First road-bike, fit question

quozl

Bit of a random question...

I've just built my first road-bike but I've never been on a drop-bar bike before.

It's feeling very pretty unstable and twitchy but I've only got to do a couple of k riding on it so far since finishing it last night.

Any opinions on if the fit (particularly reach) is about right for a road-bike? - I don't know anybody who cycles a drop-bar bike to ask, or even anybody who cycles anything much. The height is fine. It feels bizarre compared to my hybrid but I was expecting it to!

I actually raised the handle-bars by 3cm for these photos from where they were for my first ride on it.







I was leaning a bit further forward when actually riding but balancing against a door is tricky, you know.

Lumen

Looks OK, but fit is a lot about feel. You should feel relaxed in your joints (shoulders, neck, knees, hips) and within your natural range of motion rather than bashing against it.

The twitchiness is just because you have more weight on your hands.

aFlabbyPanda

Move the seat forward and shorten the stem maybe?

C3PO

The stem looks a bit too long to me but I would get the saddle position fore/aft correct before changing he stem. I would also think he bars are too high - I'm guessing you haven't cut the steerer at all?

Hatcho

One tip I was given when being fitted for my bike in the LBS was that the top section of the handlebars should block your view of the front axle perfectly when you have your hands on the hoods. Worked for me anyways....

quozl

I've not cut the steerer yet - waiting till I'm happy with the setup. I think you're right C3PO about the bars being too high - I've set them to their highest as a starting point as I guessed (?) that'd I could get used to that quicker and then lower them slowly over time. Dunno really!

The stem is 120mm/6 degree - if it comes to shortening the stem then I may try a 90mm/6 degree one. I've read a couple of places that suggested not to go below 90mm as it's too twitchy and probably just means you've got the wrong length top-tube. Hopefully I don't

I think that I could also get handlebars with shorter hoods on them, which could take an inch or more off the reach as well if it comes to it.

I got the 120mm stem as I figured it was a good place to start and it was <5euro delivered from CRC as they were trying to get rid of it. The handlebars were also the cheapest 44cm (centre-to-centre) wide ones I could get - 12 euro or so.

I'll try fiddling with the fore/aft of the saddle like Brian and C3PO suggest before I change anything to do with the stem. I have it a good inch further back than my hybrid saddle - I went for the middle as a starting point.

Thanks a lot for the help guys.

Glad to hear it looks in the ball-park anyway

High Nellie

I'd say shorten the stem and then ride for a while.

phobyrne

Have you considered going to a professional bike fitter. As there are so many variables, leg length, torso length shoulder angle hip angle etc it might be worth the extra few bob. I think the photo idea is good and give a good overall idea of position. Im looking at moving from a Trek hybrid and will definitely get a professional fitting. It could save a lot of injuries.

Zippe

I'd shorten the stem,move the shifters up a bit more to the top of the bars so they come back to you more and drop the stem down on the steer tube,set the tip of the saddle 4/5 cm behind the bb and when you pedal your leg should be almost straight but not locking your knee,a proper bike fit is worth the money,it looks on the big side to me but that down to the type of ridding your going to be doing,
What size frame have you got ?
What hight are you ?
What leg length ?

mirv

Shorten stem, move seat a bit forward. Decide on the rotation of the bar to be comfortable in the drops once you have seat and stem sorted. Then align shifters so you have a balance of easy reach of brake levers in both hoods and drops position.

Too many people running around with their bars and shifters pointed upwards so that they aren't able to brake comfortably in the drops. Ideally your wrist shouldn't need to crane upwards to reach the brake levers, and the lower part of the levers are vertical-ish. Shimano hoods are huge anyway so you shouldn't need to point them up that much.

quozl

Thanks lads.

The thread's from 1 week ago - so what I've done since is:

Moved seat forward - quite a bit, maybe 4cm?

Lowered handle-bars 3cm on steering tube.

Ordered a 90mm stem to replace the 120mm one.

Ordered a pair of Deda Elementi RHM01 compact handlebars.
They've got a 78mm reach instead of the 100mm of the Konas, and a 130mm drop instead of the 150.

I got the Konas as they were 12 euro delivered and I needed a cheap place to start from. The Deda handlebars are only 20euro and combined with the stem change I can shorten the reach by 5.2cm if I want. I also think I'll prefer the slightly shallower drops as a beginner. Will see - waiting for them to arrive and to try out the possible combinations.

I'm am thinking about getting a bike fit done but I want to get things in the ball-park first and have a better idea what it's like riding a drop-bar bike first. As it's about 150 euro IIRC, so I want to get the most from it.

mirv wrote: »

Too many people running around with their bars and shifters pointed upwards so that they aren't able to brake comfortably in the drops. Ideally your wrist shouldn't need to crane upwards to reach the brake levers, and the lower part of the levers are vertical-ish. Shimano hoods are huge anyway so you shouldn't need to point them up that much.

Braking from the drops is really easy currently - braking from the hoods is complete ****!
I set them up to have the brake levers vertical and the hoods-to-tops line roughly horizontal.

As it is, it's hard to get much force into the brake levers from the hoods. Would rotating the hoods towards me to help with that? I don't understand how braking from the hoods is really meant to work - I pull with 2 or 3 fingers but as I can only reach part way down the levers there's poor leverage and braking is weak. Very weak compared to the drops or the flat-bar brakes on my hybrid.

Once the stem and bars arrive I'll make some more adjustments, trying out the other things you guys suggested and see how it feels.

It's a Ridley Large (57cm BB centre to top of seat tube.)
Medium is 54cm.

I'm a mm or two under 6'. I'm slightly too big for a medium I think but at the lower end of a large. Stand-over on this large Ridley frame is fine - maybe 2 inches but my legs are slightly longer proportionally than average so reach was always going to be more of an issue. I've a 22.5" (57.2cm) trek hybrid (7.5fx, so quite like a relaxed geometry road bike in shape).

I think it's going to be sorted by the combination of moving the seat forward (it was significantly too far back in those photos), shorter stem and shorter reach bars.

I'll post up more photos once stem and bars arrives and I tweak things.

mirv

Move your seat back/forth in 5 to 10mm increments at the very most most as a little goes a long way in terms of fit.

If braking from the hoods you should have 1-2 fingers wrapped around the base of the hood, and 2-3 fingers on the lever itself. If all four fingers are on the lever then you're not grabbing the handlebars and a bump or pothole might dislodge you from your handlebars, and possibly your bike. Adjust the shift/brake levers so that you've a decent compromise between the positions.

Chances are you won't know what you like or prefer until you get some decent mileage in, so either use some nice gloves and leave the bar untaped so you can adjust things as you go or buy a second roll of bar tape so you can change your shifter position later.

Cee-Jay-Cee

My Ridley Compact is also M which I was told was the equivalent of a size 56. I'm bang on 6ft with 33inch inner leg and my bike fits me perfectly. I suspect your frame may be too big for you.

quozl

Cheers Mirv.

And I hope not CJC999 but it's definitely possible A medium frame is only 2cm shorter reach so the compact bars alone are that plus a tiny bit more. I'm pretty confident it'll be good with the shorter stem, bars and fixed seat - the seat was all the way back in those photos as I had forgotten to adjust it.

We'll see over the next week or so. My stem has just arrived in work, so looking forward to trying that out.

Worst comes to the worst, I should be able to sell the frame and get a smaller one. It's only 1/3rd of the cost of the bike and should re-sell reasonably.