Back worse after bike fitting :-(

[GrahamG]

I reckon I'll be in the same boat as you - I've even got small hands so the smaller bars etc. on the WS bikes appealed too

I think I'm going to go for one of the Hewitt audax style frames though - got the fitting session on Saturday morning.

 

[Danny]

I reckon I'll be in the same boat as you - I've even got small hands so the smaller bars etc. on the WS bikes appealed too

I think I'm going to go for one of the Hewitt audax style frames though - got the fitting session on Saturday morning.

Would be interested to know what Paul says about his audax bike.

He definitely steered me away from buying one. While this was primarily on the very good grounds that a tourer would give me more flexibility and could be set up with narrower rims, etc. for day rides/fast touring; I also got the impression that he felt more comfortable selling the touring frame. Possibly this was because he does not sell that many audax frames and felt that the touring frame was more of a tried and tested design.

 

[DinasBran]

I suffer from sciatica off and on and used to find on longer rides I had quite a bit of lower back pain. I found that raising my seat post a few cm's did a lot of good, but I left the handlebars as they were. In addition I've tried to work on my core strength by doing sit ups and a few back strectching exercises. This seems to have helped alot and I only get a few twinges now in the lower back after a long ride.

 

[e-rider]

It's interesting to hear about your problems - I have neck pain and it seems impossible to cure so I just live with it and limit my rides according to the pain (usually max of 75 miles) It's nice to think about long days in the saddle pain free like when we were younger but that's not reality for a lot of people as they get older and pick up injuries.

One thing I've noticed in these replies is that people talk about saddle height increases of cms! If you can increase your saddle by 2 or 3 cms and still ride the bike comfortably then it was far too low in the first place. I would say that the window of saddle height adjustment from min to max height is about 10mm (1 cm) for the correct riding height for distance road riding.

 

[bobg]

It's interesting to hear about your problems - I have neck pain and it seems impossible to cure so I just live with it and limit my rides according to the pain (usually max of 75 miles) It's nice to think about long days in the saddle pain free like when we were younger but that's not reality for a lot of people as they get older and pick up injuries.

One thing I've noticed in these replies is that people talk about saddle height increases of cms! If you can increase your saddle by 2 or 3 cms and still ride the bike comfortably then it was far too low in the first place. I would say that the window of saddle height adjustment from min to max height is about 10mm (1 cm) for the correct riding height for distance road riding.

I limit my rides to less than that cos my legs, heart, lungs and respiratory system gives out ( Sorry, dont wish to be flippant about your neck pain though! )

 

[bobg]

Why not indeed. The female frames seem to be more compact as apparently we have shorter arms/torso and longer legs than our male counterparts. Unless it has a dropped top tube you can't really tell in passing that it's female specific, unless it's a girly colour. I've just given my female specific MTB to my sister, which looked exactly like a male bike apart from the colour was a bit turquoise and had a silly pattern. You could always paint it a more manly colour I suppose!

Hey, I'm ok with a girly colour... if it's comfortable then pink will do nicely

 

[Fab Foodie]

Why not indeed. The female frames seem to be more compact as apparently we have shorter arms/torso and longer legs than our male counterparts. Unless it has a dropped top tube you can't really tell in passing that it's female specific, unless it's a girly colour. I've just given my female specific MTB to my sister, which looked exactly like a male bike apart from the colour was a bit turquoise and had a silly pattern. You could always paint it a more manly colour I suppose!

The bit in bold is actually not true. Proportionally on average men and women are the same. The difference is that women are overall smaller.

IIRC Mike Burrows used the research that determined this when designing the Compact frames for Giant that originally only came in 3 sizes, S, M, L.

 

[summerdays]

The bit in bold is actually not true. Proportionally on average men and women are the same. The difference is that women are overall smaller.

IIRC Mike Burrows used the research that determined this when designing the Compact frames for Giant that originally only came in 3 sizes, S, M, L.

Well there is about 6 inches difference between Mr summerdays and me, and yet for our inside leg only about 1-2. I can usually ride his bike and pedal almost OK, but I can't touch the ground. (I'm not covering any distance on his bike ... just riding it when he asks for a second opinion or when I'm getting the bikes to put onto the car rack etc).

Is there a single correct height/reach for a bike (for one person) or is slight adjustments up and down (within a very small range) The reason I ask is that sometimes I feel as if my legs are longer or shorter on a day by day basis. Also I wondered whether it perhaps worked slightly different parts of the muscle by altering it, giving other parts a rest.

 

[GrahamG]

Would be interested to know what Paul says about his audax bike.

He definitely steered me away from buying one. While this was primarily on the very good grounds that a tourer would give me more flexibility and could be set up with narrower rims, etc. for day rides/fast touring; I also got the impression that he felt more comfortable selling the touring frame. Possibly this was because he does not sell that many audax frames and felt that the touring frame was more of a tried and tested design.

I definitely don't want a tourer, I'm after something fairly lightweight (by steel standards admittedly). I'll let you know but if I feel that he's not helping me get what I want then I'll just pay for the fitting and put an order in elsewhere for the frame.

 

[Danny]

I wasn't trying to imply that Paul was being unhelpful. Just the opposite in fact - he was by far the most helpful and knowledgeable person I have ever come across in and LBS.

His argument was that there was very little difference between his audax and touring frames, apart from some minor differences in frame geometry, so he felt a touring frame would give me greater flexibility (e.g. I could run it with both narrow and wide tyres).

To be fair, he recommended the touring frame after I said I was unsure which to get and described how I planned to use the bike (mostly for day rides, but also for occasional tours).

As I went along with his recommendation we didn't really explore the exact differences between the audax and touring frames. I am sure that if I had gone in saying "I want an audax frame" he would have happily sold me one.

So maybe I am just regretting that I didn't take the opportunity to find out about his audax frames.

 

[punkypossum]

As for the women's specific geometry, from the research I have done (and believe me, by now that is quite a lot as I'm rather oddly proportioned), women do tend to have shorter arms and torsos, but there is also some evidence that apparently even with a torso of the same lenght, most females will prefer a shorter top tube as they then to bend their bodies higher up than males, thus in a way shortening their torso when on a bike... Can't remember where I read it, but it certainly made sense and was actually really interesting (yes, I know I'm sad).

 

[Danny]

I'm not convinced that women bend their bodies higher up then men.

However I think lots of people are "oddly proportioned". Or to put it another way, there is more variation in body sizes than some bike (or clothing) manufacturers like to cater for. I certainly have shorter arms and legs than is deemed "normal" for my body size.

Hence the benefit of having a proper bike fitting session.