Saddle Height.

[Blue Hills]

What is all this BS about always riding on the drops in the olden days? Brake levers had rubber hoods in the 60s. I had Mafac Racers with hood covers. We rode on the tops and the hoods, much as today. On the drops when going hard. Try an image search for say: 'Anquetil Tour de France 1960s' - you'll see what I mean. The fashion was for bigger frames and less seat post showing. But the bikes I have today are set up with a similar drop saddle to bars. I'm over 70 and prefer drop bars for the variety of hand positions they offer, riding on the hoods or tops for probably 90% of the time. If you were on the drops all the time in the old days may I suggest you didn't know what you were doing, much as would be the case today?

View attachment 389294
Anquetil in the 1966 Giro d'Italia

Interesting post.

Riuding on the hoods for a fair bit of rides proves comfortable for many I would suggest because the wrist is not twisted.

But what I'd like to understand is how this is very much different from putting your hands on flat-bar bar-ends. Where I spend an awful lot of time on my extensive collection of flat-bar bikes.

 

[mjr]

Based on his prior comments somewhere about 'young people' not being able to do basic electrics or some such. Most of my peer friends (mid to late 40s, teenagers in the 80s) would get professional tradespeople in to do electrics beyond changing a light bulb

Metropolitan elite? Move to among crop fields and if you've basic electrical competence, you soon decide that doing minor wiring jobs yourself is preferable to fielding yet another bloody phone call from a pro saying they can't find your house!

 

[mjr]

No, I need to get my general fitness level back up to how it was a few years ago - and lose a few pounds of body fat!
Actually, I'm really looking forward to doing my ex-regular 11 mile each way trip on my "new" 14kg lightweight Pioneer next time, and if I can still do it in about 45 minutes - bearing in mind I'm older and heavier than I was, I shall be a very happy bunny. It may not be a fancy 7kg carbon bike, but it's noticeably lighter than my 3 speed. You actually needed to be fairly fit to make decent progress on an all-steel roadster with wide-ratio SA hub gears. Either your legs would be a blur whirring away in 2nd or you whacked it up into 3rd and then you really had to push hard against the top gear ratio. The much bigger ratio choice on the Pioneer will help me maintain a more comfortable cadence.

Only if you didn't have the mechanical skills to realise that was silly, replace the rear sprocket and lower the knee-popping near-100-inch top gear to something more sensible around 80"

 

[mjr]

Because we prefer roadbikes? They are more comfortable? Now with shoulder issues (after being knocked off a hybrid), wider handlebars make my shoulder hurt. Narrower raid bars, holding the hoods or tops don’t. Horses for courses

I've seen far narrower flat bars than road ones, so I think that's not the only reason you went road.

I think my swept bar bikes are much more comfortable than either drops or flats, but each to their own!

 

[mjr]

You can common usage me all you like.
Bike seat.
Saddle=horse.
From Wiki:- 'often called a seat'

My garden shed is not an unsaddling enclosure.

It ain't a seat unless you're recumbent. It's a saddle because you're astride the bike, so it needs to curve down sideways as well as slightly upwards along the bike - forming a saddle point!

 

[Blue Hills]

I've seen far narrower flat bars than road ones, so I think that's not the only reason you went road.

!

Yep you can have a flat bar bike with any width of bars you want. In london there are some insanely narrow ones. Ridden by poseurs mostly who must be constantly fighting to keep the bike upright.

 

[SuperHans123]

It ain't a seat unless you're recumbent. It's a saddle because you're astride the bike, so it needs to curve down sideways as well as slightly upwards along the bike - forming a saddle point!

seat
siːt/
noun

1. 1.
   a thing made or used for sitting on

saddle
ˈsad(ə)l/
noun

1. 1.
   a seat fastened on the back of a horse or other animal for riding, typically made of leather and raised at the front and rear.

 

[FishFright]

seat
siːt/
noun

1. 1.
   a thing made or used for sitting on

saddle
ˈsad(ə)l/
noun

1. 
   
   
   • 1.
     a seat fastened on the back of a horse or other animal for riding, typically made of leather and raised at the front and rear.

Some impressive formatting there .

It's a saddle, 99% of people call it a saddle, any diagram of a bike's part will call it a saddle, if you want to by one you look at saddles.
But I get what you mean , I want to call brakes - breaks and tyres - rubber rounds so I insist that everyone else does the same based on .. some stuff I've not made up yet but by gad I will !!

 

[Alan O]

I've seen far narrower flat bars than road ones, so I think that's not the only reason you went road.

I think my swept bar bikes are much more comfortable than either drops or flats, but each to their own!

My most comfortable bars are the old-style randonneur drop bars on my tourer - wider than average road bars and with a slight upsweep. My MTB bars (with bar ends) are wider and I like that for the extra leverage and control, but they're not the most comfortable over any long distance. It all depends on our individual bodies.

 

[Slick]

Yep you can have a flat bar bike with any width of bars you want. In london there are some insanely narrow ones. Ridden by poseurs mostly who must be constantly fighting to keep the bike upright.

I see one guy almost every morning on a fixie with what looks a very strange set up with unbelievable narrow bars, but he doesn't look like a poser or poseur to me. I'm not entirely sure what it is about his style I've come to admire, if it's the bike, the grip, the fact he tackles a route I just wouldn't dream of or just the fact he's there no matter the weather. I just feel there's a few too many people wanting to push their style on everyone without being able to acknowledge the fact there are loads of differing ways to enjoy this cycling malarkey and just because you wouldn't do what someone else does does not make them wrong.

 

[mjr]

seat
siːt/
noun

1. 1.
   a thing made or used for sitting on

saddle
ˈsad(ə)l/
noun

1. 1.
   a seat fastened on the back of a horse or other animal for riding, typically made of leather and raised at the front and rear.

Which seems to be from those conservatives at Oxford, but I see why there's no link to the source, because even they put "1.1 A seat on a bicycle or motorcycle" at https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/saddle

Saddle = sad-dle = sit tool, basically. It's a bit different from a seat in that it's an active tool, but that's minor.

 

[vickster]

Metropolitan elite? Move to among crop fields and if you've basic electrical competence, you soon decide that doing minor wiring jobs yourself is preferable to fielding yet another bloody phone call from a pro saying they can't find your house!

Skipdiver John is in London

Who on earth wants to live in a field out of choice

 

[SuperHans123]

Which seems to be from those conservatives at Oxford, but I see why there's no link to the source, because even they put "1.1 A seat on a bicycle or motorcycle" at https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/saddle

Saddle = sad-dle = sit tool, basically. It's a bit different from a seat in that it's an active tool, but that's minor.

PWNED

 

[boydj]

I go out to work so I don't have to fix things, paint things etc. I can pay people who will dona better job than me having been trained to do so. I'd rather spend my non working time doing this I actually enjoy, i.e. None of the things you mention. I'm not especially young

If you enjoy/get satisfaction from such tasks, crack on. Even better if it's your job and you get paid to do them

On the bike fit question, I have had two fairly recently from physios. Done after joint surgeries, to make sure the bike set up wasn't going to exacerbate injuries or hinder recovery

This is a gender issue - most males like to prove their manliness by fixing things - usually making things worse until they then have to call in the experts to undo the damage done by the attempted repair before fixing the initial problem and charging twice as much as the original repair would have cost.

 

[Blue Hills]

Not entirely boyd, it's actually also quite theraputic to fix stuff yourself, particularly if it involves a bike of course.