Bike fit, Cleveland, Charlotte, Chicago

Stop in Fort Wayne, IN on your way to Chicago from Cleveland. Summit City Bikes. Dave Coar is the fit specialist. He's done three bike fits for me, all excellent.

get a grip in chicago may be the absolute best you can find around here,

cadence in saline MI is very good (ask for angel)

Inside out is pretty good as well.

I had a fit there -- I was very pleased.

X3 on Inside Out Sports.  Bob did my fit on my Felt B2 last December for no charge since I was buying the bike from them (at 25% off too).  He spent at least an hour and a half fitting me and other than my own adaptations to the bike and aero position, it has been just about perfect.

That being said, up in Mooresville, at exit 33 on I-77 you can check out Cool Breeze Cyclery.  They are right next to the interstate, so very convenient.  I have heard about the fitter there from a ton of people even though I haven't used him myself.  He gets rave reviews and I think he charges $175 for a full blown fit up with an option for a more basic fitting at some lower price.  Next door, there is a training center that specializes in triathlon too if you are interested.  I am thinking about hiring one of the coaches there.

Greg

Pittsburgh isn't too far away from Cleveland, and the local tri shop (Trizilla) is Serrotta and F.I.S.T. certified.  I have not used them for bike fit purposes, however, since I do not have a tri bike (my road bike was purchased and fitted at Big Bang Bikes, which is an awesome place which I totally recommend.  Glenn is super-nice, no drama, and awesome at fitting road bikes.)

Is FIST certification what I should be looking for?  There's apparently a shop in Columbus, OH, about the same distance as pittsburgh but I go that direction more frequently

I really like Cool Breeze Cyclery in Moorseville. (In the Charlotte area, just a little north on 77.)

I lived in Columbus for a short time and I would go to Tri-Tech Multisport.

I'm not a bike fit guru like some of the more experienced posters on this board.  But, from what I have gleaned so far, FIST is a system of tri-specific bike fit developed by Dan Empfield over at slowtwitch.  In order to get FIST certified, you have to actually attend workshops and learn about the fit system, which means that a FIST-certified fitter actually knows something about fitting a bike specifically for tri.  

IMHO, it probably isn't the end-all be-all of how to pick a bike fitter (and there are probably some great fitters out there who haven't checked off that particular box, for whatever reason), but probably someone who has that certification at least has some idea of what they're talking about and will fit you beyond checking whether you can stand over the bike and reach the handlebars

Good luck. 

By searching for FIST certification I found "Bike Authority" in Cleveland probably only 20 min from my home.  They seem to have a lot of Tri bikes per their web page anyway and are FIST certified.  Anyone worked with them before?  The closest LBS to me, the one I've dealt with in the past has almost exclusively road,hybrid and MTB's.  Not a single Tri bike in the shop so I don't really want to get fit there.   Thanks for your help