Bike Fitting Problems Longish

[Chicken Little]

Yup, bring that stem up, and from looking, I think you can move your saddle very slightly forward. If I dropped a plumb line, I think that your knee is a little behind the axle on the pedal. (Anybody feel free to correct me here). I would try that for starters, then lower the seat slightly, then consider the stem changes, starting with an 80mm.

Keep in mind that any change feels better... for a while. This will take some fiddling to get right.

It's easier to make a small bike bigger, than a big bike smaller. You'll get this.

[Chicken Little]

Staring at the pictures while drinking coffee this morning, I'm wondering if you would benefit from a shorter reach bar, such as the Poco Salsa, etc. Get those hoods a little closer to you, without a stem change. Can you tilt the bars up slightly without loosing your ability to brake in the hoods?

Wish you were across the street....

[Cataboo]

What were you riding before? How you're pushing your seat back makes me think that this bike probably has a steeper seat tube angle than you're used to - a lot of small bikes and WSD shorten the reach by rotating the seat tube forward. For whatever reason, I hate it, and am really unhappy if i'm on something with a 74-75 degree seat angle. I tend to try to get bikes with a 73 or 73.5 and I still run a seatpost with a setback.


If your inseam is 27.5 inches, I think you probably didn't need a WSD.

[hid558]

My seatangle based on site brand is a 76 angle maybe that is the problem.

[hid558]

I've tried looking for bikes with a 73 degree angle but dont seem to find any in my size, at least with my standover height. I was looking at the Cervelo r3 which has a 72.5 degree for a 48 cm, but don't know if a 51.5 top tube would be too streched out. I have a short torso but do have long arms.

[OakLeaf]

If I were you, the first thing I'd try is just raising the bars.

You've got some room on your steerer tube. Put the top spacer below the stem instead of above it. The cap nut is what loads the headset bearings, so if you haven't worked with bearings before, ask your LBS or an experienced friend to do it (and show you how it feels, so you can do it yourself next time).

It's possible you might have to replace your cables and housings, but odds are you've got enough slack (and that's a potential issue any time you change the handlebar position).


Also, it looks like your handlebars are rotated down toward the front quite a bit. Try rotating them up a little (so the drops are parallel to the ground, at least, maybe even a little higher). You might be able to position the brifters higher on the bend, as well (which requires re-taping, but only above and immediately below the brifters; it's very easy if you don't unwind the tape all the way, and just put a rubber band around the tape to keep it from loosening below the brifters).


Last - how's your core strength? Your arms are very stretched out, but your back is kind of high. What happens when you bend your elbows?

[arielmoon]

Good for you for posting pics!

My first thought was that the bike looks small and you look compressed. What I mean is that your upper body is quite upright and it causes the straight arms. If you wanted to assume a more aggressive, less wind resistant position, you could try a longer stem that would allow you to tilt your pelvis more toward the front of the saddle, thereby lowering your back, which then allows you to have bend in your elbows. This does require good core muscles though!

However, that being said, you may be more comfortable in more upright posture and the advise from the others is spot on.

Just my 2 cents. A longer stem did the trick for me. Trying to get lower and not having the room to do so, had me all messed up.

[Cataboo]

I've tried looking for bikes with a 73 degree angle but dont seem to find any in my size, at least with my standover height. I was looking at the Cervelo r3 which has a 72.5 degree for a 48 cm, but don't know if a 51.5 top tube would be too streched out. I have a short torso but do have long arms.

Oh, I don't mean that you should give up on the bike or that you necessarily need a 73 degree one - I assume if you ride it, you'll get used to a 76 degree seat angle. I just thought it might be different from what you're used to... 76 degrees does seem to be awfully steep. What is the situation with the bike shop? Are you still in a 30 day period where you can return the bike and get another or are you pretty much stuck with this one?

to a certain extent, if you've just started riding, you probably need to work on your core strength a bit - the first year I was riding, I was constantly tweaking something on the bike to compensate for some pain - but as I got stronger, what used to give me pain was perfectly fine. So your back/abdomen muscles probably just need to adjust to the new positions.

Okay wrist pain - is your seat angled downwards? Are you sliding forward off the seat and using your hands to hold yourself back? Your seat should just be ever so slightly angled down in the front - enough to not stick up into your soft tissue, but not enough to make you slide forward and have to support yourself on your wrists.

Your back should eventually be strong enough so that you are not supporting yourself with your hands - your wrists are probably going to hurt if you are supporting yourself wiht your hands.

Wrist position - I usually make it so that my wrists are always in a neutral position - so they're not bent back towards me while on the handlebar or shifters - so you want your wrist to stay as straight as possible - and you want your elbows bent slightly, and to keep your grip on the handlebar loose - if you have your elbows locked, your grip locked, or your wrists bent back it will usually lead to pain of some sort. So you can adjust the rotation of the handlebars to make sure your wrists are straight when on the hoods or in the drops (depending on where you are most likely to ride) - make sure your shifters are adjusted so you can use them in that position.