Bike Anatomy: The Bike and Bike Fit Rationale

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Your patient is progressing well, and ready to begin a gradual return to training. They ask “is there anything special I should keep in mind when I set up my bike?”

This is the first of three courses designed to give you the tools to mold your musculoskeletal knowledge into the world of cycling. We will establish a working foundation to ensure you are comfortable with the parts of the bike, the tools required for fitting, and the rationale that guides the fitting process. This course provides a critical link to enable clinicians to speak comfortably with their patients and athletes, engage in discussion with the bike shops that carry and source the parts required for fitting, and to expand your skillset and services you offer.

Meet your instructor

Jay Dicharry

Jay Dicharry built his international reputation as an expert in biomechanical analysis as Director of the SPEED Clinic at the University of Virginia. Through this innovative venture, Jay was able to blend the fields of clinical practice and engineering to better understand and eliminate the cause of overuse injuries in…

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Chapters & learning objectives

1. Introduction to Bike Fit

“It’s just like riding a bike.” If only bike fitting were that simple! People are different. Bikes are different. Riding goals are different. In our introduction, we’ll discuss why bike fitting is important to unload tissue stress in rehab, and to improve performance in your patient’s/client’s goals beyond rehab. The bike fitting process is people-specific, equipment-specific, and event-specific.

2. Bike Anatomy 101

If your athlete asks you if they should look for a bike with a steeper seat angle, you need to give them an educated answer. And if you need to call a shop to see if they have a 80mm x 7 degree stem in stock, you need to be able to say more than “the thingy that holds the bar to the frame." In this course, we’ll take a detailed look at all the parts of modern bikes, and ensure that you can speak the language of cycling. A working knowledge of this chapter is critical to the information in the rest of the Bike fitting series.

3. Bike Fit Rationale

How should we think about bike fitting? Should we make every cyclist look like a Tour de France rider? What’s different about aero fitting vs. mountain bike fitting? what’s the same? There are a lot of myths out there, and what your patient thinks their bike fit should be, is not always what they need. This chapter will help you look beyond the obvious, ask the right questions, educate your patients on what they need, and build a dialogue with your local bike shop and the supporting community to help you expand your reach into the cycling community.

4. Bike Fit Tools and Equipment

What do you need in your clinic to perform a bike fit? While it’s great to have an optical motion capture system, that dream is a far stretch for most of us. We’ll discuss how you can capitalize on your MSK knowledge, and use simple, low coast tool to yield outstanding results.

More courses in this series