Hi there. I would need some help with a fit question, regarding long distance riding.
I want to return to brevet riding, but with small wheeled bikes. Love the way they ride, and the lack of storing space needs and ease of transportation were also nice. I got a Brompton (I'm actually thinking about doing the brevets with the english mistress), and I got a fairly weird Giant Mini 2 which I would love to build for that.
I built the bike, but something always felt wrong. Then, after riding my Brompton (which I used a lot together with a 700c wheeled bike and never got a problem) and then the Giant I saw the deal: the saddle position is just a LOT different. Stupidly behind. Even with a seat back post turned FORWARD, still a lot behind what I used to hide. I usually start with KOPS and then work from that. Comparing my Brompton and my Giant, the Giant is still behind like 3 cm.
Measuring with an mobile app, the seatpost angle is 68 degrees, in a hardtail bike. I need to get a lot of seatpost to get proper heigth (a whole 410mm on the "max" line). I searched a bit, and this kind of seatpost angle was used in old (really old) racing bikes, but with those 7 shaped seatposts, which moves the saddle forward to a proper racing position.
So, the question is: I really don't need a racing position. My best Brevet (not in time, but in fun and confort) was 300km made in a 26" mtb, with unlocked suspension, 1.95 slick tires and a single 32 tooth chainring. I don't want to go fast, but I want to go painless (as much as possible
). Will this laid back position mess with my knees after a day of riding? By the way, I will be using flat pedals, so my feet can move at will. Should I ditch the Giant (use it just for urban riding) and use the Brompton, or even a Dahon for Brevet (would mess with the Dahon position a lot, without care for the maximum foldability. It would be almost a mini velo)? A Dahon with proper handlebar positioning (with a stem to move if forwards) and my Kojaks would just fly!
By the way, a "proper" bike is completely out of question.
Thanks for any ideas, and also sorry for any english mistakes. Not a native speaker....