of retro fits to bikes that people wheel in the front door too. Will cost you about $250 + parts for a 'fitting'.
How much do you about bike fits?parawolf said:
Have you heard of bad feedback form his customers or were you one of his? Could you elaborate on his style of fit and bikes?
If I was willing to pay $3000+ for a road bike, I'd prefer it was custom made for myself rather than one from a leading manufacturer for anybody roughly my size.
pivoxa15 said:
Kennedy's bikes have extremely slack seat tube angles, and then throws on lay-back seat posts and extremely short headstems. Usually means that the rider is on the bike with an upright position (even in the drops), locked arms, and poor handling with the short stems.
What this means even if the bike is custom made, you still end up with massive comprises in the design because he follows a formula a formula build anyway. Just like SHM follow a formula for bicycle fit. Formula's don't always work with bicycle and body mechanics.
If you are willing to pay $3000+ i'd be investigating Baum Cycles in Geelong. Now they are someone i'd be willing to recommend if you want a custom made bike for you. Entry level custom bike from Baum with Ultegra SL is $3950. You'll pay similar prices at Kennedy's for (in my opinion) a worse bike.
I know multiple people from recreational riders to competitive racers that ride Baum Cycles both MTB and Road and are extremely happy.
You're making some broad sweeping generalisations there Para. Everyone uses some type of 'system' to fit the rider to the bike. I also think you'll generally find that most Victorian companies subscribe to varying degrees to the slacker seat angle than what's currently 'standard' philosophy. People are generally sitting too far forward and not engaging their glutes. Simple fact, we all agree.parawolf said:
You obviously have a thing against Kennedy and that's fine, but I think it's more a result of his personality than anything else. His shop also caters for a lot of middle aged rich guys who generally only ride to the cafe on a Sunday, so you have to take that into consideration. You'd fit them different than you would a 60kg top level club racer.
For the record we can also do our entry level Tephra with Ultrgra SL for a similar price. We outsource our fitting to Beasley (we're not arrogant enough to say we have enough fit and ergo credentials to be as good as him) and it's included in the price.
Although he's busy, we have enough pull to be able to get customers in, but we have to work with his scedule.
Now Pivoxa, if you've got 2-3k MAX to spend on a bike, shop around online for what you like, and I'm sure Para and myself can give you some valuable input into which ones might be best. Don't forget too, if you're getting into it in a large-ish way, you'll also need shoes, pedals, clothing, helmet, and probably lights. These things start to add up quick, so you have to factor that in to your budgeting.
Thylacine said:
I don't have a single thing against him at all. It is just in my opinion, he fits his bike to riders that come through the door to the same mold as the majority of his clients, as you say, overweight - cafe - beach road cruisers.
Our household has previous experience with Kennedy re: bike fitment, my wife is a member of the womens group Pink Inc, and she has a custom Kennedy bike. We had an ongoing issue which wasn't resolved, so I fixed it myself with a few hours research and asking the right questions of my wife on the trainer. Perhaps he is just a bit 'stretched' work & world champion wise to deliver on the customer service i'd expect with a custom built bike.
I don't have an issue with him at all, I stop by his shop from time to time, say hello to both him and Brigid.
I found the same thing. As part of my job I guess, I got fitted up by everyone back in 2003 to get a feel for road fit as opposed to MTB fit which is more my thing. Kennedy was stretched too thin then, and I didn't get what I was expecting for the then 200 bucks. Infact I designed a new road bike for myself before getting fitted up and was amazed how close I got to what the fit experts recommended.parawolf said:
Of course that in no way qualifies me. Heck, even if we sold 50 custom road frames a year I couldn't say the level of knowledge gained would even remotely come close to Kennedy, Beasley, Hogg et al.
Okay, so now we're completely off topic lol.
