How does my bike fit me?

[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 .

[Heifzilla]

I froze to death and got more pics And, no one looks good in a bike helmet, do they? And man, this is not a flattering angle for me

[VeloVT]

Heifzilla, I order you to stop fussing about how you look.

I don't know, the seat height doesn't look SO far off in these pictures, though you're a bit shy of 6:00 in both photos... Again, I'm no expert, but it looks within range... other opinions?

I'm thinking I stick with what I said about maybe trying a stem that has less rise though.

I'll be interested to hear other responses.

[Heifzilla]

Heifzilla, I order you to stop fussing about how you look.

I don't know, the seat height doesn't look SO far off in these pictures, though you're a bit shy of 6:00 in both photos... Again, I'm no expert, but it looks within range... other opinions?

I'm thinking I stick with what I said about maybe trying a stem that has less rise though.

I'll be interested to hear other responses.

I can't help it

As for the stem, can you show me an example of one with less rise? I don't even know where to look Thanks.

[ZenSojourner]

Heifzilla, I don't know, the seat height doesn't look SO far off in these pictures, though you're a bit shy of 6:00 in both photos... Again, I'm no expert, but it looks within range... other opinions?

It looks different than the first picture. I think the seat is a little further forward now than it was. I can't tell if it's positioned correctly fore and aft but it's different.

Here are some links to bike fit if you want to see illustrations of how to make the adjustments you're working on. The last one in particular is to a series of videos specifically about fitting a hybrid.


http://www.jimlangley.net/crank/bikefit.html
http://mikesbikes.com/page.cfm?PageID=22&tipid=30
http://www.ehow.com/video_2363020_hy...eight-fit.html

[Heifzilla]

It looks different than the first picture. I think the seat is a little further forward now than it was. I can't tell if it's positioned correctly fore and aft but it's different.

I didn't move it, so unless it moved by itself it is in the same exact spot it was earlier.

Thanks for the link to the videos. I have watched them and there was one I thought that said a weight hung down from my nose was supposed to be about an inch from the handlebars (or maybe it was in one of those other links...I saw these in another thread you replied to). My nose is not an inch away from the handlebars, so I was a little confused about that.