I went off post with this with Dan originally, who urged me to post to the forum so here goes:
I think it's quite innovative that Slowtwitch has gotten into the bike fit certification business. My LTS owner went through the course. His feedback to me was while he didn't necessarily learn anything new, he had been overlooking some things recently and was reminded of their importance at the clinic. He was quite glad to become FIST certified. Also, I have a great deal of respect for this site, and it's proprieter.
I also don't mind that Slowtwitch uses the FIST logo on reviews of shops. Again, establishing fit standards, and making a business out of training to those standards is really a quite brilliant business strategy that probably helps the sport and benefits us all.
However, I take issue with the explanation given on this site regarding use of the logo in reviews. Particularly the comment that the shop reviewer doesn't know that a shop does a proper fitting unless they've been through FIST. But that if they've been through FIST that for sure they'll do a good job. I believe that Slowtwitch crosses the line between objective reviews and selling FIST. Frankly, if an owner goes through FIST but lets an employee do a lousy fitting, then the fitting is still bad. Conversly, my fit was done perfectly by my LTS owner well prior to FIST creation and my fit was flawless.
The point is that if Slowtwitch is going to include a discussion of fitting done by shops, then perhaps Slowtwitch might consider other ways of determining a shop's fit quality (while still tagging the shop review with a FIST logo). Maybe getting testimonials from shop patrons on the quality of their experience would be helpful. Certainly there's a large community right here that could help in this process. Of course, in doing so, Slowtwitch could be presented with a real problem. What if the testimonials of a FIST shop came back lousy? Would they still want to provide that feedback on this site? I wonder.
My question is this (and this is not an accusation): As part of promoting FIST, is Slowtwitch promoting to shop owners that they'll get reviewed and promoted as FIST shops? There's some timing precedent as one shop has been attempting to get reviewed here for a long time (and I along with others have sent emails to Slowtwitch suggesting that they review this particular shop). Only now, right when this shop becomes a FIST shop did a review get posted. Again, the Church/State line moves around a little....just wondering how much it has been moved in order to promote FIST.
I think it's quite innovative that Slowtwitch has gotten into the bike fit certification business. My LTS owner went through the course. His feedback to me was while he didn't necessarily learn anything new, he had been overlooking some things recently and was reminded of their importance at the clinic. He was quite glad to become FIST certified. Also, I have a great deal of respect for this site, and it's proprieter.
I also don't mind that Slowtwitch uses the FIST logo on reviews of shops. Again, establishing fit standards, and making a business out of training to those standards is really a quite brilliant business strategy that probably helps the sport and benefits us all.
However, I take issue with the explanation given on this site regarding use of the logo in reviews. Particularly the comment that the shop reviewer doesn't know that a shop does a proper fitting unless they've been through FIST. But that if they've been through FIST that for sure they'll do a good job. I believe that Slowtwitch crosses the line between objective reviews and selling FIST. Frankly, if an owner goes through FIST but lets an employee do a lousy fitting, then the fitting is still bad. Conversly, my fit was done perfectly by my LTS owner well prior to FIST creation and my fit was flawless.
The point is that if Slowtwitch is going to include a discussion of fitting done by shops, then perhaps Slowtwitch might consider other ways of determining a shop's fit quality (while still tagging the shop review with a FIST logo). Maybe getting testimonials from shop patrons on the quality of their experience would be helpful. Certainly there's a large community right here that could help in this process. Of course, in doing so, Slowtwitch could be presented with a real problem. What if the testimonials of a FIST shop came back lousy? Would they still want to provide that feedback on this site? I wonder.
My question is this (and this is not an accusation): As part of promoting FIST, is Slowtwitch promoting to shop owners that they'll get reviewed and promoted as FIST shops? There's some timing precedent as one shop has been attempting to get reviewed here for a long time (and I along with others have sent emails to Slowtwitch suggesting that they review this particular shop). Only now, right when this shop becomes a FIST shop did a review get posted. Again, the Church/State line moves around a little....just wondering how much it has been moved in order to promote FIST.