Seat height vs bar height?

[staceysue]

How high is your seat supposed to be, compared with your handlebars?

I just raised the seat an inch yesterday (think it was too low) They're about even now - of course the drops are lower than the seat. Now it seems like maybe I should be tilting the seat forward a little, though - new type of coochie pressure.

I want to get into that super racing position. It looks like a lot of fun. Unfortunately the bars are as low as they'll go and I can't raise the seat any higher. I wonder - could I put platforms on my pedals? Ride with platform shoes? hehehe

I want to ride in that super racing position.

You know what would be really cool? If you had a bike with a really high seat and really low bars, with the pedals way back. It would be like flying.

[Becky]

It's a matter of personal preference. The tops of my bars are an inch or so below my saddle. I can ride with them lower, but not for any length of time. For me, this is a good compromise between efficiency and comfort.

And yes, my saddle is tilted down ever so slightly to help relieve pressure on the girly bits. Not too far though, or I slide forward and put too much weight on my hands.

[Cataboo]

staceysue, you can drop the handlebars by putting a different stem on your bike - either one with a lower rise, or 0 rise. You may be able to just flip the stem over that you have on it to give it a negative rise... Are you riding in your drops or on your hoods? riding in the drops will make you a little bit lower.

My bikes all have my saddle even or slightly higher than my handlebars... It's nicer on my wrists not having it lower.

My handlebars sort of have an dip to them at the sides where the drops are - and I've found that I can kinda lay/stretch myself forward, rest my forarms in that little dip and get in a fairly aero tuck without using aerobars. It's more comfortable than when I had aerobars on my bikes. So I do that going downhills or if I'm really trying to crank.

[staceysue]

Thanks for the quick responses!

I'm always switching around. I switch between the clip-on aerobars and the hood mostly. There's something uncomfortable about the angle of my drops. As soon as I go into my aerobars from my hood, my speed increases by 2-3 mph without any extra effort on my part, and it makes it easy to put in the extra effort so I really end up giving myself a good workout.

I wonder if I could post a picture of my stem on here and you could tell me if it's possible to get it any lower.

[jusdooit]

Your seat height should not be determined by it's relationship to handlebar height. You could be setting yourself up for knee problems. Your seat height should be such that your legs are almost fully extended at the bottom of your pedal stroke. To get a more aggressive riding position go for a negative rise stem. I recommend consulting your LBS for these adjustments so youdon't compromise overall fit and comfort.

[Cataboo]

Thanks for the quick responses!

I'm always switching around. I switch between the clip-on aerobars and the hood mostly. There's something uncomfortable about the angle of my drops. As soon as I go into my aerobars from my hood, my speed increases by 2-3 mph without any extra effort on my part, and it makes it easy to put in the extra effort so I really end up giving myself a good workout.

I wonder if I could post a picture of my stem on here and you could tell me if it's possible to get it any lower.

Post a pic, so we can see your bike anyways

[staceysue]

Post a pic, so we can see your bike anyways

OK - I'll go see if I can find my camera battery recharger and get out there and get a picture of my lovely Lexi.

[staceysue]

Lovely Lexi and Edith



Close-up of Lexi's stem

[Cataboo]

staceysue,

You can probably flip that stem over.... Or you have a lot of spacer rings underneath your stem.... If you take the stem off, take out some of those spacer rings, put the stem back on... then put the spacer rings on top of it - you can drop the handlebars... but you're then going to have a bump sticking out right there... which is not ideal if you're bending over into your aerobars. But it will let you try out various positions to see what you like.

so if you do want your handlebar dropped long term, you can get your fork cut or shortened so that it doesn't stick up so high.

Pretty pretty bikes. Lexie's handlebars seem to be rotated upwards with the shifters tilting back towards you... if you loosen the connection at the handlebar to the stem, you can let them drop a bit so that they're more level and then the drops will probably feel more natural to you. (you'll probably have to rotate the aerobars level as well when you do that.)

If you decide to shift the stem around... make sure to tighten it back up in the right order. tighten the bolt up at the top of your fork first - then tighten the 2 bolts on the side of the fork... And after tightening everything, stick the front wheel of your bike between your legs and grab the handlebar and try to steer it.... if you don't have it tight enough, the handlebar will move independently of the wheel and that's really bad if you're biking.

[staceysue]

Thanks, Catriona! I really appreciate your help. Maybe some time I'll get somebody to take a picture of me riding it and you can give me even more great tips!

I've enjoyed riding so much already - I hope I don't get everything so out of whack that it won't be fun anymore. But I do want to ride in a better position so I'll give it a whirl. If I get it all out of whack I'll head on in to the bike shop.

[Becky]

+1 to everything that Catriona said. The position of your bars looks a little awkward to me, but that's easily fixed.

I might even think about moving the shifters themselves down, but that requires untaping the bars partway and retaping them.

Take all of this with a grain of salt- I sometimes have trouble judging these things from pictures.

ETA: You might want to see if the shop would help you make some adjustments. It's sometimes easier to have someone else tweak things while you're riding the bike in a trainer.

[Cataboo]

Just make small changes one at a time, ride with it and see how it goes...

That way you can always undo whatever you did if you don't like that. If you develop pain or anything like that, consider getting a fitting done.

[staceysue]

Thanks!

Hey - by the way - I was just looking at the picture of the bike in BikePedia: http://www.bikepedia.com/QuickBike/B...%27s&Type=bike and the picture I posted above, and it looks like different wheels? Mine have fewer spokes.

[OakLeaf]

Just make small changes one at a time, ride with it and see how it goes...

That way you can always undo whatever you did if you don't like that. If you develop pain or anything like that, consider getting a fitting done.

+1

And +1 on the bars being rotated oddly, but maybe you did that to bring the shifters closer to you? Which means that if you want to put the shifters where they're comfortable and have the bars rotated so that you can ride in the drops, you'll need to re-tape the bars anyway.

The good news about that is that you only need to re-tape above the shifters. I just did it myself, in fact. Before you unwrap the handlebars, put masking tape just below the shifters - low enough so that you'll be able to re-position the bit of tape right against the clamp, but high enough so that it holds the tape in place and you're not unwrapping any more than you have to. The hardest part to tape is the ergo bump, and you won't have to do that if you don't unwrap them.

[staceysue]

+1

And +1 on the bars being rotated oddly, but maybe you did that to bring the shifters closer to you? Which means that if you want to put the shifters where they're comfortable and have the bars rotated so that you can ride in the drops, you'll need to re-tape the bars anyway.

The good news about that is that you only need to re-tape above the shifters. I just did it myself, in fact. Before you unwrap the handlebars, put masking tape just below the shifters - low enough so that you'll be able to re-position the bit of tape right against the clamp, but high enough so that it holds the tape in place and you're not unwrapping any more than you have to. The hardest part to tape is the ergo bump, and you won't have to do that if you don't unwrap them.

I bought it used and the handlebars/shifters came like that. I do really like where the shifters are.

So - do I need more handlebar tape before I start this mess? The shifters are on top of the tape . . . .

I'm getting a little intimidated by this whole process. I am seeing myself sitting there surrounded by tape and handlebars and pieces, not knowing where everything's got to go . . .