MAN VS MACHINE

Using an AI app to get set up on your bike might be a lot cheaper than consulting a living, breathing bike-fitter, but is it as effective?

- Simon Fellows

After decades of promise but little credible achievement, artificial intelligence has got very clever very quickly, catching the world off-guard. No longer the preserve of sci-fi movies, AI is here to stay, if not here to take over. Powerful, liberating, accurate and, well, intelligent, it impresses and intimidates in equal measure. In the world of cycling, it promises to calculate our optimum set-up at the click of a button.

In fact, AI bike-fitting has been available since 2021 in the shape of MyVeloFit.com, an online service that promises a virtual fit for less than the cost of a pack of premium bar tape. It’s so inexpensive that I thought it must be worth a gamble. Not too daring a gamble, admittedly, as I also booked a fit at my local bike shop for a human comparison. Cost-wise, they are poles apart: MyVeloFit is one-sixth of the cost of my chosen human bike-fitter. But which offers better value?

Keeping it real

If the power of AI is to be challenged, Grant Bayton is the human for the job. An ex-pro and son of 1980s cycling legend Phil Bayton, Grant’s been around bikes and riders all his life. I found him through my local bike shop, Ride 24/7 in Cirencester, which leans towards the premium market. Owner Dave Evans is as passionate about his customers as he is his bikes. The coffee’s great too.

Meanwhile, MyVeloFit is a young Canadian company co-founded by experienced bike-fitter Jesse Jarjour, with investment and mentorship from Shopify’s former chief technology officer Cody Fauser, himself an avid cyclist. Their aim is to democratise bike-fits, making comfort and performance available to everyone. Will its raison d’être render human bike-fitters obsolete?