Sunday, April 22, 2007

Tweaking the bike fit

In my Three Capes Brevet writeup, I alluded to extremely painful knots in my shoulders. I've still got them. I thought that maybe the hydration pack was causing them (don't know why, I've been riding with a hydration pack for 3 years now...), so I rode yesterday without it. No, still knots.

Off to check out the fit. Bleriot never did have a real fit. I pulled out the Lemond and started comparing measurements. Usually it is not possible for me to shove the seat back far enough. However, the seat on Bleriot was back much further than it was on Lemond. The beauty of a relaxed seat tube angle, I guess. (Before anyone asks, I measured from the vertical line of the crank bolt. The cranks on both are 165mm, as well). The handlebars were up MUCH higher than the seat, as well. The center of the handlebars was 3/4" further away on Bleriot.

So I dropped the stem, and pushed the seat forward. Now I'm within 1/4"seat to handlebar distance. I'll see how it feels during this week's commute. I might have to raise the seat a bit, to compensate for moving it forward.

4 comments:

Honeydog said...

Is the Lemond jealous of the Bleriot? You don't seem to write about her at all! :)

lynnef said...

Doesn't seem to be. It hasn't let the air out of Bleriot's tires, or "adjusted" the brakes or anything. Lemond just isn't the bike to ride when it is pouring rain. I'll be back riding it soon enough. If the weather is decent this weekend, I'll ride it on the Monster Cookie Ride. You'd think my MTB would have a complex; I haven't ridden it in over a year.

David said...

Lynne,

That's not uncommon with the longer distances. The road shock is traveling up through your forks, through the bars, into your arms and settling in the muscle groups in your upper back.

You can address that issue by lifting very light loads - 2 kg, max to start. Using hand weights, lock your elbows and raise your right arm, palm-downward, until the back of your hand is slightly above the top of your head. Hold for 10 seconds, then lower it to your side. Do the same thing with your left arm. Call that one rep. Do 10 reps and call that one set. Rest. Then do two more sets.

Do this twice each week for the next three or four weeks and see if that makes a major difference.

Keep the pedals turnin'

dr

lynnef said...

yes, THAT lift :-) I sort of fell off the wagon, weight-training-wise at the end of February. Didn't want to stress the ribs. Time to get back to it, I guess. No more excuses.