60cycle

shorter stem will do the trick.

baiskeli

Obviously you haven't seen my other shirts

Old School

Ever notice how forum members seem more intrigued by what's in the background of photos we post???

60cycle

damn. hope she's doing well.

baiskeli

Thanks, she is

60cycle

some backgrounds are fascinating.

***Butch***

baiskeli,

You and I are very similar. We have similar heights and and inseam measurements (both have long legs in comparison). I run into the same problem you have when getting frames: seat tubes and head tubes are too short. You can readily find bikes built the other way around (LeMond is a major one), but not so many with shorter top tubes and longer head tubes and seat tubes.

Here's what I ended up doing for a recent build: I bought a 57cm frame with a 57.5cm top tube. I now have a 100mm stem on the bike and it is comfortable and handles well.

I intially went with a size 55cm frame (same brand and model) that had about a 56cm top tube, but when I got it built up, I had a huge amount of seat post sticking out and my head tube was obviously too short. I had very large drop from the saddle to the handlebars and that was with an uncut steer tube on the fork!

Your bike will be fine with a shorter stem. Ideally, you'd have a longer stem, but you're not going to lose much in the way of handling with a shorter stem and you should be comfortable. However, if things feel fine the way they are now, stick with it.

baiskeli

Yup, sounds like the problems I have. Even with a 59 cm traditional frame I still have quite a bit of seatpost showing and I need some setback (to complicate things further, it seems I also have very long femurs hence the need to scoot backwards to accomplish KOPS)

I think with the 90-100mm stem I will see if the slight shoulder discomfort persists. At this point I am pretty comfortable and sweating the details but it doesn't harm to give it a go and see how it feels.

I will put on a 100mm stem tomorrow and see how it feels over the next couple of weeks.

baiskeli

Thanks all for the advice

***Butch***

You have it worse than I do! My legs are such that I have to jam the saddle all the way forwards on a zero offset seatpost to in proper position.

Let us know how you feel with a shorter stem.

DannoXYZ 

You actually look pretty close. Your set-up is close to what a pro-racer would use, but not the most comfortable for an enthusiast. Start with a 20mm shorter stem and see how that goes; this is a simple swap. Strange that you're more uncomfortable with the stem aimed up though... what is it that's bugging you? Your butt? Your lower back? Your upper back? Your shoulders? The upper arms or forearms? Hands?

You'll want to spend about 15-20 minutes stretching before and after the ride. Do your quads, hamstrings, glutes.

The other part of this is how you sit on the saddle. You've got your hips close to vertical and you have to reach forward by bending your back. This gives you a longer reach to the bars and can cause lower back-pain and discomfort. Try keeping your spine straight and rock the hips forwards instead (imagine trying to rest your belly-button on the top-tube). You should feel the jewels being pushed aside and pressure on the front of the saddle. Then slide back slightly to put the pressure back on the sit-bones. Tilting the saddle down at the tip by one click will help as well.

Another way to approach this is to get out of the saddle:



Arch your chest and back downwards towards the bike, aim your tail upwards like a pornstar, then set it all down evenly without rotating anything. Again, you'll feel the jewels being pushed aside and wiggle and slide a bit on the saddle to put pressure on the sit-bones.


FWIW, I'm 5'4" with 28" inseam and I ride a 54cm, 54.5cm top-tube and 135mm stem. My handlebar-drop is 2", reach from middle of saddle to bar is 67cm and tip of saddle to bar is 55cm. It took 10-years of riding/racing to get to that level of flexibility and when I started, I had 4cm less reach with a 90cm stem.

baiskeli

A lot of really good information (and an excuse to watch porn "No honey, its not what you think, I have to watch this to figure out how to improve my bike posture" ).

I can't tell why it feels more comfortable with the stem angled downwards, it just does (if I had to attach a name to it I would say that my posture felt cramped). I also feel like I generate more power with the lower stem (and I do, I'm faster that way)

Regarding having a flat back, I have been trying to increase my flexibility to achieve that.

I will try the 100mm stem and see how it feels. For what its worth, I just plugged in all my dimensions to www.wrenchscience.com and it suggested (drumroll please.....) a 59cm frame with a 100cm stem. The ironic thing is that I had thought that I needed an even bigger frame (like 61cm) before I began posting.

jimbud

Wrench Science's size recommendations are quite agressive. I'm using a stem 30mm shorter then what they recommend for me. On one of your first posts you said with your hands on the hoods you could still see the front wheel hub. I all ways thought this sizing check was done from the drops?

