Bike Fitting Stats & Thoughts: Part II
I broke down my bike fitting numbers for types of bikes, men vs women numbers, age groups and the 3 most common bike brands. Time frame - May to October (inclusive) of 2022.
Oh hi, hello there… Happy Sunday! I am back! How has your summer been? And fall too, because somehow it is already the middle of November… How did that happen?!
My summers are always so busy with my day to day work and (often unsuccessful) attempts at getting in some miles on the bike, that everything else simply gets put aside until I have the mental and physical bandwidth. I sometimes joke that I sort of go into hibernation over the summer months… Usually By mid September or October things would calm down a bit, but this year has been crazier than normal, both on the work and personal fronts and here I am in mid to late November, finally coming up for air. Perhaps starting a new weekly publication in the midst of the busy season was not the best decision on my part and far from ideal, but I am back and in the process of planning my writing for next year so I am better prepared for when things get really hectic and can keep this publication going consistently. I really appreciate all of you being here, reading what I have to say - I would love to know who you are, so feel free to hit that button below, leave a comment and share what brought you here.
Alright, lets get into it.
For the first post in this publication, I chose to share some of my bike fitting stats for types of bikes, men vs women numbers, age groups and the 3 most common bike brands for the time frame between January and April 2022 (inclusive). I think it is only fitting that my first post back after my little ‘sabbatical’ will be sharing the same stats for May through the end of October. If you have not done so, I invite you to read the first post linked below before you keep reading this post, or just go back to it afterwards.
Type of Bike & Gender Data
The road category is still the biggest one by a fair bit, and I don’t really see that changing any time soon. I mentioned in the previous post that I think the gap between gravel and toad will shrink a bit with time, but I changed my mind (for now) as a result of many conversations with the athletes I work with and friends who ride. I know so many people who 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. Of course, this potentially skews the data shown in the chart above. It is important to note that I do not think this is the right approach - In my experience, your position on your road bike and your position on your gravel bike should be different, depending on the terrain you ride and your equipment, but that is a topic to be discussed in more detail in another post.
On the gender side of things, the men vs women numbers are fairly similar to what was observed between Jan and the end of April. And while the pre-purchase numbers have increased, 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!
Men vs Women
Ugh.
Yeah, once again - Not much has changed. The numbers show a very slight increase of women coming in for a fit compared with the first four months of the year, but the numbers hover around where they have been since I started keeping track of this metric approximately six years ago.
My goal continues to provide a safe, inclusive environment for all cyclists, with a big soft spot reserved for getting more women on bikes!
Age Group + Gender Data
This is very similar to the previous four months. 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 didn’t have the answers when I wrote the initial post and I still do not have them - I would really love to hear thoughts and get perspective from others based on their own experience and/or observations.
Top 3 Bike Brands
I didn’t think this will stay the same as the first four months of the year, but I was proven wrong. I still think this will be different in markets outside of North America… Giant, Cannondale, BMC, Canyon, Factor, Liv and Pinarello round up the top 10 brands, in that order.
At the end of 2022, I plan on sharing the number of bikes for all the bike brand I saw over the course of the year. So far, there are 66 different bike brands!
There you have it. Some of my bike fitting stats from the last six months. I can’t wait to share a more comprehensive annual review sometime in January 2023.
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I'm surprised tri and TT are so low. Those poor saps are aero tucked for ages. They especially need a good fit!