Quote Originally Posted by elk View Post
...how will I know if the fit is right until I am acclimated to that position?
Elk, that's a huge question!

When I chose my Roubaix earlier this spring, I just trusted my "bike dude" -- I was coming from a similar bike to yours, the '06 Specialized Expedition, which is even more upright than the Globe, but my saddle had to be high -- so it came closer to the proportions of the Globe. So, yeah, I was changing ride position a LOT too. Bike dude said to ride it a couple of hundred miles to get used to the position before deciding that anything was "wrong" about it.

You may find that you need to develop more core strength. I did.

There were things that were intolerable -- my hands hurt at first, but figuring that was part of the getting used to it thing and my lousy core strength, I changed the gloves I was wearing first. I also changed out the saddle a couple of times. First thing I did when I got home was to swapp out my pedals -- had to have my clipless on my new bike! Then, still before riding it, I swapped the saddle from my Expedition to my Roubaix.

NOT a good solution -- My bottom was happy on that saddle riding the Expedition, but the new position on the new bike ....

So, there was another saddle search, and I'm pretty happy with the one I picked out, but have been wondering lately, since I've changed size a lot this summer, if I'm really on the right thing!

After a while, I did bring the bike in to talk with the bike dudes about a couple of things. We tweaked the height of the handlebars and we added some shims to the brakes so I could reach them better. That made a big improvement, but after a while, I thought about where my hands reached comfortably, and where I saw the guys on the Tour de France show had their hands. I had a new, shorter stem put on. I've been incredibly comfortable ever since!

All that said, probably the thing to do is trust that the guys who know what they're doing have done it for you, and see what gets better and what doesn't when you're out riding as you get used to the change!

Karen in Boise