IBFI is six

This year marks the sixth year since the first conversations that started the IBFI. Over that time, we’ve achieved a lot, and while there’s still plenty to do, that doesn’t mean we can’t take a little time to celebrate what we’ve done so far.

Steering Committee and Certification

The IBFI steering committee contains some of the world’s best fitters, fit educators, and technology manufacturers. Without a group of that level, the IBFI never would have got off the ground. Although they had different approaches to fitting, they…

MEMBER BENEFITS

Annual Travel Grant

Education can be expensive, and it becomes even more expensive when you factor in travel, accommodation and loss of income for independent fitters for the duration of the course. By creating a £500 grant, we hope to reduce those costs a little and make international education opportunities a little more accessible.

Facebook group

The IBFI has helped to break down barriers and encourage fitters to talk more openly to each other. It used to be a very insular profession with fitters often being afraid to talk to their competitors. But the reality is that improving the whole industry increases demand for fitting services, after all, a rising tide lifts all boats. One of the ways we can help develop ourselves and the industry as a whole, is by speaking to other great fitters across the world and sharing our experiences. Our Facebook group allows our members to do just that.

Mentoring programme

We’re really proud of our mentoring programme, which pairs early-career fitters with experienced mentors to help guide their development. The mentoring programme includes an assessment process that helps fitters gain more credits and work their way up the IBFI ladder. These mentoring relationships have led to friendships and support networks that extend well beyond the mentoring programme.

Conference

In 2019, we organised our very first conference. IBFI Asia was held in Thailand with delegates from across South East Asia and as far afield as the UK and US. It was a great success and before Covid struck we were in discussions over running it again in 2020. Once it’s safe to travel again, we’ve no doubt that more IBFI conferences will be on the cards.

Democratic Presidency

During 2019 we also rewrote our constitution to shift towards a democratic model, where our President, Vice President and Steering Committee will be democratically elected from our membership base from 2024.

Quarterly magazine

2020 saw the launch of this magazine — a small project that quickly took off and turned into what you’re reading today. As a single point of focus for our industry to share developments and best practice, International Bike Fitter is the first industry publication for bike fitting.

Our goal is, and always has been, to create a respected and recognised bike fit profession.

Scientific sub-committee

We also re-launched our Scientific Sub-Committee in 2020 under the stewardship of US based IBFI level 4 fitter Chris Balser. Chris has done a great job creating a team whose goal is to help disseminate scientific research. The team meet to discuss future research projects, identify areas of cycling biomechanics that require further investigation and create layman’s reviews of relevant scientific publications. It’s a great project that helps fitters across the world stay abreast of developments in research, even if they don’t have access to scientific journals.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Our goal is, and always has been, to create a respected and recognised bike fit profession. There are still a few missing pieces to that puzzle but we’re working hard to reach that objective.

Insurance

Conversations are on-going to create global liability insurance products specifically for bike fitter. Insurers struggle to understand what we do and misjudge the risks involved, meaning the policies available for fitters either don’t cover everything they need or are unnecessarily expensive. We’re hoping to change that, and have already taken steps in that direction. It’s looking like it’ll be a longer journey than we’d hoped, but it’s a top priority for the next few years and something we feel is important for our industry as it continues towards becoming a respected profession.

Common education standards

We’re aware that our certification system has some weaknesses but it’s a transparent and fair system that was a great start. Our next steps are towards agreeing a common syllabus for bike fitting, one based on the European Qualifications Framework that gives us a vocational pathway towards one day achieving a Diploma in Applied Cycling Biomechanics. This system would provide fitters will have a clear pathway from starting their careers to becoming a well rounded, educated professional. Split across four levels, they’d also be able to stop their learning at any point, with no pressure or need to continue all the way to level 4 if that didn’t match with their career goals.

The qualification could one day count towards university credit, but in the first instance we’re just keen keep improving the industry and raise education levels across the globe. We’ve been consulting with key education partners already with some great feedback and are keen to reach out to more people looking to offer bike fit training. If you’re a bike fit educator and would like to know more, please get in touch with IBFI president Andy Brooke (andy@ibficertification.com).

Website redevelopment and integration

We’re going to redevelop our website this year to help better integrate and automate our membership application process and payment system. As a volunteer-led organisation, the more we can automate, the more time they have available to work on other projects, achieve our goals and improve the service we offer to members.

BikeFitBites.com

To further support the great work our Scientific Sub-Committee are doing, we’re creating a standalone website to make it easier to search through their review articles. As the number grows, you’ll be able to search for reviews based on their topic and much more easily take a deep dive into the relevant research.

Further International Development

The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed that our Constitution allows for regional committees, once membership levels are sufficient. We hope to reach a point where North America, Europe and South East Asia/Australia will become the first three regional (or continental) committees. They’ll be able to run their own conferences, decide how to spend some of their region’s membership fees and work to promote bike fitting and bike fit education across their region.

We’re also experimenting with non-English language websites with a first new site launching in France later this summer. We need to do abetter job of breaking down language barriers and talking about the IBFI to fitters in their native language; hopefully our French language website will be the first step towards further international sites or translated areas of the main IBFI website.

A Bright Future

From where we started six years ago to where we are today is a great achievement and one that wouldn’t have happened without the dedicated volunteers that help run the IBFI. If we can achieve our goals, then bike fitting really will take a step out of the shadows, carried out in the back corners of bike shops, and into a modern, structured profession with globally recognised standards and a professional body worthy of the name.

Want to get more involved with the IBFI? No matter where you are in the world, we’re always looking for volunteers. Email Andy Brooke to find out more.