Is my LBS doing a good job?

[mimitabby]

It sounds like yes, they are really trying; but read Pooks' story, which echoes mine. It took me weeks before I felt somewhat safe riding my road bike after a lifetime of the other style.

I think the biggest adjustment is in your head. (and was in my head too)
They know enough to get you within batting range of "your size" and then yes, the fitting, which should be discounted if you are buying a bike from them (IMHO) should dial you in right where you need to be.

[dex]

My best suggestion (keeping in mind that I'm new to the world of bikes) would be to go to as many places as you can and try out as many different bikes as you can convince the shops to let you put your butt on. It wasn't until the third or fourth test ride that I did that I started feeling like I was comfortable enough on the bike to actually communicate the experience to the bike store employees trying to help me...and then I went back and rode all of those first few bikes again, to see how they compared after I felt like I had a better idea of what felt "good".

I mentioned in another of your threads that I bought my bike from Gregg's Greenlake, and I'm still thrilled with it. I ended up buying the one that "felt the best", and still feel like I made the right choice. Now that I've ridden it a bit, and done one longish ride, I've scheduled a fit session (for this Friday...yay!) to get some of the little things dialed in. For me, because I have some shyness issues that make it hard to communicate unless I'm speaking from a position of knowledge, it seemed better to wait until I'd spent some time on the bike before doing that...I just thought this might make it easier to talk to the person doing the fitting.