The worst bike fit in the world

It will come as no surprise that a good bike fit starts with making sure the rider has the best size frame underneath them.  If this isn't the case then any bike fit will be a compromise from the beginning.  That's why for the last two decades I've been stressing to get a bike fit first before buying a bike.But a recent incident at my studio got me thinking about some of the worst bike fit scenarios I've seen over the last 15-20 years.  I had a client stop in to chat because she felt like her new bike wasn't fitting well and she wanted to talk about what she was feeling before she came in for a fitting.So let me set the stage a bit:  This was a mid-40s female, who has a pretty high fitness level, but is not an aggressive rider.  She had no plans to race, but she did spend a lot of time on her bike.  She would routinely ride 60-80 miles on a nice weekend day, and for much of the year she was on her bike 4-5 days per week.She recently (within 2 months) had bought a new bike, and she did shop around at two or three different bike shops until she found the bike she thought was for her.  She left much of the sizing to the shop's recommendation - after all they're supposed to be able to do this, right? - and she focused on her price point, the components, and the aesthetics (mainly color).Each of the bike shops sized her up by looking at her and seeing she was taller than average -- about 5'8" -- and after simply asking her to confirm her height she was told by all three shops that she would need a 54 cm bike, and one shop told her 55 cm.Having heard this repeatedly, she assumed this was what she needed.She settled on a bike, she was "fitted" to it, in about 10 minutes of fiddling with seat height, and off she went.  On her first couple rides she noticed she had neck and shoulder pain and was getting hand numbness, so she went back to the shop, and they slid her saddle forward and sent her on her way again.  Things felt a little better, but now after doing a longer ride on the weekend, she noticed her saddle was really bothering her toward the end of the ride and she was still getting hand numbness (and her shoulders still ached after her rides).  Back to the shop she went and this time they put on a stem that was 2 cm shorter than what she had, and with 30° of rise.  She paid the $40 for the new stem and off she went again.It was after just a couple more rides that she came in to talk to me.  Some of her symptoms were a little better, but the bike had a speed wobble when descending now.  I explained that because her saddle was slid so far forward and with a high rise stem on there, the chances were high that her weight was distributed on the bike in such a way that was never intended for that bike.I told her that based on what she was telling me, I was fairly certain that she was on the wrong size bike.All of the bike shops took note that she was tall, but none took note that she had a 33-inch inseam -- she had very long legs and a relatively short torso, and she had short arms to boot so she actually would fit on a bike more like someone who was 5'4" or 5'5" tall.So does this mean that a 54 or 55 centimeter bike is the wrong size for an individual that's 5'8"?  Not necessarily.  Does it mean that a 5'8" woman shouldn't get a 54 but a man of the same height should fit it perfectly?  Again, no, and I've heard this fallacy many times, -- it's just not true.  Men can have long inseams and short arms just like this client, and women can have short inseams and longer arms.  A man could have just as easily been in the same position as this woman in getting the wrong size.  The point is precisely that we can't generalize at all and should take into account the differences of the individual.To those out there that are saying that this client didn't do her due dilligence - I understand that sentiment.  Yes, she could have gotten a bike fit first.  And, yes, she should have insisted on a long-ish test ride first.  In a perfect world she should have done both these things, but at the same time, if someone is buying a bike, and they know very little about bikes, isn't there a responsibility on the bike shop to spend a few extra minutes to make sure this person gets the right size bike?  I believe bike shops do have this responsibility, because if someone is sold an ill-fitting bike then there's a greater likelihood that this person will cease to be an avid cyclist sooner rather than later.  Now this person won't be upgrading their componnents, or bringing it in for service, or buying a new bike.  For a bike shop's bottom line, this is a lost revenue stream.The more I thought about this client, the more I realized that it seems to happen to this demographic the most - women who are in the 5'7"+ range.  The problem is that too often bike shop employees correlate how they fit their bike with how a customer should fit theirs.  This false equivalency is magnified when the customer is a taller female.  They see a 5'8" woman and they think to themselves, well I'm about 4" taller than her and I ride a size 57 so this person must need the size below me.  Much more so than with shorter riders, male or female, women in this height range tend to get pigeon-holed into bike sizes that are often too big for them.Thoughts on this?  Please comment below or email me about this topic