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Bike Fitting Stats & Thoughts: 2022 Data
I broke down my bike fitting numbers for types of bikes, men vs women numbers, age groups, the most common bike brands and more. This is for the full year!
Happy Sunday and a very happy 2023! I am not going to lie, 2022 was the most challenging year I had in the last decade. There were a lot of positives, of course, but sadly the challenges outweighed the good stuff for me… Things started to shift at the end of 2022, so I am starting 2023 feeling very optimistic with a lot of exciting plans in the works… Starting with actually having a team around me rather than going at it solo. It gets lonely running a business all by myself!
I don’t set annual resolutions, but I do like creating ‘themes’ for each year depending on where I’m at - The themes for this year are delegating, organization and community. How about you? Any resolutions or themes you want to share? Comment below!
Alright, 2022 Dynamic Cycling Analysis (aka bike fitting) Stats! To jog your memory, you can read both posts from earlier this year below - Part I is stats for Jan-April and part II is for stats from May-Oct.
Type of Bike & Gender Data
The road category is definitely the dominant one, and I don’t really see that changing any time soon. I expect to see more gravel fits over the next few years, but as discussed in both previous articles, so many people ride road as well as gravel, but many of them only get one of those bikes fitted, typically the one they ride more (which is often times the road bike) and simply attempt to transfer the data to the other bike. I do have a post outlining the differences + considerations between gravel fit vs road fit in the works - It is coming later this month or early February.
The pre-purchase numbers are solid, but higher in the ‘off season’, meaning the fall, winter and early spring. I still want to see more of those appointments take place - Get it right the first time instead of buying the wrong bike for you - I might start posting case studies as I have some interesting stories to share with some common sizing and purchasing issues / mistakes!
On the gender side of things, the men vs women numbers have been fairly similar year round. I do find it interesting that the gender gap is smaller within the gravel category and things are more even within most categories other than road… More on the gender gap below.
Men vs Women + Total numbers
Still ugh.
Sadly, not much has changed throughout the year, or in the last ~6 years that I have been tracking this metric. The numbers show a very slight increase of women coming in for a fit in the second part of the year, but that increase is not substantial enough.
My goal continues to provide a safe, inclusive environment for all cyclists, with a big soft spot reserved for getting more women on bikes!
Interestingly, I did notice that more men I worked with in the past encouraged their partners to come in for an appointment also and in most cases, that would not have happened without that encouragement, and in some cases, simply booking it for them!
I did not share the actual numbers in my previous posts, so here you go. In 2022, I did a total of 592 bike fits. Its important to note that this number does not include follow ups if a fit was split into two parts, which happens fairly often for a variety of reasons, mostly due to body imbalances that require a follow up with a health care professional or to purchase new parts. Of that, 396 were men and 196 were women. This was over 45 weeks, as I took 7 weeks off in total throughout the year.
For reference, in 2021, the total number was 639. Of that, 214 were women and 425 were men. The difference in total number between each year can be attributed to the fact that I only took 2 weeks off in 2021 compared with 7 in 2022… If we account for that, the numbers are approx. the same and to be fair, this is likely my capacity (time to start mentoring others? 🤔).
Age Group + Gender Data
I am not surprised to see that 30-50 are the age groups with the most numbers and I am sure no one else is either. I am more interested in the gender gap again…
The larger gender gap between the ages of 35-49 is interesting and as mentioned in the previous post, can likely be tied to the typical comments regarding not having the time to get away from work, family care duties, etc and the associated guilt. I definitely find it interesting that while still there, the gaps are less significant in the 50-64 age groups and to a lesser extend, in the 25-34 age groups.
I think it is pretty clear that if we want to see the gender gap close, the target age group is 30 years old to 50 years old (personally, I am right in the middle of that age range). I don’t know how to do that, but I am going to brainstorm some ideas and perhaps create a little survey to distribute with the goal of gaining people’s perspective. As always- comment below if you have ideas or feel free to email me if you want to share privately.
Top 3 Bike Brands + Brands Totals
The top 3 brands are the usual suspects, to be honest. I still think this will be different in markets outside of North America and I would be very curious to see data from other fitters around the world, but as far as I know (and I did a lot of searching), no one has ever posted their stats like I have, which I think is a shame for a growing profession.
Back to brands - Giant, Cannondale, Canyon, BMC Factor, Liv and Argon18 round up the top 10 brands, in that order.
As promised, ALL the bike brands I fitted in 2022 are listed below and in the table, you’ll see further breakdown into gender. 69 brands in total for the year!
2023 Predictions
Total numbers wise, I expect 2023 to be very similar to 2022 based on how the year started so far (yes, I know we are only a week in) and because I plan on taking ~6 weeks off again this year. I do hope the gender gap gets a bit smaller this year… Hopefully 40-60% split as a starting point?
As far as age groups, I think that will stay the same, with perhaps more numbers in the 25-34 and 50-60 age groups, making things a bit more even.
For type of bikes, road will very likely continue to dominate with a potential increase in gravel due to so many gravel events popping up everywhere and gaining popularity. I also see the pre-purchase category gaining more traction based on the conversations I am having with athletes on a daily basis.
Lastly, brands. I think things will stay fairly similar in the top 10, but the order will likely be a bit different as I think I’ll see Canyons and Factors move into the top 5. I also think Liv will be out of the top 10, which might sound a bit odd since it is a women specific brand and I want to see more women on bikes… But I do not really see the need for women specific bikes, so there is that (a post for another time, for sure).
There you have it. All the stats for 2022, as promised. The next stats post will be in May for Jan/Feb/March/April.
I hope you found this article valuable and an interesting glimpse into my day to day work. I would also love to hear your thoughts, so feel free to comment below and share this post with others who might be interested! If you stumbled across this & you are not a subscriber, you can change that by clicking the button below.
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See you next week with another post, different topic: We are definitely due for a nutrition post, so I’ll get to work on that. If you have a specific sports nutrition question you want me to answer, comment below or post it in the chat on the app (if you are reading this in your inbox vs the web, you can download the app below).