INTRODUCING GARRY KIRK – Scottish Bike Fitter

My first interaction with Garry Kirk was in 2011 when he asked a question in the Q & A section of this site. Since then we’ve corresponded intermittently and and I’ve become a bit of a Garry fan from afar. I’ll explain why. Garry was initially seeking help with his position and I answered the insightful questions that he asked. Over time Garry felt that his position had improved but he wanted ‘more’. There are limits to what is possible via email  so I suggested that he make the nearly 700 km trip from Glasgow  in Scotland where he lives to the south of England to see Scherrit Knoesen of the Bike Whisperer , which he did in July 2014.

Garry was inspired by the process that he went through with Scherrit and based on that experience decided he wanted to become a bike fitter,  as the multi year quest he’d been on to sort out his position further kindled his latent interest in how human bodies relate to bicycles.

We corresponded about this and as Garry’s questions had been more insightful than most and because he  was in danger of becoming addicted to the whole bike fitting ‘thing’, I suggested that Garry start fitting friends for free using any info he’d worked out, read about or thought had any basis in reality. I receive a lot of correspondence from people who wake up one day or have a mini ‘Eureka moment’ and decide on the spot that bike fitting is their future. A period of fitting friends for free and seeking feedback has one of two outcomes.

1. For the unfortunate majority there is a realisation that improving someone’s bike position and having the client happy with the outcome is not as easy as it may seem. After a while it all seems too hard and they shelve any ambitions to become a bike fitter.
2.  For the minority, this period of learning how to observe and quantify the quality of human movement on a bike and where any setbacks that occur are treated as learning opportunities, further cements their bike fitting ambitions. After some time (often several years)  in this ‘introductory phase’, they feel they’ve learnt enough to hang out a sign and announce to the world that they’re open for business………………………which Garry did by opening Garry Kirk Bike Fitting

So for the last 5 or 6 years Garry has been working as a bike fitter with a money back if not happy guarantee.

One of the stipulations I insist on for anyone wishing to train here is that they demonstrate that they have been able to make a living on that basis for a minimum of 3 years prior to coming here. This demonstrates to me that customer satisfaction is as high on their priority list as it is on mine. More importantly it is the most effective learning tool yet devised. When one allows the client to dictate your financial success, only then will you learn some hard lessons that will not have to be learnt twice.

In September of last year I was in England on a part holiday, part business trip. One of the ‘business’ aspects of the trip was to demonstrate the Low Velocity Mobilisation (LVM) techniques I use to restore proprioceptive clarity and range of motion to areas of the body in deficit. I invited Garry to the demo and we met in the flesh for the first time. I was impressed with his passion and knowledge and that he’d taken on and completed a course in Applied Movement Neurology (AMN). There is a fair bit of overlap between AMN and some of the stuff that I’ve devised and the short version of the rest of the story is that Garry arrived in Australia in mid February for a 3 week period of training.

By the end of the first week I realised that I had a potential ‘star’ on my hands,  as with his AMN training he was at a level I expect people to attain by the end of the 2nd week.

Bear in mind that I expect anyone who trains here to be a highly competent bike fitter before they arrive. They’re not here to learn how to fit but to train in tricky and difficult ‘stuff’ that allows them to quickly make improvements to their clients’ posture, range of motion and overall functionality. He picked up the muscle testing and LVM paradigm with impressive speed. In his down time he demonstrated an encyclopaedic knowledge of single malts, showed the signs of a misspent youth by his expertise on a snooker table, and spent every spare moment baring his snow white skin to the Australian sun by floating on his back in the pool…………with sunnies on! I wish I’d taken a pic or three to show here.

More seriously, Garry demonstrated to me that he was already one of the most competent and detail minded bike fitters I’ve met and I thoroughly recommend him to anyone considering his services. You’ll be in safe hands.

Find out more about Garry here, and here’s a short video below of Garry’s adventures in Oz.

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