Originally Posted by Bonts

I thought I posted this last night but see no mention of it on my account or an alert that it was deleted. I'll try again

As far as I can tell, there are mountain bikes and road bikes. Of course this isn't the case, but I'm not a big bicycle person. I'm comfortable on anything with straight, mountain bike type handlebars. Ive had a Schwinn, Raleigh, and Superior. No clue what type they were, but they could be called mountain bikes to the uneducated. I've ridden (tried to ride) road bikes- anything with "ram horn" handlebars. They were all terrible. The dimensions don't look much different than "mountain" bikes, but I just cant ride them. It seems almost as different as trying a unicycle.

The reason I ask is cause my wife got us a Burley Duet of the "ram horn" style. I've ridden tandems well in the past so I don't think it's that. The sporty seat is a big issue I think. I've always put on beefier, cushier seats. This one (common on all road bikes I've sat on) almost feels like there's no seat at all and I'm just sitting on the post.

Question: What should I modify to get this thing to fit? I'm incredibly comfortable on previously mentioned "mountain" bikes. I can wheelie, jump, and slide. It doesn't seem like I'd be so incredibly uncomfortable on any bike. I have zero ideas:
- handle bar drop? I had one bike (too small) set up with a solid 3" of drop
- Narrow handlebars? I can ride no handed, one handed, with a wrench instead of handlebars

There must be some geometry I'm not considering that's incredibly important. Pedal-seat vertical alignment? Fork rake?