It seems that's where most of my discomfort lies, the reach to the hoods.
I rode around the other day and halfway through the ride, I adjusted the bars and tilted them a bit up.
I wasn't getting the flat part of the bar even with the stem.
The problem with that is, the shifters now point forwards and I have a hard time reaching them from the drops:
On the other hand, I have better leverage on the brakes from the hoods.
Which is where I feel is more important.
I mean I never use the drops.
Not on these bars anyway, it's just too far.
So anyways, now I feel like I have to rotate the controls forward, so that I can reach the brakes from the drops:
What that effectively does is move the hoods farther away.
Not what I want.
I'm telling you, this adjustment thing is getting all goofy.
This whole roadie position is new to me, so I know it will feel foreign, at least for a while, but I want to make sure that the position I get used to is the right one.
Or maybe it's just those bars.
I mean it's not like I got Grape Ape type arms:
Besides being of small stature but massive quads it's possible I have short arms too.
So perhaps the drop is just too far for me at about 145mm.
The thing here is that I'm trying to make my position as comfy as possible.
So maybe I should just pull the hoods back just a bit.
I'm thinking I'm going to try one more bar.
This time, I think I am going with a 40 instead of a 42, the reach is 75mm and the drop is 135.
The problem with those bars is they are ergo bars, the kind with the hump in the drops and I had some of those before and didn't really care for them:
On the other hand, I don't spend much time there anyways, so it won't really be a problem.
Okay, the real reason I don't like them is that I think they look goofy.
Say it with me: image is everything.
Maybe not so much in this case, I'm thinking.
Comfort has to count for something.
Lemme go look at those bars again.
Oh, and here's a sort of mock up of the celeste hoods/Hudz:
I sort of like em.
Still, I'll pick up some celeste bar tape too and hopefully have this whole thing sorted out soon.
Gotta look good while cruzin the hood on the hoods.
6 comments:
It can take quite some time to find the right set up for a road bike. The bikes themselves are more about speed than comfort and finding the balance of those two things that suits you is often problematic...!!
Are you accumulating a giant stack of bars and stems here or are you fortunate enough to be able to take each of the candidates back in order to try another?
Those celeste hoods look good. Contrasting Navy Blue bar tape to set off the "Bianchi" lettering should not be ruled out yet.
Stem angle, length, and height play a large role in this setup. Although I enjoy some speed once in a while, I'm no racer, so my emphasis is on comfort. This is one area that Sheldon Brown and also the Rivendell take on frame sizing and comfort helped out. So my road bike stem is setup with a rise not a drop, and my bars and hoods are setup to be comfortable. It took a lot of trial/error to get there, though.
Trevor, I'm spending more time setting up this bike than I did the Allez so I'm also learning some new stuff.
Steve A., I'll post a link to my evil eBay auctions when this is done!
I was thinking about the blue, but it's not really my cup of color.
JRA, I think these new bars will be the way to go. If not, I got one more stem size to try.
Okay, there is one more thing, and that's to do what you did and use one of them quill adapters so I can use 31.8 bars and a regular stem.
Not there yet.
Yet.
I'm thinking shorter stem maybe, but that's just a guess. Hope you get it dialed in!
Stem is my worst case scenario (WCS)!
The new bars should be here soon, so we'll see how it goes.
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