Paul Rose said:Thanks for that info. I think the top tube on my bike might be a little
longer than ideal. When you say 'a proper fitting' what exactly does that
entail?
In my case - I took me + bike to a good bike shop offering a fitting
service. The put the bike on a stand/jig, then me on the bike, and had
a good look at my position on the bike, weight distribution, etc.
Then they tweaked as much as they could to get towards the ideal for my
proportions. That involved moving quite a bit of stuff, they look at
saddle height, tilt, fore/aft position, relationship between bum on
saddle and legs/feet on pedals. Then the stem/bars - width of bars,
height of stem, reach of stem/bars, etc. Position of STI shifters/brake
hoods/levers.
We got the reach on my stem (the amount of forward-pointing bit of it)
as reduced as possible, but with a fair bit of height. I'm still
working toward the goal of raising the saddle a little bit higher - they
gave me a measurement which I've got tucked away somewhere and compare
reality with occasionally.
The upshot is that had I gone to them, I'd have a frame with a shorter
top tube (it's fine for stand-over height etc), but I can't afford to
change the frame, so we went with mitigating the main cause of the
problem, which was the excessive reach generated by the stem's '7' shape
- low, and a long reach and further drop - on an already overly long top
tube.
Me, I have long legs for my height but a shorter torso/arms
proportionally. Plus, my frame is the smallest you can get from Dawes
(it's a steel Dawes Audax) and still has 700c wheels, which imposes it's
own limitations on the frame geometry.
The changes that I (and latterly the shop's fitting session) made have
transformed it from a scary-machine-of-speed-and-certain-pain to an
enjoyable and fun ride, and made a world of difference to getting a lot
of the weight off the hands/arms.
One other thing though - I found regular cycling improved the muscles in
my back, sides, stomach, torso etc, which in itself helps to support the
torso and reduce weight on the hands. You can't train them to do that
if the bars are way too low/far forward though, unless you already have
good muscle tone in that area, I think, so that might be worth thinking
about too.
Bike on turbo (I don't like cycling in the cold/damp/stupid eejits) and
then regular hands-off-bars to fairly slowly sit upright on bike, then
controlled resumption of hands back on bars seems to work wonders for
getting the muscles working to take some of the weight off the bars.
Take too much off though (by raising bars high) and you're into the
realm of a very skittery bike. Bike are all different mind, so yours
might react differently to mine on that front. Top of my bars/stem are
now level, or a whisker lower than the top surface of the saddle, and
that seems just right for me.
--
Velvet
