Originally Posted by
ilovecycling
This thread is awesome. I did 80+ miles today in northern VA and I know something isn't right. There's too much strain on my shoulders and neck. I find myself wanting to look straight down all the time to relieve the pain. Here's a pic of my current setup:
I plan on dropping my stem down to the headset cap and cutting down my fork to eliminate the need for any spacers, but I was going to flip my stem up to try and keep the bars in the same position they are in now. Now, after coming across this thread, I think I'm going to try and keep the stem flipped down and slam it anyways. Also, just by looking at this pic of my bike it looks like the bars are tilted too far back. I'm going to try and rotate them forward so the hoods are more parallel with the ground. My seat might need to be moved back and tilted down a tad as well for this setup to work.
I can't wait to try it. Thanks to the OP for starting this thread!
Slamming your stem down to the head tube may or may
not work for you. I strongly suggest you don't cut your fork tube until you have tested your new position for many miles. Fit to me is a window. Too low hurts my neck and back as much if not more than too high a handlebar. Keep in mind there has to be a window or everybody would be riding a road bike like a TT bike to be more aero. Virtually everybody has a tolerance for how low they can ride comfortably. In this sense, I believe Cobb is overly simplistic with his videos. I can't ride with nearly the drop he suggests and I have done the testing. To me your road bike set up looks plenty aggressive for an amateur cyclist in particular. Many including Boonen like their bars rotated forward with angled hoods and I do as well.
You have to take the good advice offered in this thread as a guideline and not an absolute as each of us are different. An 80 year rider can not ride in the same position as he could when he was 20...and every gradation in between.
I hope after you adjust your bike and ride it over several miles with an aggressive position you will come back and tell us what you think. Slamming your stem down to head tube will give you a full pro race fit which doesn't work for about 90% of those that ride and train on road bikes recreationally. Good Luck.