agmetal

Ok, so here's the deal. I have a Bianchi Volpe that I generally find quite comfortable....I spent practically the whole day on it a couple days ago, for example. It's a 51cm frame, 2011 model. I also recently built up a New Albion Privateer frameset (48cm) which has near-identical geometry and dimensions to the Volpe, but I've got it built up as a singlespeed.

I've gone with the same crank length, pedals, wheels, and several other parts. The gearing is halfway between my two most-used gears on the Volpe. There are a few differences, though: saddles (both Gilles Berthoud, but the Bianchi has the "touring" saddle, and the New Albion has the "racing" model), bars (38cm stock bars on the Bianchi, 40cm Soma Highway One on the NA), brake levers (Shimano Tiagra 4500 brifters on Bianchi, TRP RRL on NA).

The bars are as close in position as I could get them with the stem I picked for the NA build (Velo Orange Tall Stack), but the headset on that bike causes them to sit a bit higher than on the Bianchi. The saddles are set up in pretty much exactly the same positions (although a little more nose-up on the narrower saddle, in part due to the bars being higher), and the saddle to hoods (where I spend most of my time) reach is as close to the same as I can get it.

I'm struggling to get the New Albion comfortable, though! It seems like, no matter what I do with the bar height/angle and saddle height/angle, I'm much more aware of my hands, and they sometimes start to hurt after a few minutes of riding on the hoods.

One thought I had was that maybe it's because I'm generally not much of a spinner on the Bianchi, preferring to shift to a higher gear when I want to go faster, and this means more of my weight is supported by my legs...where, on the singlespeed, I need to spin faster, and the weight is on my hands a bit more. I'd think that the bars being slightly higher and the saddle having the nose up more would help with this, so I'm really confused. Maybe it's a bar width thing? I'm not that small of a guy, but I'm not huge either...never had any real complaints about the 38cm bars on the Bianchi, but I hadn't realized they were so narrow until after my Soma bars had arrived (having thought they were the same width...oops).

For the record, I'm not dealing with an extreme drop of any kind, but I find it surprising that the lower/narrower bars are more comfortable.

jyl

Interesting.

From the photos, it looks like when the cranks of the two bikes are exactly side by side, the New Albion's saddle and bars are both a little bit further forward. Maybe that is just an illusion. If true, then on the New Albion more of your body weight is on the hands and bars. Not a lot more but you might be sensitive to such things. Try sliding the New Albion's saddle rearward. You may eventually use a shorter stem on that bike too, if you are sensitive to saddle-to-bar reach.

38 to 40 mm bar width is not a big difference. But enough to feel it, a little. I doubt that is the issue. Do the bikes feel the same when you are on the tops? Does the width between the hoods actually measure different?

Clem von Jones

Good call on having the saddle too far forward. You can buy a plumb bob at Harbor Freight and compare them relative to the crank center. If the saddles aren't identical compare the setback relative to where your sit-bones indent the tops. Having your saddle too far forward is sure to cause excessive weight on your hands. Looks about 1.5 cm forward on the Albion. If the Albion after adjustment seems too stretched out just leave it awhile and maybe you'll eventually prefer that.

https://www.harborfreight.com/plumb-b...ine-66271.html

agmetal

It's actually a noticeable difference in width...we're talking about centimeters, not millimeters, so it's an overall difference of the better part of an inch.

I would be surprised if things are much farther forward overall...the bars and lever hoods both have a little bit longer reach than what's on the Bianchi, and I'd originally had a 90mm stem on it, same length as what's on the Bianchi. After realizing how stretched out that felt, I got an 80mm one, and it was a definite improvement. That's the shortest length that particular stem is available in, though. As a result, the hoods position is about the same distance from the saddle as on the Bianchi, but the tops position is closer.

I was thinking of making a makeshift plumb bob with some string and a paper clip or something, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I have tried moving the saddle forward and backward a bit, though, and I haven't really had much luck. I've tried to match the saddle positions relative to the BB as closely as possible, though.

agmetal

One more observation made this morning...higher tension on the wider saddle than the narrower one...I wonder if this would lead to subtle saddle discomfort on the narrower (new) saddle that'd have me putting more weight on my hands subconsciously? Tightened it up a little bit, so we'll see how it does on my ride to work today

agmetal

I angled the bars up slightly yesterday morning, and it seemed to be ok all day, especially if I kept my hands farther back on the hoods. Gonna leave it like this for a while and see how it works out.