Search bike fitting on youtube before deciding.

My concern is not fitting for high performance but as I am 65 with compromised knees (osteoarthritis with precious little cartilage left) and some nerve damage in my hands I am hoping that fine tuning the bike to me would make what is an enjoyable experience even more so.

they should be able to fit you at your local bike shop for far less than that amount of money. When I bought a "new" road bike from Craigslist, my local shop did a fit for $60 (which they usually do free when you buy from them). They check to make sure that the seat is correct (that would be a lot of the knee issue for you) for height as well as tilt and forward backward location. They also did handlebars height, angle, and distance forward. They checked my pedals and connection to shoes. Couple other things, too. That should meet your needs. I think what you posted is for high performance racers.

Racers ride with almost horizontal backs while I like to ride with almost a vertical back that keeps
pressure off my hands. As far as knees I like the knee just bent at the most extended point.
The lower the gear ratio you use the easier it is to pedal and the easier it tends to be on your knees.

And that is simple to adjust, make sure your leg stretches to it farthest extent on each downstroke. In most cases, people feels this put the seat up to high thus most people ride with a seat to low. You should NOT be able to stay on the seat of the bike and your feet touching the ground other than on your tip toes when you stop (Another way to look at it, your feet should be on the CURB when you are stopped, while the bike is on the road bed.

To many riders, ride with their seats to low, thus they legs do not go through their entire range of motion and tires out quicker then if the leg does a full function. The reason for the seat being to low, they want to stay on their seat AND have their foot on the ground when they are stopped. Such seating means when pedaling your leg does NOT extent to its full length and tires quicker then if the leg was permitted to extend to its full extent.

AS to handlebars, that depends on the bike. On a with downtown handlebars you want the handlebars level with the seat, on more "Conventional" bikes, you want it six inches higher. The reason for this is simple, with down turn handlebars you want to curve your body to give maximum power to your legs. With Conventional handlebars, you want to be able to withstand hitting pot holes (Thus more upright provides greater control of the steering AND where the grip are spreads out any effect of any impact).

Racer type bikes (Bikes with down turn handlebars) tend to be longer then mountain bikes for in racers you have to spread out the effect of bumps on the road by lengthening the frame. On Mountain bikes, the shorter frame makes hitting potholes harder, but that affect is reduced by the spread out of the grips. Notice the two different ways to handle potholes.

Just a comment I see no advantages to using a $300 machine. Adjust your seat first, finds what is comfortable as far as the front grip in concern, and that will solve 99% of all biking problems. The $300 machines are aimed at those people who need help on those 1% problems and in most cases the 1% problems are offset with other problem biking (Such as the road bed itself) thus unless you are a competitive racer, the use of such machines are not worth the money. Save your money and adjust your seat.

I think you can learn a lot about your efficiency and abilities.
Sure, I suppose one could just lift or lower their seat until they felt comfortable, I did that for about 30 yrs.
Worked just fine.
But this is science.
It will help your riding abilities and comfort.
A properly trained technician will understand where you want to be as a rider. They will not try to put a recreational rider into a racing position but they will explain why that position is more efficient.
I say go for it.
When you get home, or even there, take a sharpie and mark the position of everything. Then if you make any changes, you can always move things back.

this bike shop won't last especially if they do the defensive closing technique on people .

where they do the same kind of bike fit- so I don't know.

I recently lowered my saddle per an online calculator about 1 centimeter. My average speeds seemed up but I began to have some discomfort in both knees. I have since raised the saddle about .3 centimeters and done one ride with no knee pain.

Hi,
Just MHO, I think fittings are suitable for racers, I think most LBS can get you decently fitted with some minor adjustments for free. My parents biked 10s of thousands of miles and never got fitted. My bonehead brother and his wife are both weekend warriors and got fitted, I had to hold back from laughing. 300$ is ridiculously high. But it is your bike and your ride, so knock yourself out and good luck.

Peace

is some hints on setting up your bike = fitting. Biking is like skiing the money we spend ads very little to the fun of just doing it and making believe we are kids again .