Originally Posted by
DataJunkie
My lower back has issues with excessive upright riding. Yet I am fine with a huge amount of saddle to bar drop. Hence the reason even my flat bar bike has the bars lower than the seat.
I have always found this strange.
Me too. Strange, huh?
I was contemplating that very thing this past weekend when I was remarking to myself how natural I felt on my bike. My bars are easilty 4" below my saddle. When I raced 7-9" was pretty typical for me. I'm pretty tall - 6'2 - and am "long and lean" gymnasitic body type, so perhaps that has something to do with it.
I'd like to try a bike with the "French fit" (fist ful of seatpost) such as a Rivendell, properly measured and set up for me, just to check it out. Even so, such bikes still promote a forward-leaning bias, just not as extreme as the big drop setup.
After commuting for about 2 months on my Bianchi Milano (with it's swept back handlebars) on a 24-25 mile roundtrip commute with 3-4 miles of steady grades on the trip home, I swapped in a flat bar and dropped the stem - it was MUCH better for me. I couldn't stand the upright position for that particular commute.
My current transportation/commuter is a drop bar cyclo-cross-ish bike with about 4" of drop and I love it.
For a casual ride to the coffee house, well, maybe I'd consider the upright thing, but I'd probably walk if it was that close.