Evil bike..?

[Popoki_Nui]

I swear this bike is evil, or hates me, or something. I just don't get it: it's the lightest bike in my fleet, and should be the fastest. It has nice 700c x 23 road tires, decent enough running gear (Shimano 600), and weighs a whopping 19 pounds. Nice wide range freewheel.
Yet the longer I ride it, the heavier and slower it gets. Honestly....I can't figure this out. By the time I've spent an hour or two on it, it feels like forty pounds of lead pipe on concrete wheels. I bought it as an unrideable wreck, and spent ages rebuilding everything. All the bearings and new, well lubed and adjusted, and run smooth and free. No brake drag. Frame is straight and true. (Had some fender rub today, but it behaves the same with or without fenders) Everything's just fine mechanically, but at the end of almost every ride I swear I'm towing a hundred pound sled behind me. Today I was tempted to hurl it into the sea and walk home.
Anyone ever experience anything like this?? I am SO frustrated.....

~Sherry.

[xeney]

Does it fit? That's how my road bike felt when I got a new saddle that was less adjustable than my old one, and I wound up way too far forward over the cranks. It just felt pedaling through Jello or something!

[Popoki_Nui]

Does it fit? That's how my road bike felt when I got a new saddle that was less adjustable than my old one, and I wound up way too far forward over the cranks. It just felt pedaling through Jello or something!

Yep, the bike fits fine. When I rescued it from a junk pile, I took measurements of the frame dimensions and compared them to the measurements of my Gitane, just to make sure the bike was going to fit and hence worth restoring. The only differences are the rear triangle is a little shorter, and the fork rake is a little less, resulting in a shorter wheelbase. Otherwise, the frame is a good fit, and the saddle height and angle, stem and bar height are identical to my Gitane.
It's so weird: all my other bikes (mountain, road, cross) feel better the longer I ride them. This one is just the opposite.

[gnarwhal]

I think i'd have a good fiddle with the saddle if i were you...not sure what else to offer, except that my bike too is evil. In a slightly different manner though...it did this to me last week.

[Popoki_Nui]

I think i'd have a good fiddle with the saddle if i were you...not sure what else to offer, except that my bike too is evil. In a slightly different manner though...it did this to me last week.

Ouch! What happened??

edit: I have indeed adjusted the saddle (and replaced the one in the pic). For some reason, the bike just does not want to roll)

[DeniseGoldberg]

I could be wrong, but I believe that both the shorter rear triangle and the fork rake will change the feel of the bike. The fit may be correct, but you are probably comparing the feel of the bike to your other bikes and it sounds like the frame geometry is very different.

From an article by Sheldon Brown on bike frame materials:

Frame geometry. Generally, frames with longer chain stays, and less vertical seat-tube and head-tube angles are more comfortable. This doesn't make them any slower, but may reduce maneuverability (also known as twitchiness.)

I know that you weren't asking about frame materials but if you're interested in the full article, it can be found here.

There are probably some women here who are a lot more familiar with frame geometry and how it changes the handling of a bike - hopefully one of them will chime in here. Now I'm curious...