How does my bike fit me?

[VeloVT]

Are you wearing gloves? That might help with your hands.

I really don't otherwise feel qualified to weigh in on your fit. I'm much more familiar with how a road bike is supposed to fit; not a hybrid or MTB.

I'm basically with Indy, I don't have much knowledge about how hybrids are supposed to look.

But, two things that occur to me (and others can feel free to jump in and tell me I'm wrong ):

1-- looks like you could maybe raise your seat a hair? if I'm right about that, it will feel more efficient and who knows, maybe it could help with the foot numbness. also to my eye (which is not highly trained), you look a bit far forward from a KOPS perspective, so moving the seat back might not hurt either. (remember that height and setback offset each other though, so if you move up, move forward a little, or back less than you would have. maybe a clearer way of explaining it: if your seat is at the correct height for your position and you decide to move it back, you will also want to lower it a hair. if your seat is a little low already, and you move it back, you might still want to raise it, but less than you would have).

2 -- In another thread Oakleaf said something about longer stems sometimes helping to relieve wrist pain... again, I don't know anything about hybrid fit really, but just at a glance it looks like your wrists are bent a bit. I wonder if a stem with less rise that put you out a bit further might not put your wrists in a more neutral position. It's a toss-up, because that will also tend to put a bit more weight on your hands, which could exacerbate the problem... but it might be worth a try. This may be because I'm used to looking at road bikes, but the cockpit looks a bit cramped, and more space might actually increase your comfort.

A related question I had looking at your picture is the following: how does it feel when you stand to pedal? Do you feel unstable or like you're hanging out too far over your front axle? If so, a longer stem might help.

[Biciclista]

re Liza's post, how about a photo of you with your close leg fully extended?

[PamNY]

I second what Biciclista et al said about moving your hands around. This was one of the main things I learned as a noob. That plus I was tensing my shoulders which didn't help.

Your seat might be a little low (just a guess). You do look happy!

Pam

[newfsmith]

In the first photo it looks like your wrists are lower than the level of the bar. Usually, flat bar bikes are set up with the brake levers about 10 to 15 degrees below the horizontal plane so that when your finger are on the levers and palms on the bar your wrist is straight. This might be something your bike shop can help you with.

I would also encourage you to invest in some bar-ends, because they will let you put your hands in the more neutral "hand-shake" position at least part time while riding.

The other thing I notice is that it appears that you may be locking your elbows. I can't be sure because of the long sleeves. Try to make a conscious effort to relax your grip, keep your wrists straight and elbows slightly flexed. All much easier said than done. I often ride with one hand just touching the bar or even on my thigh to give the nerves a break.

Try different brands of gloves. For me the Specialized gloves work better than PI.

We do need another picture with you leg maximally straightened to better judge whether you need to raise/move your seat. The goal isn't to have a perfectly straight leg but with less angle than you are showing in any of the pictures on this round.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Loosen the velcro that closes around your gloved wrist- that used to make my hands numb even though it didn't 'seem' tightly closed.

Dont point your toes as your pedal comes back up- concentrate on relaxing your ankles so the your heels stay down more. Riding with pointed toes can put more pressure on the ball of the foot, causing numbness or foot pain. People who ride horses are always told to keep their heels down.

Relax your shoulders and your hand grip.

It does look almost as though your saddle is a tad low.
Aslo- it's hard to tell, but the sun/shadows make it look like you are sticking your elbows out to the sides- that would not help your hands. Keep shoulders and elbows down and relaxed.

[ZenSojourner]

I agree, the seat looks a little low. It's my experience that new riders usually think a seat at the proper height is too high. In fact I accidentally scared a friend who was thinking of getting a bike and going riding with me when she saw how high the seat is on my bike (it's actually higher than usual in proportion to the rest of the bike because I'm so short-waisted and long legged that in order to get the top tube short enough, my frame is just a little short for me for standover). She backed out so quick it left a vacuum, LOL!

Gloves that are too small will cause some numbness or pressure points, you might try the next size up. When I was thin I wore XS gloves or kids gloves; now that I'm *MRRRPH ahem* not so thin (cough cough) I wear a women's medium. That took more getting used to than going from a 2 to a 16. 18. 16. Well it varies a little.

Changing hand positions is really important for wrist and hand problems, that's why some people do better actually with road bikes than mt. bikes, a road bike offers so many different ways to hold on. Bar ends are probably a really good idea on your hybrid, as others have mentioned already.

[Heifzilla]

Wow, guys, thanks for the suggestions!

Ok, to address each thing...

I do wear fingerless gloves and I think the gel padding in the palm is causing me more issues than not. I am going to address that.

I have these grips on my bike as of this morning: http://www.ergonbike.com/us/grips/gr2.html and I am, and have been, constantly changing my hand position., shaking my hands out, wiggling fingers, etc.. Today's ride was much better with the new grips, by the end (11.5 miles on mostly trails) I didn't have numbness, but I did get that zing when I would bump my hands that tells me that my nerves were annoyed with me.

Now, I did mess around with the seat yesterday, I brought it forward and then back again (because it was *way* too far forward) and now I probably need to readjust the height. I think the first pic I posted is my fully extended leg shot, but I might be wrong. DH isn't home right now but I will get him to take another pic when he gets home and I will freeze just for all of you and not wear long sleeves, either, so you can see how my elbows look when I am riding. All in the name of science, right? I was actually noticing that they seemed turned out as I rode today. I will work on relaxing those. I was also thinking about how I missed being able to get down into the drops like I used to when I was a kid on my 12-speed (oh sooooo loooooong ago At some point I think I will look into new handlebars but I need to get more miles in so DH knows I am serious about riding. I, um, tend to get all zilla'd about something, spend $$$$ on it, and then it goes by the wayside.

My feet felt a lot better today, too. I got my new Keen Commuters and they are much stiffer than the tennis shoes I had been riding in. I have rat trap pedals and I think that the softer shoes were flexing too much and my feet were wrapping around the pedal (I also have very wide feet). I have considered switching to BMX platforms because they are much wider than the pedals I have and I think that would help, too.

Stem height. I have an old quill stem setup, so finding stems seems to be rather adventurous. Very few bike shops seem to carry them, and I am not really wanting to mail order everything. But I will check around and see what I can find and see if it helps any. I'm also considering getting one of those adapters that allows you to use the newer stems (threadless?) on what I have because that would really give me a lot more flexibility than I have right now.

I think my saddle is pretty comfy for me. It's wide enough so that my sit bones are actually on it (they straddled my old saddle....owie!) and I really don't even notice it when I am riding, and I don't have any butt pain after my rides.

Thank you guys SO much for your replies. I get the impression that DH thinks I am being a prima donna because I complain about the numbness and stuff, because he has never had any of these issues. I am sure that my weight doesn't help things, but part of the bike thing is to get my rear in gear and get some of this weight off, so I gotta find the comfort level where I am currently. It's nice to have a place to go where everyone is so helpful and not getting all sneery that some fat girl would dare get on a bike, yanno?

[VeloVT]

I totally get being hesitant to order parts online -- but since it can be hard to find quill stems, etc, I wanted to point you towards a website that has a huge selection of components including parts for older bikes. It's called "Alfred E. Bike" and the url is www.aebike.com. I've ordered a variety of parts (stems, bars, seatposts etc) from them and I've had a good experience. But I've never had to return anything, so I can't comment on that.

Good luck with everything .