My road bike does not fit. Help.

[roguedog]

Xeney,

I'm kinda a newb so definately take what I say with a palm of salt.

It looks like you've tried many things with a decent amount of awareness of what you're doing and with each change assessed its possible impact to your biomechanics.

However, I wonder if at this point it might not be wise to bring a professional fitter to help assess the best way to either fit you without hurting yourself in someway you won't know for years or to take it a very reputable, trusted bike shop that is known for doing good fittings before you toss out the bike as whole?

I know you're in Sac area so, I've heard good things about this guy, http://www.revolutionsinfitness.com/ if you can find your way to come down to Oakland one day. He's a PT who specializes in cycling coaching and also does fittings. I've read he's well reputed and I believe that Snapdragon has used him with happy results. I am also possibly considering him, not because my bike doesn't fit but that I want to be sure that the fitting done at my bike shop truly fits who I am as a rider not their transferance or interpretation of their experiece. For instance, the guy who fit me was an ex-racer. I don't expect to be racing.. hmm.. probably never so I don't know if he put me in a racing position might hurt me somewhere. It's just a bit of check n' balance for my own peace of mind.

Anyway, as to bike shops, this is pure hearsay but I've heard that Ken's Bike and Ski in Davis (Go Aggies!!) is a reputable shop. Haven't ever used them myself and probably just peeked in curiously when I was a poor student and wondered about all the crazy people who would pay that much for a bike when my $30 UCD auction bike was fine. (And it was STILL stolen!)

Long ramblings from a complete ignoramus.

Best of luck

[xeney]

Thanks. Yeah, a professional fitting is definitely the next step, although I really can't go all the way to the Bay Area to do it. My husband had a custom fitting from a local bike shop and it was a joke, unfortunately. I have heard that Steve Rex does custom fittings for about $100, so I will probably do that next. The setback/seatpost issue is not one that I think can be fixed, though. I just don't know how close is "good enough" there.

[Brandi]

I unfortunatly have been in the same bike seat as you!
I bought a bike three years ago, my first real bike and didn't know exactly how it would feel and like you it never felt right. I was always having problems here and there.
My husband has become a techno bike guy in three years and realized it wasn't me but my bike, it was to big for me and my reach was way out there. He built me a new one. I was going to sell my other bike, but decided to keep it for when people come to visit. We live in a great biking town so it made sence to keep it. But maybe sence your bike is not that old you could sell it and buy a new one.
I also noticed that the more I bike the less my knee's (which I have problems with too) bother me these days. They bother me more when I don't bike.

[Triskeliongirl]

I understand your problem, as I too have very long femurs. For me, I have to buy bikes with 73 degree seat tubes AND use a very laid back seat post to get set up properly. I believe the veloces have pretty steep seat tube angles. For example, at the bianchi site they say the STA on a 53 cm veloce is 75. Roughly, for every 1 degree increase in STA, your saddle will be 1 cm more forward. So, if you had a bike with a 73 degree seat tube angle, you'd buy yourslef 2 cm. Couple this with a very laid back seatpost, and you're OK, even with your Brooks Saddle. For example, my Brooks is fine with an alpha ! carbon seatpost on a 73 STA bike. That is why I ride terry bikes. They are one of the only companies to use 73 degree STAs on the smaller sized frames. BUT, because you have long femurs, you also probably have a shorter upper body, so a 55 cm bike would be too large. I need a bike smaller than my leg measurement predicts to the get the right top tube length. Again, I have done really well with terry bikes. Cervelos also have a 73 STA in all sizes, and might work for you, but they are mucho money.

[xeney]

Wow, looking around, there really aren't many bikes with seat tube angles under 75 (or 74.5, which I am assuming would not give me much improvement). Even the women-specific models tend to have 75 degree angles except in the very tiny sizes.

It also sounds like I would need a 51 or a 53? Argh. I tried a couple in that size range two years ago -- a Specialized Dolce, and a Cannondale -- and they were both way too small. Even though my reach is shorter than a man's, I'm not sure it's quite as short as some women's. My husband is two and a half inches taller than I am, but his shoulder-to-fingertip measurement is only about an inch longer; we have the same inseam so he does have a couple of inches on me in the upper body but I think a lot of women have more dramatic proportion issues than I do.

I guess I am just going to try to make this one work for now. In order to get the angle I think I need I have to spend a lot more money than I can afford at the moment. I may spring for the custom fitting and see how close we can get it, and then if it's still too uncomfortable I'll rethink whether road cycling is something I can even afford to do.

Thanks for your help, everyone.

[mimitabby]

i have a cheapo fix that might help you at least with the brakes. They make these little levers that you can put on your bars... then you don't have to reach the hoods to get to the brakes. I know what you're going through; it is awful how hard it is for gals to find a bike that they can ride comfortably!

Yes, i got the Eva handlebars... if they didn't do the trick i was going to get
the little levers..

[xeney]

Oh, hey, the 3T Eva bars? My husband had suggested something like that but I couldn't find anything that looked right. (I have really wide shoulders and the only women-specific handlebars I could find were for narrow shoulders.) Thank you for the suggestion, Mimi.

[SadieKate]

Anyway, as to bike shops, this is pure hearsay but I've heard that Ken's Bike and Ski in Davis (Go Aggies!!) is a reputable shop. Haven't ever used them myself and probably just peeked in curiously when I was a poor student and wondered about all the crazy people who would pay that much for a bike when my $30 UCD auction bike was fine. (And it was STILL stolen!)

If you decide to spring for a fitting, go to Steve Rex in Sac or ask for Joe at Wheelworks in Davis.

Ken's is a fine shop but Wheelworks is the serious, roadie geek, fit down to the mm type shop. If you have fit quirks, you need the kind of knowledge Steve or Joe has.

Xeney, I've never seen you. Sometimes, people just don't fit on stock bikes. In your case, due to your budget, you may want to pay for a fitting and get all your numbers, and then ask for the shop's assistance in helping you track down a used bike or serve as a fitter for whatever you can find used. This means a good relationship with the shop that does the fitting. After your fitting, the fitter might be able to steer you toward a particular brand and model that might work.

[Bad JuJu]

When I bought my Terry, the shop didn't have the size I thought I needed either. But Terry works really well with local shops, and my LBS was able to get the size I wanted to try without my having to definitely say I'd buy it. So you might either talk to the shop manager/owner or email Terry and ask about their working with your LBS.

I'm pretty short, but still I've ended up being comfortable on bikes shorter than my height predicts, because my legs are not long, but proportionally long compared to the rest of my body, and my torso and functional reach are incredibly short. All this is by way of seconding what jenxxs said about size. Good luck, Xeney--I really hope you find a road bike that fits--and that you can afford.