WHY CHOOSE ME

What is a bike fit? Why would you want one? And why should you trust me to help you with your bike fit goals?

My name is Mike Burton, IBFI Certified Bike Fitter, UBI Certified Bicycle mechanic and custom wheel builder. I’ve been a micro adjuster my whole life starting with the first bike I remember before grade school.

In those days, people in small towns in northern Alberta rode bikes for purpose- riding to school, working a paper route, getting dad a pack of cigarettes from the convenience store. 

When mountain bikes began to emerge, new things were possible. I set myself up to ride far into the back country to go fly fishing in remote lakes. Climbing those mountain trails was my first experience with “bike fit”. Positioning my saddle fore and aft, seat height, reach, made a world of difference in how much I rode and how much I walked. My personality naturally shifted me towards racing but it never occurred to me to join a club.

In 1999 I took a 2 year hiatus to work on the IAAF World Championships in Athletics and befriended a guy who had dabbled in road racing.  I bought a road racing bike. It wasn’t my first though… my first “10 speed” was purchased at a hardware store in Wetaskiwin when I was about 13.

With my new friends and a return to road cycling I was set for adventure. About 2 months after buying that road racing bike, which was in 2000, I joined a small group of folks and we rode one day from Calgary to Fernie. I loved it and never looked back. Within a couple of years I had joined Juventus and Edmonton Masters CC and my entire world was cycling. 

I raced whenever I could, road, TT, Crit, I did OK but that quite effectively summarizes my racing career. OK. I do remember winning a pair of socks in Devon once. I still have them.

But while others were getting faster, I was getting more technical; reading about training, about the mechanics of a bicycle, about KOPS and bar width and gear inches. I followed the rules and then stretched them a bit.

But cycling was a passion, a spiritual escape, it wasn’t a job. (Except that brief period when I was an “investor” in an ill fated bike store experiment.) My career was going well and it was how I identified who I was.

A few years ago I started thinking about life after career. It was clear it was going to include bicycles. In 2025 I took one step by attending United Bicycle Institute and earning my Certification as a bicycle technician. I also learned how to build wheels. I’ve built several since and I’m happy to say that people who ride my wheels win races.

Earlier this year I found a mentor in bicycle fitting. Dr. Wendy Holliday, who is probably close to half my age, accepted me as a student in her bike fit program. I studied with two other students at her studio in Cornelius, North Carolina. 

It all started to come together. Bike Fitting allows me to help other cyclists, it allows me to satisfy my curiosity with never ending research and experimentation. It incorporates my mechanical skills. Two things come to mind when I think about where I am now. There is a quote that says something like “Do what you love and you will never work a day in your life”. And I remember Robert Frost noting “My vocation is my avocation”. 

That is what I have found in this pursuit of mine. It’s late in my life, but I’ve arrived. Every bike fit I do is a passion project for me and it’s backed by education, knowledge, experience, and a genuine desire to get more people riding and loving it. Whether you want to ride once or twice I a week to stay in shape, ride to recover from surgery or injury, ride faster to get to the top of the podium. I’m a cyclist,  a student, a fitter and this is my practice.