Show us your mixte!

[Triskeliongirl]

Brooks saddles can be mighty uncomfortable when the rider is in an aggressively low aero/racing position. They tend to be most comfortable with a slightly more upright riding position in mind, so that your weight is largely back on your sitbones. If you have further trouble getting a Brooks to be comfy with your beautiful new bike, you may want to either try changing to a racing type saddle or changing body position by testing different bars. Just some thoughts. Squashed girly bits are no fun!
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Lisa, I think it depends on which brooks saddle you ride. Mine is the finesse, which is a racing saddle, and I have no problem keeping my bars lower than my saddle and hunkering down in the drops. I think its the opposite, as long as your weight is supported on your sit bones and not girly bits, then you can roll your pelvis forward without pain. In my experience, the only thing that keeps me doing that is a bike with too long a top tube. When the top tube is too long, I have to raise the bars to decrease the reach, but that doesn't mean the position is optimal.

Xeney, I think she looks perfect!

[xeney]

It's actually a pretty upright ride -- very short cockpit there. No squashing of genitals. I have ridden a Team Pro on a much less upright road bike and that was the most comfortable saddle I've ever ridden. (And in fact I might put it on this one if I can get it back from my husband.)

I didn't choose the bars; he talked me into them, mostly for aesthetics. I wanted drop bars. I think these are gorgeous but they are going to take some getting used to -- the reach is fine, but steering is very different.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Lisa, I think it depends on which brooks saddle you ride. Mine is the finesse, which is a racing saddle, and I have no problem keeping my bars lower than my saddle and hunkering down in the drops. I think its the opposite, as long as your weight is supported on your sit bones and not girly bits, then you can roll your pelvis forward without pain. In my experience, the only thing that keeps me doing that is a bike with too long a top tube. When the top tube is too long, I have to raise the bars to decrease the reach, but that doesn't mean the position is optimal.

Oh, I see! I guess it's that I most often see complaints on TE about Brooks saddles squishing girly parts when women with racing bikes with really low bars try out the Brooks saddles. Seemed to me that they have the most problems getting comfy on Brooks. Maybe they would have done better with the Brooks Finesse?

I only have my limited experience- my bike has a top tube that's a bit too long for me, but it's also a more upright touring type geometry bike. I've always been comfy on it with my 2 Brooks saddles as far as that girly parts issue.

[Triskeliongirl]

What I have noticed is that when my reach is too long, that my body will scoot forward on my saddle to try and make up for it. That creates two problems. The first is that I may be so far forward that the saddle is no longer wide enough to support my sitbones where they hit, so the saddle supports the soft tissues instead. The second is that my knee falls too far forward of the pedal axle, reducing the leverage. So, for me the answer is a bike with proportional sizing, a top tube proportional to the seat tube. Sounds like a no-brainer, but often a problem on smaller sized bikes, as we have all discussed many times here, and why I ride terry bikes.

[KnottedYet]

I loved riding Trek420's mixte with the moustache bars, and really wanted a mixte of my own (mostly so I could put moustache bars on it, but also so I could look oh so gorgeous riding along)

Put moustache bars on my Surly Cross Check this weekend. Oh, man, what a cool set of bars! And on a bike that I already "knew", the difference in bars was amazing!

guess I should write a review?

(PS, I got steel bars. Dunno if it was the bar shape or the material, but the road buzz decreased by at least half in my hands!)

I still want a mixte, though...

[sandra]

Knot, how tall are you?

[KnottedYet]

Knot, how tall are you?

5 foot 8 inches.

[sandra]

will search for you a mixte.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

What I have noticed is that when my reach is too long, that my body will scoot forward on my saddle to try and make up for it.

That's weird. My bike's top tube is a bit too long for me, but it causes me to want to scoot BACK with my saddle a great deal to compensate for my center of gravity being too far forward.
I am counting on my next bike to correct all this.

[Triskeliongirl]

Ah, Lisa, if you are trying to scoot back, that is probably to get your knee properly aligned with the pedal axis. Women have longer femurs than men, so I also have my saddle set up on a seatpost with as much set back as I can get, and prefer a bike with a shallow seat tube angle (yet oddly many womens and smaller sized bikes have steep seat tube angles. ) But, once my saddle is set up correctly, I will still try to move too far forward if my forward reach is too long (i.e. top tube, stem and bars together are too long). I think you moved you saddle back after installing a shorter stem and a shorter reach bar cuz you had properly adjusted your reach so that you could sit correctly on the bike.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

It's all connected.
I've been told by my new custom builder that my femurs are long compared to my shins and total height- thus the issue....fairly common for women.
Actually, I started with a 9 stem, then went to 5, then backed up to 7, which is about as good as I can dial in on my bike given all the other variables. And yes, a shallow seat tube angle is good for me.

[Triskeliongirl]

Yeh, cuz what I remember is you talked about pushing back after shortening your stem and bars, which is a good thing. But you are right, balance on the bike is important too, which is why even if the reach was better on the really short stem the handling may not have been. Obviously custom will take care of all of this for you. So excited to hear how you like her when she is done. Is the idea that the new bike will replace, or complement your ramboullet, i.e. will she be designed to carry stuff or be a go fast bike? You often talk about racing bikes as if they aren't comfortable. To me, if the bike fits you, it will be comfortable. If the bike is light, it will go fast. If the bike is strong, it can carry stuff. I personally think that if the frame geometry fits your body, then by swapping subtle things likes tires/wheelsets, the same bike can be used for go fast riding or light touring. But going light weight can make all the difference in the world for improving speed. As long as she uses one of the newer steels that are both strong and light weight (high strength to weight ratio), the bike should be able to do anything. That is how I feel about my reynolds 853 steel terry travel isis.