Portis

If there was a training class for Bike Forums Road Cycling, the first thing they would teach is to NEVER post a bike fit pic.

fly777

Hi ive been thru all your posts and have some questions .
i am 6.0 feet ive been mountain biking a litle and using my mtb for road use . its been ok but i always get left way way behind my friends all exhausted after the trip.
so now im about to get the mercier serpens which is currently on offer at $995.
what size frame should i get?

its a complete bike with everything included so should i get a 56 cm or 58 cm?
thanks for answering my questions.

cyclezen

I think you're going backwards. From your measurements you are easily positioned on the 59cm you have. The pics comfirm it. Given that your saddle is well positioned (kant assume that from the pics...) the rest seems just right.
So you're not comfortable - I don't believe you'll relieve that with a position change. Sore triceps and shoulders...
You;re prolly more comfortable riding in the drops than riding on the hoods - yes?

You're exhibiting a very common, almost predominant issue with 'posture' of many riders. In the drops you have it right, on the hoods you do what so many others do. You roll the elbows out, some do it only slightly, but its still a problem. Rolling the elbows out, locks them more; putting stress on the triceps. IN the drops you roll the elbows down and 'in', much more comfortable.
Additionally when the elbows are splayed out to any angle, road shock goes directly into the neck and shoulders. Most wrongly associate their 'discomfort' with too much forward lean to their body and 'weight' on their arms and hands, rather than the shock and abuse they are focusing thru their arms to their necks.
I see a predominant number of road riders locking their elbows to the point where there's an actual 'birds leg' bend to them, with hunched shoulders and its no wonder they all are beat to **** after a 20 mile ride.
Its a real problem for a lot of female riders, they compensate even more because this posture requires more upper strength than the better, more comfortable posture. But you don;t have that strength problem - still you don;t need it if you re-posture.
The arms are 'springs', use them as you do in the drops. It takes a little conscious effort to roll and tuck the elbows down and in, while on the hoods. The hood position tends to push the elbows out a bit.
With elbows in line with the shoulders, they are slightly bent and perform most of the shock absorption for the upper body. The triceps are under way less stress and the deltoids carry more load, which is good. The Delts are naturally more massive than the triceps and more easily carry the load and shock. the neck muscles are no longer involved. less shock comes thru to larger, more capable muscles.
Before you change anything, try a one hour ride with your elbows rolled under so that a flat 'plane' goes from your hands/wrist, thru your elbows, thur your shoulder joints. When the urge comes to let the elbows splay out, resist and focus again on bringing them under and in.
Try it for an hour, then decide what to do.
You may actually find a need for a different stem length, but at least you'll have done that based on what the stem is doing, not the posture problem that exists in spite of any stem position.

silversmith

I'm 6' and my traditional frames are a 58cm and a 60cm.

I just recently went to a short 80mm stem on the 60cm bike and I'm much more comfortable now.

I like big bikes. I like a fistfull of seatpost and I don't like more than 2 or 3 inches drop to the hoods, though I do ride the drops much of the time.

botto 

i hope so, otherwise it sounds like your bike is TOO small.

cs124

Listen to DannoXYZ...the dude said everything I was going to, only smarter like.

Mariner Fan

I went from a 120 to a 110 and noticed a big change. It's funny how a little adjustment on your saddle or a stem change can make all the difference in comfort.

ImprezaDrvr

I second the notion that you should continue to work on your posture and rocking your hips forward. This will have a noticeable effect on the reach you have, and you may or may not need a different stem. I had a saddle that didn't let me rock my hips forward and after I replaced it with a more comfortable one I needed a slightly longer stem.

And there was an earlier post that suggested that 1cm of stem length isn't much. Don't buy it. 1 cm is a lot when you're dealing with pretty much any measurement on a bike. YMMV, of course, but don't discount the notion that smaller changes are better.

ggg300

go to q bike dot com and find a real cheap stem that is one size smaller...buy...install...test...if better...buy nice stem...

crash66

I haven't read all the replies, so this may have been addressed already.

Any time you flip your stem, the intersection point of your stem and bars moves in an arc because the length of the stem hasn't changed. Meaning, when you flipped from "up" to "down", that intersection point went down AND OUT. Thus, your reach effectively increased by some factor. There was a great post here in the last week or two with a nice graphic about stem angle, length and effecitive reach that shows exactly this idea.

If you like the "down" position as far as seat to bar height, but don't like the longer reach, then swap out the stem for the same make/model but 1 ot 2 cm shorter. That graphic should help you dial in your needed stem length, as long as you know your total desired reach (TT+effective stem reach, not stem length). You're basically solving for stem length, knowing that the effective reach of that stem is usually less than the actual length because it is angled to some degree.

Have I confused you completely?

jimbud

I recommended passing on a 110mm stem ang trying a 100mm. My thinking was the original poster had so many issues with fit and felt a smaller frame was his only option that this was not a fine tunning issue. But in no way am I a expert. Just my 2 cents.

ImprezaDrvr

Certainly valid. But, smaller changes are typically better. You can find stems crazy cheap online (I just ordered one for under $10 to try out) or find a LBS that's willing to let you use one for a while. And, while it seems like a small change, small changes in stem length and the like are bigger than they seem. I never advocate making a change of more than 1 cm at a time.

And, of course, we're all experts. This is the internet!!