Touring Bike to Road Bike

[bikerHen]

I switched from riding a comfort bike to a road bike about three weeks ago. Going from a VERY upright position to the forward position has been tough on my old body. I love my new ride but it is taking some getting use to. I ride on top or the hoods only. The drops won't be happening for a while. I definitely need to be thinking about upper body training! I also had brake levers install on top. I brake on top and shift from the hoods. I feel the most stability when riding on the hoods. I'm not sure if it's the riding position, a lighter bike or those skinny little tires that make for a somewhat scary ride. It's kinda like driving on ice, no sudden moves. The first week every ride was a love/hate/scared thing. But love has prevailed as I find I'm ride more and longer. When I hit a long stretch of road and just hunker down and pedel . . . it's wonderful. It's about a 10 mile ride to my LBS and I have been making that my Monday AM ride for tweeks and adjustments. This was the bike that was the most comfortable, but it/I still need lots of little adjustments. I did have a taller handle bar stem put on and that helped a lot. So go for a fitting and keep up the short rides. Hopfully everything will mesh for you. bikerhen

[emily_in_nc]

What Grog said! It is excellent advice that you go for a professional bike fitting. It's entirely possible that the bike is a frame size too large for you (top tube too long). Or, it may simply be that you need to give yourself time to get used to the different position. As she said, you might require a stem change, though Terrys come with short stems to begin with so if the bike is too long for you, it may be a top tube problem, in which case, you might have to cut your losses and sell the bike.

One thing that is curious to me. If you ride a Terry Classic in a small size such that you have a model with the 24" wheel (the 16", 17.5", and 19" frames are all configured this way, I believe), then I am surprised that your new/old/vintage Terry road bike does not also have a 24" front wheel. It was my understanding that smaller-sized Terry frames have always been made this way. I have a 2001 Terry Isis (17.5" size) with the small front wheel, by the way. I could certainly be wrong, but there's a gal in my bike club with a quite old Terry Symmetry in the 17.5" size, and she has the small front wheel too. So, it's possible you got a larger sized frame. Sometimes buying used, the seller doesn't even know the exact frame size and you aren't buying the size you think. Although....since you mention toe overlap, that would only occur with a short top tube, so it is probably a smaller size....thinking out loud here....

When I went from a hybrid to my Terry, it felt very squirrely and weird at first, but with the short-reach Ultegra brake levers, I was able to ride in the hoods and drops pretty quickly and comfortably. After about a month of cycling regularly, I was quite comfortable on the bike. So, you may just need to give it more time...but a fitting is smart no matter what, especially since you're new to road riding.

Good luck and please keep us posted!

Emily

[CorsairMac]

is there a "softer" place somewhere around that you can ride in for awhile also? ...like a park? You might feel less nervous if there was a softer landing for you in case something just didn't work right. If worse comes to worse and you just don't like being dropped down like that, you can always replace the handlebars for something more upright - make it more like a hybrid.