Quick maintenance Question

[Spoons47]

The right knee at the front just a tad after about 15 miles. It’s my go faster mirror See the Thread entitled “Am I Sad”

 

[Spoons47]

You mean fore and aft?

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Rough rule of thumb with saddle height is your leg should be straight when your heel is on the pedal, and the pedal is as low as it can go in relation to the saddle, so the 1st pic looks like the setting is pretty much OK.
There are two more "scientific" formulae I know of for setting height; both are based on the rider's inside leg measurement with no shoes on, and it needs to be fairly accurately taken.
One is top face of saddle in line with seatpost to centre of pedal spindle at lowest point = 1.09 times inside leg. The second one is top face of saddle to centre of bottom bracket = 0.882 times inside leg. If you calculate using both you typically find they both come out within about a quarter of an inch of each other. Every rider is different, but these figures will not be far off the optimum, just set according to the formula and tweak from there.
As regards minor bike shakedown adjustments, personally I don't see much point in doing a 40 minute journey all the way to the bike shop just for a 5 minute tweak. Waste of time unless you have some sort of real issue to resolve, not a trivial one like a control cable needing some slack taking up. Make a cuppa, by the time the tea is brewed you will have done your adjustment and saved an unnecessary journey.

 

[Spoons47]

Rough rule of thumb with saddle height is your leg should be straight when your heel is on the pedal, and the pedal is as low as it can go in relation to the saddle, so the 1st pic looks like the setting is pretty much OK.
There are two more "scientific" formulae I know of for setting height; both are based on the rider's inside leg measurement with no shoes on, and it needs to be fairly accurately taken.
One is top face of saddle in line with seatpost to centre of pedal spindle at lowest point = 1.09 times inside leg. The second one is top face of saddle to centre of bottom bracket = 0.882 times inside leg. If you calculate using both you typically find they both come out within about a quarter of an inch of each other. Every rider is different, but these figures will not be far off the optimum, just set according to the formula and tweak from there.
As regards minor bike shakedown adjustments, personally I don't see much point in doing a 40 minute journey all the way to the bike shop just for a 5 minute tweak. Waste of time unless you have some sort of real issue to resolve, not a trivial one like a control cable needing some slack taking up. Make a cuppa, by the time the tea is brewed you will have done your adjustment and saved an unnecessary journey.

Thanks for your reply. I’m going to do the inside leg thing when I get home from work this morning, and maybe take one spacer off stem, I have been getting confused with angle and height adjustments handlebars . LBS (not that local, long story) are happy for me to bring it in for free service seeing as I had some clunky and noisy gears, may as well get it done now and use the ride home to test out any tweaks I have made.

 

[Milkfloat]

A longer stem and bent arms would help with aero.

 

[Ticktockmy]

View attachment 424345 View attachment 424342 So service booked for Thursday, will be taking it to Wallington on the train and thanks to Vicksters light bulb moment, I will be cycling home to Crawley.
I’ve been tinkering with bike fit, I realise I’m stuck with the hybrid (should have put more thought in when I was buying) but thought I would try and make it more aero whilst still within the parameters of a correct bike fit. With that in mind can anybody give any thoughts to my leg angle in 2nd pic, do you think I should go tad higher with saddle? 1st pic is where I started and 2nd pic the finish.
Cheers
Si

Now that looks like a cycle that just begging to join in on the Local North Sussex section of the Roughstuff Fellowship https://www.rsf.org.uk next rides start in September.

 

[Vantage]

From looking at the first pic your saddle is the right height. You'll have maybe a milimeter or 2 up or down to play with to get comfortable. From the second pic it looks like the saddle could go forward a touch but again, this is down to you find comfortable and the same applies to your arms and the 'aero' look.
There's no point whatsoever in being low and sleek if after a couple miles your neck is killing you from being low down and your wrists ache from too much weight on them.
Regarding maintenance schedules, this too is a load of cockwomble. Mileages and hours spent pedalling vary from one rider to the next.
Tom who powers up hills and chases strava segments can wear a chain after 2500 miles in 3 months the same amount as Harry who pootles along eating cake having done 5000 miles in 2 years.
Dick on the other hand is laughing his tits off as both Tom and Harry bought carbon fibre disk braked bikes that can't take mudguards or racks. Idiots. :P

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

A longer stem and bent arms would help with aero.

