FEATURES
Is Your Bike Fitter Full of Do-Do?
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Saturday, 16 April 2016 00:10
By Tom Demerly (tomdemerly.com)
Bike fitting is big business. Having some version of “professional” bike fitting is the new standard for any bike sold above $1000.
How do you tell if your bike fitter knows what they’re doing? Are they a credible, trained, experienced fitter or just repeating buzzwords in a kind of bike fit “theater” learned in a weeklong clinic under the guise of years of experience fitting athletes during the evolution of bike fitting?
Here are ten checkpoints to assess the credibility of your bike fitter:
1. Do They Ride? The Way You Do? ...
If a bike fitter knows what it’s like to be a beginner triathlete filled with anxiety and not even know what questions to ask they can help the newest beginner with solid recommendations. A good fitter knows the “beginner’s mind”.
At the opposite end of the experience scale, if your fitter knows what it’s like to sit on an uncomfortable saddle for six hours at Ironman- and can fix it– it’s easier for them to understand what you’re experiencing. If they have done it themselves, you’ve found a fitter you can relate to.
When a bike fitter combines the “beginner’s mind” with elite level competitive experience balanced with formal training and tempered against learned judgment from doing thousands of bike fits, you have a master. And the less a new rider knows, the more the fitter must.
There are a few credible fitters who are not triathletes or bike racers but do know bike fit well. But they are the exception.
