Happy is an innovator and internationally recognized expert in the field of bikefit.
As a former competitive cyclist he started his professional career in the sports industry. This led to a position at Peterson Laboratories in Lake Placid, NY, home of the US Olympic training center. Working alongside former ski racer Bill Peterson, who was among the first to design a line of sports-specific foot orthotics for competitive athletes, Happy Freedman had the opportunity to help develop a commercial cycling-specific insert in 1986. In marketing this device, he trained physicians and pedorthists in the proper application and use, and fabricated orthotics for elite athletes.
Ben Serotta invited Happy to join the faculty of his then fledgling bikefit school in Saratoga Springs, NY, to teach a course on Advanced Biomechanics and Bikefit. Today, many of the top bikefitters around the world have completed bikefit programs developed by Ben Serotta.
Living in New York City, coaching individual bike racers, Happy was invited to coach the Columbia University Cycling Team, competing in the ECCC Division I, where he had the privilege to lead his squad to qualify for nationals for the next ten years.
While at Columbia, he was offered a position in a non-surgical foot and ankle practice at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York City, a leader in non-invasive treatments for foot and ankle injuries by providing biomechanical corrections to help speed healing and reduce the risk of re-occurrence. Working there for over ten years, he was exposed to a variety of foot pathologies and their treatments, and worked with a large patient population including professional athletes from a wide range of sports.
He brings this knowledge and experience to his new position in the office of Prosthetics and Orthotics in the Rehabilitation Department at HSS, where he is working on developing a state-of-the-art Bikefit Lab, to be used for performance and clinical bikefitting as well as research.
Since its inception in 2011, Happy Freedman has also been an active member of the faculty of the Medicine of Cycling Conference held annually in Colorado Springs at the Olympic Training Center and USA Cycling, participating in panels in bikefit and teaching a class in the Medical Emergencies program of the conference. He is a co-author of the Consensus Statement on Bikefit that has been produced by a task force from the MoCC.
For Happy Freedman, bikefit is a profession and a passion. He treats every new bikefit as a puzzle to be solved, focusing on the specific needs of the individual rider. In addition to his expertise in fitting road bikes, he has also worked with ranked tri-athletes and mountain bikers. In helping to establish a Bikefit Lab at HSS, the #1 ranked orthopedic hospital in the United States, Happy looks forward to creating a synergy between the cycling and medical communities, advancing the science and art of bikefit.
