Hi!
I want to offer bike fitting in my shop. My business partner is a framebuilder who's already been using BikeCAD for years. I've looked into the fit advisor and understand the basic concept: it offers a static fit recommendation that should then probably be tested and refined as a dynamic fit, e.g. on an adjustable fitting bike. The documentation of BikeCAD does not cover the dynamic fit part at all (not really the scope of this application I suppose), and also gives limited information about the static fit. There are four recommended fit schemes, and then users are encouraged to develop more based on their own "fitting philosophy" and experience. What would be a good place to start to learn more and develop such a philosophy? ;) Or what would be a good way to get started by just using someone else's? Is there a community of BikeCAD users sharing (or licensing) different config files, so that others can benefit from their experiences? I've been looking into alternatives such as bikefitting.com or Retül. They are designed to "lock you in" inside their ecosystem, so they're probably not the place to look. I know that Retül has a detailed "textbook" which describes various principles and methods in the bike fitting process in detail. Is there something more "independent" or openly available that BikeCAD users have good experience with? For example some websites or books. This does not have to be available for free. I've looked for books for quite some time, but couldn't find anything that goes into enough detail to teach bike fitting on a serious level.
Looking forward to your responses!
Sharing Fit Advisor settings
I regret that there is not a thriving community of folks sharing Fit advisor settings. Though some might chime in in response to this post.
Fit advisor settings are stored in a file called fit_advisor.xml which is found in the BikeCAD_21.0_configuration folder in the User directory. This file could be sent through email to any potential collaborators.
If you have some data from past fits where you know the body geometry of various riders and know the geometry of their bikes once they were dialed in, you can work backwards to find appropriate coefficients to enter in the Fit advisor. This is described at: bikecad.ca/customizing_fit_formulas.
Are you looking to provide
Are you looking to provide fits on existing bikes? Or purely fitting for your partners custom frames?
Regardless, my opinion is:
- you should be a competent bicycle mechanic at a minimum. Being an above average mechanic makes life a LOT easier.
- you should understand the body off the bike and be interested in human movement off the bike. How do feet interact w/ the ground, how do your hips work, what can the spine do etc. etc. There are a ton of courses available here like FMS (Functional Movement Screen), FRC (Functional Range Conditioning) and pilates or yoga certifications. Become a student of the human body. Dig in.
- You can get the Neill Stanbury course from Road Cycling Academy and for the price, better than many courses I've taken. Then jump into Colby Pearce courses on the Team EF coaching site. Colby is brilliant and it would be a huge benefit to take the course. Both are online and relatively cheap.
- do it for free. Over and over and over again. I fit for free for the first five years because the reality is, you can't just take a course and know anything. I've been doing it since 2008 and know nothing.
- https://www.scienceofcycling.com.au/ this course is not related to any brands or religions.
- https://serottacyclinginstitute.com/classes/ these folks are the OG
Really it comes down to, what is the purpose? To fit people on their current bikes? Or to use a size cycle and then create a series of x/y measurements that you can build a frame in bikeCAD off of?
It is a wormhole you can get lost in for years if you dig into it. I have and it is what I think about most of the day ... haha.