First road bike, first post!

Hello and welcome.

Let me ask you this so that i am clear. When you say the handlebars are to low, are you talking about the drops, or the whole bar in general? if it is the whole bar than that means you may need something like these.

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that should allow you to raise it to where you need to. If not then a new fork would be in order I would think.

Thanks! Well Dave I think the drops are too low. I felt comfortable when holding it as a flat bar I'm also not too sure if I am just not used to the road bike angle. I think I will visit the LBS and see what they have to say. Thanks for the link I will check that out!

How long have you been riding that bike? How ofter do you use the drop's? I know that they do make less steep drops, but you can also just turn/twist the bars to raise them have you done that?

I just picked it up and rode it the 10 miles home. I was in the drops about 50% of the time. Should I only be in the drops on downhills and when im looking for max speed? I raised the bar to its max height already, which Wasnt much, so I will twist them up a bit more and try it out!

RoadBurn627 said:

I just picked it up and rode it the 10 miles home. I was in the drops about 50% of the time. Should I only be in the drops on downhills and when im looking for max speed? I raised the bar to its max height already, which Wasnt much, so I will twist them up a bit more and try it out!

Having difficulty riding in the drops could be the result of a sub-optimal fit, your body not being conditioned for riding in that position, or both. It's impossible to say, though, without seeing what you look like on the bike, in that position. Judging someone's fit via pictures on the internet is a dodgy thing, but it might allow us to see if there are any painfully obvious fit issues.

Dave Pace said:

Hello and welcome.  Let me ask you this so that i am clear. When you say the handlebars are to low, are you talking about the drops, or the whole bar in general? if it is the whole bar than that means you may need  something like these. that should allow you to raise it to where you need to. If not then a new fork would be in order I would think.Â

Dave the stem to which you linked is for threadless steerers and headsets. The OP's bike has a threaded steerer and thus requires a quill stem or a threaded to unthreaded adapter, which will, BTW, allow the use of a stem for threadless steerers. Such an adapter looks like this: To the OP, if in fact you need the bars raised, you have three options. You can get a riser quill stem, [IMG ALT=""]http://www.cyclingforums.com/content/type/61/id/275146/width/500/height/1000[/IMG] You could get a riser for the quill stem: You could get an adapter as shown above (i.e. the first picture). One benefit to such an adapter is that allows the use of threadless stems, i.e. the most common stems these days (by a wide margin). This is what a threadless stem looks like: Such stems not only come in a variety of lengths (lengths change by 10mm increments) but also come in different rises. The following picture shows what rise is: Rise (an angle) is measured from a line perpendicular to the fork steerer. The stem in the picture has a rise of -17°. Stems above that dotted line perpendicular to the fork steerer have positive rise. Hopefully all of this wasn't confusing.

Thanks for such a detailed response, alienator. A little confusing, but I get the jist! I like the idea of just adding an extension, er, a riser quill stem if need be. I want to keep original bars and cost down as well. I should be able to have pictures taken of me on the bike tomorrow and I will post them and see what the thoughts are! Thanks again. Also, could you or someone point me in the right direction regarding finding more information about the Univega? I would be interested in knowing the year, original retail, and quality of parts or even if any of it is original! Although I only went on a short ride I can tell the downtube shifters will take some serious getting used to. This is a whole different ride compared to the Hybrid. I loved being at 25mph in the blink of an eye though!

Sometimes raising the stem just a single centimeter can make a profound difference. The photo shows it to be slammed all the way down.

Btw, very nice Univega.

Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by alienator [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]

Having difficulty riding in the drops could be the result of a sub-optimal fit, your body not being conditioned for riding in that position, or both. It's impossible to say, though, without seeing what you look like on the bike, in that position. Judging someone's fit via pictures on the internet is a dodgy thing, but it might allow us to see if there are any painfully obvious fit issues.
Dave the stem to which you linked is for threadless steerers and headsets. The OP's bike has a threaded steerer and thus requires a quill stem or a threaded to unthreaded adapter, which will, BTW, allow the use of a stem for threadless steerers. Such an adapter looks like this:

To the OP, if in fact you need the bars raised, you have three options. You can get a riser quill stem,
[IMG]cyclingforums.com1000Open ↗[/IMG]
You could get a riser for the quill stem:

You could get an adapter as shown above (i.e. the first picture). One benefit to such an adapter is that allows the use of threadless stems, i.e. the most common stems these days (by a wide margin). This is what a threadless stem looks like:

Such stems not only come in a variety of lengths (lengths change by 10mm increments) but also come in different rises. The following picture shows what rise is:

Rise (an angle) is measured from a line perpendicular to the fork steerer. The stem in the picture has a rise of -17°. Stems above that dotted line perpendicular to the fork steerer have positive rise.
Hopefully all of this wasn't confusing.

Thanks man. didn't notice that it was threaded. Heck i didn't think to look.

Well I raised the bars to its max height which made a huge difference. The bike feels much more comfortable now. I went on my first real ride today with the Univega which was 40 miles long over mixed terrain and 2000ft ascent. I experienced minor lower back discomfort at time but no strain anywhere else. I took some pictures after as to see what people think about the fitment. Looking at the pictures the bike looks a bit small (but really, what do I know!?), even though the seat to pedals measures the same as on my Hybrid which was fitted to me.

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While riding I made sure to relax and not lock up my elbows the whole ride. Do I just need to adjust to riding at this angle now? I am used to flat bars! I am open to all thoughts and suggestions!

Random thought...those downtube shifters can be a bit tricky! You really have to anticipate whats coming up!

Remember to keep a little bend in your elbows so the vibrations dont get to you. You really don't want to lock your arms like that.

RoadBurn627 said:

Well I raised the bars to its max height which made a huge difference. The bike feels much more comfortable now. I went on my first real ride today with the Univega which was 40 miles long over mixed terrain and 2000ft ascent. I experienced minor lower back discomfort at time but no strain anywhere else. I took some pictures after as to see what people think about the fitment. Looking at the pictures the bike looks a bit small (but really, what do I know!?), even though the seat to pedals measures the same as on my Hybrid which was fitted to me.  While riding I made sure to relax and not lock up my elbows the whole ride. Do I just need to adjust to riding at this angle now? I am used to flat bars! I am open to all thoughts and suggestions!  Random thought...those downtube shifters can be a bit tricky! You really have to anticipate whats coming up!Â

Your position doesn't look bad at all, inasmuch as judging fit by photos is possible.

Well its good nothing major sticks out. I will start tweaking it to see how good I can get it. I had a harder time with hills compared to the hybrid..I'm guessing because I only have 12 gears now instead of 24? I cant just spin it out when I need to! But hey thanks for all the help!