At one time I was also guilty of putting my seat way forward but I tried it Grant's way and now I always push it all the way back. I haven't yet been able to make closer handlebars work. I always ran them that way and I always had issues with hand numbness and pain. It was only thru an impulsive trial-and-error adjustment that I discovered further away handlebars were far, far more comfortable. Someone here mentioned back angle and I think that's what it boils down to for me to be comfortable. I have to have my body at a certain angle that allows my core muscles to best support my weight, instead of my hands. I found that a 60cm ETT with a long'ish (110mm) stem gets me in a good position. Like you, I've found that very small adjustments make a large difference in both comfort and handling.
On Friday, July 28, 2017 at 5:23:38 PM UTC-5, Patrick Moore wrote: > > Chris and Mitch: Thanks; at least plausible explanations. As I said > elsewhere, in experimenting with setting up the bar for the Matthews over > the last year, I've gradually lowered the bar by a total of about 2 inches, > and extended the stem by 1 cm. (The last 9 mm reduction in height was by > swapping out the 9 cm 90* stem for a 9 cm 6* stem flipped negative; this > because I'd earlier removed the last spacer from above the headset. And > flipping the 6* stem downward extends the bar forward by 2 more mm, in > addition to reducing its height.) > > Long windup as usual. Let us proceed: Compared to my Benchmark Riv Roads, > the Matthews feels vague in that crucial transition from straight to turn, > at lower speeds on pavement. It still felt this way even as I lowered the > bar. But this last reduction seems to have pushed a handling button; the > last 9 mm seems to have made more difference in this turn-in than the > previous 3 cm. At any rate, this lowering made the hoods feel more natural, > keeps the hooks very usable, and (hoods position) seems at least to make > turn-in feel a bit more planted. > > Of course, with such variables as tires -- width, pressure, tread -- who > can possibly parse all the element affecting all the other variables in my > peculiar body relationship with this particular bike; but --- again, very > longwinded windup: I can well believe that more weight over bar leads to a > better "planted" feel in "turn-in." > > 'Nother anecdote, not wholly unrelated to all this: my first highish end > road bike, 1990, was a '89 Falcon, 531 C, all Sante, which had a design > that I read was a trend in the '70s or so: very short front-center (very > little daylight between 19 mm Turbo and bottom of down tube), and long > stays. I messed up the handling by setting up the saddle and bar all wrong: > saddle so high I needed mtb seatpost; saddle all, and I mean all, the way > forward on the rails, so much so that I needed blue Loctite to keep it from > tilting *forward* under my then svelte weight; 135 or 140 mm stem full 6 > inches below saddle -- you had to experience fast, swoopy downhills with > gusty sidewinds! > > But I expect that this design would have handled delightfully with a > Grantian setup: he told me, get your bar up and back, and your saddle back > and down, and it worked for other bikes. But I'd sold the Falcon. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
