First Road Bike Question

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Jhey

Well-Known Member
Hello all, just wondering if anyone can give me advice on this, basically I've got my first road bike about a month and half ago, It's a Carrera Zelos 2015, I purchased it from a friend who never used it, I've only ever had MTB's or hybrids and the problem is I am 5'11 It's a Large Size but I'm sure Carrera's large is a 54cm, when using a sizing guide I needed a 56cm but even though it's a size smaller, I feel stretched out on it, I even bought a shorter stem, it came with 110cm but I put a 100cm on it which helped but still feel stretched, sometimes it affects my hands or triceps causing a slight annoying pain but not too bad as I can just shake it off but I want to be more comfortable on it before I hit any sportives.

My other bike is a Specialized Sirrus Elite in a large size, I've done over 2000+ miles on it and even a 100 mile sportive not had any issues as such.
 

vickster

Legendary Member
Carrera are measured differently - I believe the seat tube rather than the cross tube (google for the geometry specs), so you can't compare directly to say a Specialized cm measurement (as they use the TT I think). It might be more like a 58cm, so not surprised it's too big. Try a shorter stem again, adjust the saddle position, flip the stem, turn the hoods towards you. But it may never fit right if the frame really is too big (probably closer to an XL Sirrus)
 

Drago

Legendary Member
Carefully measure the position of all the contact points relative to one another on the Cirrus and then see how the Zelos differs. It might me something you can replace or adjust, or it might not be at all possible to recreate exactly the same position, but you don't know til you look.
 
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Jhey

Jhey

Well-Known Member
I've got the seat set about right & very comfy, watched a few videos on youtube and have no knee or back pain etc but it comes up higher than the handle bars unlike my Sirrus which are roughly about level, I flipped the step so it's up, hoods are slightly rounded towards me, the frame is slightly lower than my Sirrus elite too but the seat height is about the same on both, I will try and measure it properly later, I think one thing which will help with tricep pain is strengthening my core to hold myself up slightly better.

I've bought a pack of stem spacers, I will try and add one or two to bring the bars up a little.

According to the halfords site the Large (54cm) is for people between 5'9" - 6'2"
 
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Jhey

Jhey

Well-Known Member
Measured my bars to about 45cm, my shoulders are about 40cm

Carrera Centre of Stem Cap To Seat Post: 57cm
Specialized Centre of Stem Cap To Seat Post: 59cm

My handle bars on the carrera fit under the ones on the specialized but seat is the same height.

Being my first road bike & soon to be getting married I decided to go second hand on a road bike so I could try and learn how to fit & fix things etc, being cheap I wouldn't mind so much of I borked trying to fix things, so far I've learnt how to do my own gears and wheel trueing, next time I upgrade in the future I will go to a shop and get measured for a bike & get a bike fit.
 
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Jhey

Jhey

Well-Known Member
Bars probably a 44cm, might be worth getting some narrower ones, especially if pain in hands from wrists rolling in

Ok thank you, may look into getting some, My wrists are normally fine it's just normally palm area under the thumb that hurts tbh & the odd tricep pain but I can normally shake that off.
 

mrbikerboy73

Über Member
Location
Worthing, UK
I had a Carrera Vanquish road bike I bought second hand from a guy at work. It was a size Medium and I'm 5'6". Stand over height was fine but I always felt stretched out on it. I put a shorter stem on it and it did help but I reduced it by at least 20mm IIRC. I also found the bars quite wide and bought some narrower ones, which again, did help. Great first bike but the frame geometry is a bit odd. Nothing that can't be sorted out with a few reasonably cheap tweaks here and there. Good luck with getting it comfortable.
 

vickster

Legendary Member
Could try some more padded tape and better gloves too

The bike lacks a carbon fork I think so you'll be getting a fair bit of road buzz I expect
 

vickster

Legendary Member
According to the halfords site the Large (54cm) is for people between 5'9" - 6'2"

That's a broad range of body shapes and sizes for one size to cater for, so not surprising it needs adjustment. Some brands would cover that range with 54-56-58cm frames (and still changes might be needed - "men's" bikes in a 54cm always have bars and stems that are too big for me at 5'10ish)
 
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Jhey

Jhey

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the reply guys, will keep tweaking, I have made it a lot better than when I first got it though.

Oh and the road buzz? Yeah I feel it lol, I've always had bikes with suspension, my Sirrus Elite is the first without but has nice carbon forks which help.
 
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