Seat height vs bar height?

[staceysue]

Wow - this bike fitting is a lot of work!

My saddle feels great, but maybe I tilted it down too far. I had to tilt it down a little when I put my handlebars lower because of the new pressure it was creating in front of the girly bits. I'll try it up a little.

So - there's a stem that will make the handlebars further away from me? That sounds like something I'd be interested in.

Jusdooit - what's this about flipping the stem over? What would that do?

KnottedYet - thanks for the link. I'm going to check it out!

[jusdooit]

Remove the handlebar by removing the four screws on the front of the stem and let the stem gently rest on your front tire (if it will reach, otherwise it will hang). Then take the stem apart like you did to take out the spacers. Take the stem itself and turn it over so the top is now the bottom. Put the stem back on the bike as you did before. Reattach the handlebar.You should now have a "negative" angle to your stem. A way to tell if it is at a positive angle before taking it apart is to use a straight edge (ruler) and line it up with stem where it attaches to the bike. Extend the ruler length towards the handlebar and if the stem rises above the ruler it has a positive rise and you should flip it over. If it falls below the rulers edge you have a negative rise and should leave it. If it's easier to tell after you take it apart just rest the part of the stem that attaches to the bike on a flat surface. It's pretty easy to see the angle that way.
Hope this helps. Happy riding.

[jusdooit]

So - there's a stem that will make the handlebars further away from me? That sounds like something I'd be interested in.

Meant to answer this in last post. Stems come in various lengths and angles. If you're lucky it will be stamped on the stem. If not, you can measure it (in mm). I don't recommend making big changes in this at one time, 10mm is very noticeable. If it's the stock stem it is probably 100mm. See if you can find it in specs about the bike online (bikepedia?). You can get a quality stem for $40-50.

[staceysue]

Thanks, jusdooit. I'll flip the stem over tomorrow. I just got back from a ride - fixed the seat and handlebars. I'll wait on getting a longer stem, because right now I don't know how it's supposed to feel and I don't want to waste the $ until I know what I'm doing.