Road bike regret! Convert?

[Globalti]

Welcome to the forum. I'm going to give you some advice, which I hope you will accept in the constructive spirit in which it is offered.

Firstly the bike is a disaster; the handlebars are set up all wrong and the brake levers are in the wrong place meaning they are hard to reach. They should be 2" further down on the first curve so that the levers are closer to the bars. Down tube shifters were one of the things that put people off road bikes and it was the arrival of integrated shifters where gear changing is done through the brake levers, that brought a lot of newbies and former mountain bikers into road cycling, along with several other improvements that made road bikes easier to ride. The bars themselves are an old-fashioned shape with a big distance down to the drops, which as a novice you will find intolerable.

The saddle is at the wrong angle and will be throwing all your weight forwards onto those awful bars. The seat is waaaay too low unless you are about 5' 4", in which case you should have bought a smaller frame. Heed the advice above about saddle height, it's very important to get it right or you'll knacker your knees.

BTwin is a nice entry-level bike but the quality isn't fantastic, especially the wheels, and an older model will be in need of lots of maintenance. A new one at around £300 would be better set up but won't last long unless you're on top of maintenance.

Take the advice given on here and read up on the web to get the bike set up right then get some miles in. While you're doing that start saving for a newer model with an alloy frame, modern components and better wheels. £300 will get you a new BTwin but my advice would be to stick with £500 as your minimum, unless you can find something second-hand of a higher quality at an affordable price. Certainly don't waste your precious cash trying to convert it to flat bars. Millions of cyclists enjoy drop bars for the variety of positions they offer, the most important being the abilty to drop down and improve your position for speed and headwinds. This position takes some getting-used-to and is especially uncomfortable if you are carrying a little belly fat.

We've all been novices at some time and we all went through a steep learning curve. The difference for you is that you've joined this wonderful virtual community where you have access to masses of knowledge and experience. Have fun!

 

[Pale Rider]

Ok, it seems unanimous decision on saddle height. Haven't ridden in long time (15 years) and the safety of knowing I could quickly get my feet on the floor was the key reason.

Time to dust off the Sheldon Brown stopping and starting video:

http://sheldonbrown.com/starting.html

 

[mjr]

Ok, it seems unanimous decision on saddle height. Haven't ridden in long time (15 years) and the safety of knowing I could quickly get my feet on the floor was the key reason.

There are many ways to get your feet on the floor quickly. My usual two are to lean the bike and put one foot flat, or to jump forwards off the saddle (I'm not racing so I have grippy rubber pedals instead of clips) but I'm sure there are others - in an emergency, I have been known to jump off backwards and leave the bike to its fate, but I don't recommend that! In short, practice stopping and putting a foot down in a safer place where it won't matter too much if you discover that something doesn't work and topple slowly.

Some bikes are easier to get feet down than others. It varies with the shape of the bike and it's not usually a priority in design of racing-style bikes which are designed basically to keep moving.

 

[I like Skol]

Lots to do to optimise that bike and many of the points have already been covered. Luckily most of the things required don't cost a penny. Saddle height is the obvious one, followed by sorting out the handle bar position. You have a few adjustment to make here, firstly I recommend turning them down a bit, probably by as much as 5-10 degrees, so the drop bars are in a more useable position. You might then find that the brakes are in a more sensible position or you might need to experiment with finding the right spot to fix them. This is a small cost as it will require the bar tape to be replaced once you find the sweetspot. Something that hasn't been mentioned yet is the stem. this is a negative angle stem but they can usually be flipped over to move the bars up to a more comfortable position if you are not completely happy riding that low. I did it to my road bike and it went from being OK to being great. If flipping the stem raises the bar too much you can then experiment with the spacers. Move some from below the stem to above it to fine tune the height of the bars. You don't have to cut the steerer tube, the spacers are perfectly fine when fitted above the stem.

Finally, make sure the brakes are working and pump up those tyres. They will probably need 90-100psi in them but check the sidewalls for a max pressure and watch the tyres as you pump them to the higher pressures. If the tyres are old they may be perished and this will show as fine cracks opening up in the rubber as the pressure increases.

 

[mjr]

Time to dust off the Sheldon Brown stopping and starting video:

http://sheldonbrown.com/starting.html

Argh! I feel that trashing your shoes by hooking the low pedal up (instead of pushing the high pedal backwards) should only been done if you're using rat traps or something else that hurts if you miss it with your sole and stop it with your leg.

 

[Cyclist33]

The handlebar drop is really deep. Shallow styles are back in fashion and are generally more comfortable for casual riders.

... although casual riders will tend to stay on the top or hoods anyway so drop height isn't really relevant.

 

[Cyclist33]

Can't offer much advice here except to say I imagine that's an aluminium alloy frame and as long as it ain't broke and the wheels are straight there's no reason why it shouldn't serve you well. If you have a budget of £300 or so you could put a hundred or so on a new chain, cassette, get a nice saddle, some plush bar tape, just little things that add to smooth running and comfort. The other £200 you could get a really nice pair of wheels and some good tyres of a width that helps with comfort (eg 28 mm).

