Figuring out ideal saddle/bar position.
 

as i ride more and more, i am noticing that my bike is pretty uncomfortable to be on for more than a half hour. I'm pretty sure it is the right size (i'm 6'4" and the bike is a 63) and i have bull horns and a selle slr saddle.
beyond the quality of the parts, how (other than trial and error) do i figure out what position they should be in? i'd like to start out with an ergonomic base and then fine tune from there.

what kind of frame is it?

What's ucomfortable about it your hands, wrists, ass, gooch, balls, back, and/or shoulders?

where are you feeling uncomfortable? wrists? knees? arse? how long is your stem?

colorado cyclist's site has some good parameters for setting up your bike:
http://www.coloradocyclist.com/bikefit/

as does competitive cyclist:
http://www.competitivecyclist.com/za...LCULATOR_INTRO

I'll preempt the bike shop guys here (*cough* 12XU *cough*) and say: get professionally fitted.

Bike fit is a pretty big deal. Probably more than a BF thread can cover.

old fuji conversion. one of the higher end crit bikes judging by the geometry, parts and tubing. it's ridiculously light.

forearms and ehm... taint:D

i guess this would go with this thread well. When I ride for long periods of time, my hands/palms start to hurt. I feel like there is to much pressure on my arms and hands. Any suggestions on finding a more comfortable position?

the solution to every problem mentioned: raise your bars

except the forearms, i've got some excercises to help with that...

i was fitted by my framebuilder so i'm confident the bike is the right size for me, but recently my palms have been killing me after riding for a bit, mostly my right one. my right arm/shoulder has also been getting a touch sore. think i should shorten up then stem?

these rule. i'm def going to do the second one soon.
i played with the first one some and got some good info too, but the second seems more comprehensive.

Most hand pain seems to stem from your stem. Generally, it's not high enough. Everyone wants to look cool with a saddle 8" taller than their stem, but unless you have huge arms it's going to be uncomfortable.

Try setting your stem height up so when you're on the handlebars your back is at a 45 degree angle or more, and your arms have a noticeable bend to them.

bar and saddle shape have alot to do with pain/numbness of the hands or groin respectively.

don't discount bar width. having your hands spread too wide or narrow can strain the shoulder and arms.

hold up the ends of your bars up to the bony protrusions on the front/top of your shoulders. the ends should rest directly on them, or at most 1 cm wider.

I feel most comfortable on a 380mm bar, but 400mm feels almost as good. Anything more/less hurts.

if you haven't already, set your saddle to level. then tinker. you shouldn't slip off the saddle either direction when you ride no handed and the pressure should feel pretty even. sounds like your stem could be a little short.

kill, take you and your bike over to chaz at the bicycle stable (ride down girard east to frankfort and go north a block and a half (1420 frankford). explain to him the problem. he'll take care of you. i'd do it, but i'm out of town.

that should solve it.

-jason

definitely. just from bike photos of everyone's bikes on the site, it seems lots of people points their saddle down too much, which can cause wrist pain.

also, though your stem may be too long or short, etc... your saddle might be too far forward or backward in the rails. i measure mine by dropping a plumb from the front of my knee and having it line up with the ball of my foot when my pedals are at 3 and 9. make sense?

that competitive cyclist link is rather comprehensive, but just from the colorado cyclist i got a great measurement for my saddle hieght, which is perfect with 170 cranks. i'm 6'4" as well. however, i noticed with my longer cranks, i obviously needed to lower the measurement accordingly...

If you get any sort problems from the shoulders down it'll be from your wrists taking more stress than they want to. There are a few options for the discomfort:

There is always the chance that you're not as flexible as you were when you had the bike fitted.

Ii is possible that they fitted you to the wrong bike, fitting a person to a bike depends on what you're using the bike for, type of riding, prefered riding style, flexibility, etc. Some frames are built for comfort some for speed.

You may find that there is a lot of shock and vibrations being transfered through the handlbars and that causes the pain. It's quite common to get wrist, forearm and/or shoulder pain from vibrations, becasue the muscles and nerves tend to work harder with an increase in vibrations. New bar tape and/or better gloves could be an option, or a better quality fork.

You could try moving the Bars back and/or up and get new bar tape/gloves. and make sure your saddle is horizontal so you don't keep sliding onto the handlebars (just to reiterate what the others said).

I was having alot of hand pain a few weeks ago and I turned the bars up a bit so that the tops of the drops were more level and hand pain has been a non issue for me since. Makes the bottoms of the drops look screwy but I don't ride in them that often

1.09 X Inseam = ground to top of saddle is a good place to start