Thanks, Emily. I will check the knee position with a weight. That may help me understand why it also feels like I have lost some stroke power. I would bet my knees were slightly behind the spindle on my old bike because that's sure where they feel like they want to be now. (I do have my old bike because I love it so much and I am often tempted just to go back to it but I'm going to give this FS a good go because it was such a lovely gift from my husband in spite of the fact that I spend much less time with him when I'm most happy on my bike - maybe he likes it that way? I digress).
Irulan you must know how I feel because you used perfect words. Laid out flatter is how I used to feel on my old bike and 'sit up and beg' is a perfect description of my body on my new bike -which is a medium frame. Will this really make me more stable in the long run?
Maybe it's just that I trusted my old bike - I believed I could push it through and over anything and I don't trust the feel of this bike yet. Even so, I still need a lot of technical advice. On my hard tail I could get down the technical stuff by getting my butt back and squeezing my seat with my thighs for stability. I keep trying to do the same thing but I end up with my butt pretty much on my back wheel and my thighs end up underneath the seat - it's not very pretty or very stable! Maybe I just don't know how to ride a FS.
I'm in Wyoming and I appreciate being able to connect through this forum and I'm grateful for the help already!!