Seat height, yes. Saddle angle, just try it level and then tune it up or down to suit. Absolutely flat doesn't suit everyone, if you scour the photos on here you'll find that out. Height to drops on handlebar - don't sweat it, hardly anyone uses the drops anyway. Shifter angle - if you take the current bar tape off you should be easily able to loosen and move the shifters down the bar. Roughly speaking you'll want the horizontal bit of the rubber hood to be horizontal, though of course there are differences in personal preference. (i have one road bike level, the other tilted downwards a notch.)

By the way I don't think "The bike is a total disaster" is a particularly constructive turn of phrase!

 

[Loofer]

Back again folks.
I barely road that Btwin Road bike and sold it on within a week of buying it.

I've since bought a Specialized Sirrus this week.
Like it quite a bit more. The shifter for the front chain set (whatever that is called) will need replacing as its broken so I'm just stuck with using the lowest 8 gears for now which is fine for a novice.

Perhaps I'm not used to it but my backside hurts and it's gel saddle too, quite chunky so that's another thing I'll be changing.

I'm quite sure I've got the ride height sorted now. My toes can just about touch the floor when sat on saddle. With ball of foot on pedal my legs are ever so slightly bent. I'm trying to get used to pedalling with front of my feet.

My arms (specifically triceps) do hurt a little. Not sure if it's because I'm not used to this yet or if my seating/stretch position isn't correct.

Took for first proper ride today. Clocked up 8 miles at a leisurely pace. Very happy with that as I never thought I could do that at such an early stage.

I'll probably need to get some cycle training for the road and will need to invest in a helmet too.

Apologies in advance but for some of my ride I stuck to the pavement (barely any pedestrians). Wasn't comfortable in road to start with and would have just been another fatality. Eventually got used to main road towards latter half of my ride. The difficulty I find is looking behind me. I wear glasses and my eyesight is extremely poor (-7.00) so my field of vision that falls outside of the lense is pretty useless.

 

[mjr]

Saddle does look huge from that angle. Not surprised that you want to change it. If your arms hurt, you may have the saddle front/back position a bit off. Again, www.sheldonbrown.com/pain.html may help.

Unless you're falling off much, you don't need to "invest"(how's it going to make a profit?) in a helmet unless you want to... but there's another section of the forum for that discussion.

Cycle training should cover how to look behind you properly. I wear glasses for cycling too and don't have a problem turning so far that I see through my fairly small lenses. http://bikeability.dft.gov.uk/ may help you find a trainer although it never really works for me

 

[cyberknight]

Saddle does look huge from that angle. Not surprised that you want to change it. If your arms hurt, you may have the saddle front/back position a bit off. Again, www.sheldonbrown.com/pain.html may help.

Unless you're falling off much, you don't need to "invest"(how's it going to make a profit?) in a helmet unless you want to... but there's another section of the forum for that discussion.

Cycle training should cover how to look behind you properly. I wear glasses for cycling too and don't have a problem turning so far that I see through my fairly small lenses. http://bikeability.dft.gov.uk/ may help you find a trainer although it never really works for me

I will echo this , my triceps were achign when riding and i ended up moveing the saddle back as i had to much weight on my hands , sitting further back moves to the centre of gravity back a bit
I had rode for years as well but i had not got any definitive help with fit as my family/freinds were are not into riding and even though i knew the way to change fit its hard to do without seeing yourself.
Have a look at this
http://www.jimlangley.net/crank/bikefit.html

 

[Loofer]

I will echo this , my triceps were achign when riding and i ended up moveing the saddle back as i had to much weight on my hands , sitting further back moves to the centre of gravity back a bit
I had rode for years as well but i had not got any definitive help with fit as my family/freinds were are not into riding and even though i knew the way to change fit its hard to do without seeing yourself.
Have a look at this
http://www.jimlangley.net/crank/bikefit.html

Thanks.

I was actually thinking I needed to move the saddle forwarded so as not to have to over stretch. Thinking having arms slightly bent with elbows out rather than straight would help.

 

[Drago]

Skullcrushers with a 40kg dumbell mans up those wimpy aching tris.

 

[Loofer]

Skullcrushers with a 40kg dumbell mans up those wimpy aching tris.

Haha... not been to the gym in a few years either... but last time I was going I don't think I got anywhere near 40kg on scrullcrushers!

 

[vickster]

Your elbows should be bent

 

[shouldbeinbed]

The saddle looks awful, ironically you may find one rhat looks hard and horrible actually works better if it fits your sit bones and allows you natural movement on it better than a fat wallowy gel thing that will almost mould around you and hold you in a single state regardless of what you're doing on the bike.

Aching muscles and looking behind are things that improve with practice, you wouldn't expect to be a concert pianist after one lesson so don't expect your body to suddenly get used to a bike after one ride, stick at it and it'll come quickly though.

I have high prescription glasses too +6.75 and a knackered neck, rotation and peripheral vision are a factor for me too. If you do continue to struggle looking behind or feel you could do with seeing more than you do, then you can get mirrors that fit to the bar end of the bike and assist a lot. Many are dross some are very good. I'll not bore on again now about them but if you want some recommendations and reasoning for them, start a conversation wirh me or @shouldbeinbed me in this thread and I'll talk through the ones that work well for me.