Seat height vs bar height?

[Cataboo]

Oakleaf, you're more skilled than I - I always just tug it down all the way - just makes it easier to see what I'm doing.

[staceysue]

OK - I'm back from a very exhilarating ride.

Thank you very, very much for all of this awesome information. Honestly - you people are the greatest. I didn't move the shifters yet, but when I do I'm going to have this thread right in front of me.

I took out two of the spacers from below the bars and put them above, rotated the bars, and then fixed the aerobar. I took it for a nice ride and stopped about 3 times to make adjustments along the way. I'm thinking I still want to raise the seat a little and maybe drop the bars more. It's feeling so much better than before - much more enjoyable to ride. Thrilling, actually. I think it can still get a little better, though.

My knees just touch my elbows when they come up. It feels comfortable to me but I'm wondering if it means I need to move my seat back a little. When my legs are extended, there's still a bit of a bend to them.

I'm much more comfortable in the saddle now - like I'm not sitting in it so heavily. Part of it is that my legs are getting stronger and I'm riding in slightly higher gears, and part of it is that I'm leaning forward more and putting more weight on my hands.

Here's a picture after the adjustments.

[Cataboo]

OK - I'm back from a very exhilarating ride.

That's awesome! You should have a very slight bend to your knee when your leg is full extended - have your foot flat and ankle not pointed...

as for whether your seat needs to go backwards or forward, I'll let someone else tell you how you're supposed to know what's the right spot - something about dropping a line from your knee to the pedal. (Someone on here has posted it on 80 million threads) I usually find that when I'm riding, I shift my butt to the right spot... if I find that I'm keeping my butt to the back of the seat or going off the end, it usually means, okay, the seat needs to be push backed. But I almost always have my seat all the way back on a setback seatpost because i like a slack seattube angle. I think lemonds are supposed to have slack seattubes in general.

The shifters look like they're in a much more natural position now - can you use the drops now?

[staceysue]

The shifters look like they're in a much more natural position now - can you use the drops now?

The drops feel GREAT now. Thanks!

I was scooting back a bit, so I went ahead and moved my seat back a little - I'll find out tomorrow if it works.

[OakLeaf]

Oakleaf, you're more skilled than I - I always just tug it down all the way - just makes it easier to see what I'm doing.

No, maybe we just don't have the same brifters. On my R700s you can actually see a lot more of the channel and bolt if you pull the hood only from the side. Pulling it from the top puts a lot of tension on it that keeps it from pulling away from the side where the bolt is located.

Plus, it's such a PITA to get it back on if you pull from the top. I had to try it just now, to see.


Glad you're making progress staceysue!

Re: knees/elbows, you want to set your saddle fore/aft position based on your knees' relationship to the pedals. Where your elbows fall isn't relevant to your saddle position. When you're in the drops, your knees may be inside your elbows at the top of the pedal stroke. If they're not inside but actually overlapping so that they hit uncomfortably, maybe think about either wider bars, or bringing your knees in closer.

[staceysue]

Re: knees/elbows, you want to set your saddle fore/aft position based on your knees' relationship to the pedals. Where your elbows fall isn't relevant to your saddle position. When you're in the drops, your knees may be inside your elbows at the top of the pedal stroke. If they're not inside but actually overlapping so that they hit uncomfortably, maybe think about either wider bars, or bringing your knees in closer.

My knees are coming inside my elbows and it feels great. Now - how are the knees supposed to line up with the pedals?

[VeloVT]

Everyone is different, but I would say you've rotated your bars too far in the other direction. A line extending from the end of the drops would now point up -- and in most set-ups with anatomic (rather than round) bars it would point slightly down (not horizontal). I would be a little worried that your wrists would be breaking in the opposite direction, rather than being in a neutral positions. Also I would think the ramps and the especially the bottom part of the drops might be pretty uncomfortable now (it's sometimes nice to be able to hold the ends of the drops getting started sprinting, for instance, and they don't look like they'd be comfortable in that position). Just my .02.

I also wonder if you are wanting to rotate your bars down that far (i.e. get the hoods farther away) if you might not really be wanting a longer stem.

[Kano]

Rather than moving the saddle back, try making it more level to help with the "scooting back" you noticed. In the more recent picture, it looks to me like the nose is tilted WAY down?

The next fun change to make is clipless pedals. You want to feel more power? Add the up stroke to your arsenal!

Karen in Boise

[KnottedYet]

There are lots of ways to make a bike that's a bit too small fit well, keep experimenting! Like Liza said, you can get a longer reach stem to place the bars out farther; and if you can't get the saddle back any farther on the rails but you still feel like you want to be even farther back there is the option of a seatpost with more set-back.

Neither stems nor seat-posts are terribly expensive, and are worth it to get the fit dialed in. (We've all done the fit dance, some-times folks sell their various stems and such in the For Sale section. http://forums.teamestrogen.com/forumdisplay.php?f=58 It's a good way to get parts fairly cheap.)

[jusdooit]

It still looks to me as though the stem could be flipped over. Does anyone else see this? +1 on nose of seat being tilted down too far.

[VeloVT]

I agree on the saddle tilt looking extreme, also. This can cause its own problems (more weight than might be desireable on hands, extra friction on seat from sliding forward and pushing back, etc). In general if you need an extreme tilt to your saddle, it usually indicates that it's either the wrong saddle for you or there's another fit problem going on.