Aero doesn't matter a monkeys for a non-competitive cyclist. Most of the time you will not even be going fast enough for aerodynamic drag to be greater than tyre and mechanical friction drag. Set the bike up for maximum comfort and maximum visibility of other traffic. Go back 25 years and you'd almost always see handlebars set level, or very nearly level, with the saddle on anything but an out and out racing machine. The current trend of having stupidly low bar positions comes from too many ordinary cyclists trying to kid themselves they are pro racers, forgetting that pros are getting paid to be uncomfortable whilst racing, whereas the hobby or utility cyclists are not!

 

[Milkfloat]

Aero doesn't matter a monkeys for a non-competitive cyclist. Most of the time you will not even be going fast enough for aerodynamic drag to be greater than tyre and mechanical friction drag. Set the bike up for maximum comfort and maximum visibility of other traffic. Go back 25 years and you'd almost always see handlebars set level, or very nearly level, with the saddle on anything but an out and out racing machine. The current trend of having stupidly low bar positions comes from too many ordinary cyclists trying to kid themselves they are pro racers, forgetting that pros are getting paid to be uncomfortable whilst racing, whereas the hobby or utility cyclists are not!

In the OPs case, actually it does matter. 1.) He asked about it 2.) His first photo showed his arms locked which is likely to cause all sorts of problems.

As regarding the trend for a lower front end, yes people want to go faster, but actually it is mainly due to compact dropped bars, riders nowadays ride mainly on the hoods rather than the drops, therefore their normal riding position is actually pretty much the same. When they do use the drops, because they are compacts the difference between the hoods and drops is not that much.

 

[Spoons47]

Thanks for all your replies. This morning did the inside leg measurement and adjusted saddle accordinly, I also centrered the saddle I think it was far too back. I the. Remeasured and adjusted the saddle. I will post the pic. I did a ten mile ride this afternoon, it felt good but maybe a bit too hard on the quads, so might go down 1 or 2mm on the saddle to engage hamstrings a bit more. So I’m confused about the locked arms, I’m trying keep wrists straight to avoid numb fingers which has been working brilliant, that’s why my elbows are pointing out to have some bend. How can I achieve not locked arms while keeping wrists straight for good blood flow?
By the way the bar ends do help with being able to change to at least 3 different hand positions.
Thanks again, sorry if my understanding is a bit slow.
Cheers.
Simon.

 

[Vantage]

It looks like you have an adjustable stem there. I'd suggest playing around with the stem angle till you find a comfortable position.
You could also play around with the saddle angle. If the nose is pointing down even slightly it could be literally pushing you towards the handlebar. Some find that slightly nose pointing up helps reduce this...myself included.

 

[Spoons47]

 

[Spoons47]

I think this looks much better . Thanks Vantage, yes after today’s ride I had a feel that the saddle could come up maybe 1or 2 degrees. 4 days off from tomorrow so will do some tinkering.

 

[dantheman]

Hmm this guy is posing top less and carries a mirror to fix his hair... Pretty boy....

Anyway, it's good to play with positioning, a small change can make a big difference.. I suffer badly with pins and needles in my hands (also when not cycling) gloves can help-I've tried many cheap ones (couple of quid each) and did have a pair that seemed to help, but I can't remember which ones (bought about 5 types from planet x in a sale) so it may be worth trying some out, and if a certain pair help then buy a few pairs....

 

[Spoons47]

Hmm this guy is posing top less and carries a mirror to fix his hair... Pretty boy....

Anyway, it's good to play with positioning, a small change can make a big difference.. I suffer badly with pins and needles in my hands (also when not cycling) gloves can help-I've tried many cheap ones (couple of quid each) and did have a pair that seemed to help, but I can't remember which ones (bought about 5 types from planet x in a sale) so it may be worth trying some out, and if a certain pair help then buy a few pairs....

Hee hee I had already posted pic then thought “oops might have message from moderater, so let me apologise to anybody who might take offence. Yes I have gloves and I love them. Anyhoo did some more tweaks this morning with saddle height (I can’t believe how high I have it! Maybe I have a small torso for 5ft 9! Also moved the saddle forward 2mm and tilted up 2mm. Well believe me I am astounded with the result. Going for a longer ride tomorrow in the wind and rain and will post update.