Fitting flat bar road bike - advice on vid

[gillelive]

Can you apply the same rules in this vid to a flat bar road bike e.g. Sirrus? I think I have the set up right but not sure if the latter part of the vid where he talks about not seeing the front hub when looking down at the bar stem applies, am I right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAl_5e7bIHk&feature=player_embedded

 

[cyberknight]

Jim langley says use your regular grip to determine your position to the same effect, he uses a plumb bob from your nose though ...

. For flat bars with bar ends, use the regular grip position. Now, have a helper look at you from the side (photo) to gauge where a plumbline dropped from the tip of your nose would fall. Optimally, there should be about an inch between the plumb line and the center of the handlebar.

 

[HLaB]

More important to me is the saddle height position which is covered too. I think the guy said that the bar obscuring the hub is a starting point and some folk would prefer other positions; I flipped my stem to get a lower position, I've no idea what that done to my view of the hub. A flat bar will generally be wider so I don't think its too apt anyway.

 

[gillelive]

thanks for that.......does the size of your nose come in to play when using the plumb line

 

[cyberknight]

thanks for that.......does the size of your nose come in to play when using the plumb line

I always have my seat set 1st , then my stem is set so the hub is in front of the stem as i look down but i have a short torso for my size so this works for me.


Lol
reminds me of one of my favourite films..

 

[MacB]

it's quite hard to judge as there's quite a variance by manufacturers in the sizing difference, if any, between flat bar road bikes and drops. Looking at some of the manufacturers sites, for example the Scott Speedster S50 flat bar and S50 drop bars have exactly the same geometry and stem lengths. An XXL is a 595mm TT and a 130mm stem and an XL is a 575mm TT and a 120mm stem. The XXL would be from about 6'2" upwards and the XL up to 6'2", roughly. This would indicate to me that they expect to set up the flat bar about the same as they would the drops.

But then look at something like Cotic and their Roadrat model, comes in small, medium and large, all 3 get a 130mm stem and the effective TTs are much longer at 577, 590 and 610mm respectively. They rate the large as being for 5'10" upwards, both the Scott and the Cotic have ST angles of about 73deg, so that's quite some difference.

Speedster XL up to about 6'2" - TT+Stem = 695mm
Speedster XXL - TT+Stem = 725mm

Roadrat Large for 5'10" upwards - TT+Stem = 740mm - that is one hell of a long reach for someone at 5'10", IMO, even if the saddle was jammed all the way forward.

I've just taken the drop bars off my Vaya and put on some On One Mary bars, which have a forward/back sweep and work out about the same, reachwise, as putting a straight flat bar on. With the drops I had a 100mm stem and have put a 120mm stem on with the Mary bars but I'm waiting on a 130mm stem to lengthen it a bit. This means that the front hub is now visible behind the bar clamp but no way could I have run them with the 100mm stem unless I dropped them really low. The effective TT on the Vaya is 585mm and I'm 6'1", so I'll have a total of 715mm when the new stem arrives.