I have been practicing and instructing Bicycle Fitting at the top level of the industry in both the USA and the UK. After three years of research and practical experimentation I am convinced that there are ways for a cyclist to use their own body awareness to accurately fit themselves to their own bicycles. I believe that a smart phone app would be a very good vehicle to lead the motivated cyclist to the point of total bicycle/body awareness and fit optimization.
I am working with a Graphic Design Student. This is their final year project. I am helping to collect marketing data to support my belief that people (you) think that a bike fitting app of this nature is an awesome idea….or not. So before we present the idea to people who could make it a reality, we want to know if the world is ready.
It will take you 5 mins to answer ten questions by following the surveymonkey link below.
We are planning to use the info collected to guide what the app includes and who its geared towards. We may also use it in a later business proposal if there is enough interest.
We will be posting the confidential results here for all and any one to see.

Please follow the link below. One click should take you straight to the survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZZWGMPK

Thank you so much for participating, everyone who has seen the outline for this project has been very exited. I hope that we can get it into production.
Once you have completed the survey please leave all comment and feedback in this thread.

Kind Regards,
Tony

done it for you fella. good luck

Done. I would say add something about carrying loads, i.e. rucksacks etc. Carrying weight badly can be as bad as not having a correctly fitted bike. Probably.

Done it. Will be interested to see the results 🙂

Done! Good luck.

Done, good luck mate

And another. Could be a good idea

Done it.

Q 7 needs a no as I’ve never had one.

and Q8 needs a why.

There are different levels of bike fit, will you be catering for them all?

From the basic ‘I just bought a bike and need to ride it’ to the ‘I’m racing this season and need everything bang on’ fit. But I suppose it depends on who you’re going to market it too.

Be interesting to see it when it’s done.

Also done.

And as above, Q7 needs a ‘no’ option. I answered ‘other’ instead.

Good luck – let us know how you get on.

Bike fitting is important to me, but from acquired knowledge as opposed to external advice. I think that question doesn’t sit right.

Done by the way, would this be a ready reckoner or could you photograph a person on a bike and analyse the image with the app?

done.
bike fit is so crucially important for road… am still fairly new to MTB (under 2 years experience) but it seems less critical…

but for road cyclist an app, or anything that helps sort fit/position is a great idea.

best of luck.

Finished as well. I presume you’ve seen the competitive cyclist fit calculator? I would imagine the capabilities of a modern smartphone could result in huge improvements over that sort of thing, if done right.

Another “No” for question 7 here.
A minor point, but you’ve used 11 year overlapping age categories.
I am both 40-50 and 50-60 at the same time. 😉

Hi Tony – I know someone who may be interested in your experience for commercial use. It could be discussing your app or using your experience to help develop the early stages of a different approach to fitting. My mail’s james.olsen.remote AT hotmail.co.uk if you’d like an intro.

Done, on the assumption that you will be sharing the anonymous results, but nothing confidential… 🙂

Q7 needs option for No. Selected other like previous poster.

Done. Same comments as above.

Done.
I think this is a great idea by the way.
Who is doing your development? I doubt a graphic design student would have the required skills to do this.
If your graphic designer lets you down or gets out of his depth then drop me a line – I am a software user interface designer and would be interested in working on a project like this.

Done – could be interesting.

Done – as already mentioned above, Q7 needs a No.

Done. Good luck

Also done, same comment for Q7 – I put “other”

done, same as above, q7 i put other for ‘no’.

Things like drop to the bars, bar shape, bar distance really vary on bike style. Like in downhill you ride a shorter stem to put you furthur over the front wheel to gain traction………I think the app needs sub cat, so have one fro road biking, one for xc mountain biking etc……..

good luck

Done it!

Done ..

Done.

Left Q7 blank – needs a “no”.

App needs to compensate for the differences between Road race/Touring/XC/Trail, DH etc.

eg – no good looking at KOPS on a trail/FR/DH bike – they’re not designed to work that way.

Done, good luck.

I thought I heard something the other day on the radio about smart phones making online shopping much easier, by providing an app that would give you precise measurements and help you choose the right size garment. Something to do with bikes seems like a much better use of that technology!

Done, again needs a ‘no’ option on Q7 – ticked other

Good luck

done.

I would also like to see an app have settings changes recommendations for different styles, between touring/mtb/road and possibly even SS/geared.

Done,

Other feedback:

Yes ‘Q7’ does need a “No” option I just left it blank…

There are a few bike fitting apps about, I’ve downloaded a couple of the free ones, they seem a bit basic and don’t touch on certain things (you mentioned shoe/cleat adjustment and sizing in your survey for instance) and most are targeted at road bikes only, I’d want one that covered as many types of bike as possible.

I also downloaded a limited trial offer of one of the posher PC based bike fitting, motion capture programs a while back which was pretty handy (once I’d captured some video) but is clearly a profesional tool that assumed a level of knowledge on the users part (Which perhaps I didn’t have)…

I think if I was looking at an app to help me refine my bike(s) fitting I’d not just want another hints and tips thing (there’s plenty of that sort of tat about), I’d want it to have a “Log” function as well where I could keep a track of all the measurements I’ve taken, what adjustments I made to which bike and when, so I could track back through changes, and I could also maybe log any discomfort and the circumstances, as an aid to diagnosing issues.

Could your app form the front end for a slighly more interactive type service? i.e. the app will get a user so far but if they are still having issues the data captured via your app; dimensions, photos, video, etc could form the basis for a fuller assessment by a real person (the OP?) with some more detailed feedback? (at additional cost obviously)…

the other thing you need to figure out is what people would pay, I don’t really like paying for phone apps these days as there’s quite a few good freebe’s about so I think you’ll struggle to get more than a couple of quid out of many users, and you’ll most likely need to offer a cut down ‘Lite’ version to get most people to even consider the full payed for thing (IMO of course)

Done. Be a great tool if it covers both road and MTB. I think of myself as an MTBer but do a lot of road riding (commute etc). 2 sections to the app would be great.
I agree that pricing would need to be thought out carefully.
And I answered ‘other’ too for q7 as there isn’t a no option.

Good luck – looking forward to seeing the results…