Horrible dilemma, Specialized bike (Might be a long post..)

[yello]

It's no good trying to help zizou! Wakou has decided (on what basis, I'm not quite sure) that the bike is too big and selling now appears to be the only option!

(pulling you leg wakou might help to make the bike fit!)

 

[Globalti]

God, that saddle is an abomination and it's canted too far forwards. Do your bum a favour and get a Charge Knife or Spoon. Otherwise the amount of seatpost looks okayish to me.

 

[wakou]

I have dropped the seat post to the max. Guess what? I am in love.
Gives me an even worse dilemma.

 

[wakou]

God, that saddle is an abomination and it's canted too far forwards. Do your bum a favour and get a Charge Knife or Spoon. Otherwise the amount of seatpost looks okayish to me.

Yes! How mental is that? The saddle was tilted down at a weird angle......

 

[wakou]

Thanks everyone for the helpful and thought provoking replies.

That is a bloody horrible saddle! You're best off selling!

God, that saddle is an abomination and it's canted too far forwards. Do your bum a favour and get a Charge Knife or Spoon. Otherwise the amount of seatpost looks okayish to me.

When I first saw it, I thought it looked OK-ish, but obviously your more experienced eyes knew better. Only a couple of days short commute I have a sore a*se and an aching back! (I am doing some heavy shifting at work ATM but this does not usually bother me), also the saddle seems to 'droop' in the middle, tilting my back and applying pressure to the meat 'n' veg. I have a couple of saddles on order bought from the FS section of another forum, I hope they are better!

So I take it you've made up your mind that the bike is too big? FYI, I ride both 54cm and 52cm frames without problem. I'm 5'7".

I am 172cm = just under 5' 8", This is a 56cm frame....

You can shorten it at least an inch with a different seat post. for cheap go for the old style seat post with a separate clamp and mount it so the clamp body is above the seat rails not below. You can then drop the seat post so the rails are virtually on top of the seat tube. A different saddle with a smaller distance between the rails and the top of the saddle will help as well.

I am intrigued. I am new to all this could yo explain in some more detail please?

If the reach feels fine then you still have some options about lowering the seat height - you may need a smaller seat post though if there isn't any more room for the post to slide down. Changing the saddle might offer a slightly lower profile, changing to SPDs might give the pedal a higher stack height (although other clipless systems could give a lower stack height and make things worse), changing to smaller cranks.

I will certainly be fitting SPD's..
I just noticed that the crankset on my MTB is 170mm as opposed to the 175mm on the Spesh.
The MTB is a Shimano FC M730 Deore XT:

The TriCross is FSA VERO

Could I easily swap these?

Can you stand over the top tube flat footed and have a gap between your legs and the top tube? If you can do that it might be worth persevering with saddle height but if you need to go on your toes to manage that i'd probably advice selling and getting one that fits better.

I can stand over but it is 'snug'

Thanks again...

 

[wakou]

The 'new' saddles arrived today (I bought the Boardman and the 'Massi')

Despite being on late shifts this week, and it being dark and wet and miserable when I got home, and not a good time to start a' fettlin' I decided to forgo supper and get the spanners out.

Now, some of you purists might find that the 'Massi' looks every bit as abominable as what was fitted before, but:

I have only had chance to try the 'Massi' and ride about 200m, but the areas that were starting to ache, (technically known I believe, as 'back sack and crack") seemed to sigh with relief.
As a bonus, even though it is 'padded' it is about 3cm lower between the rails and the seat, and this extra has made a real improvement, so much so that going on this 200m ride I can start to consider raising the post a tad, or lowering the handlebars. RESULT!!

As for the Boardman......
I am not vain, nor do I care hugely about what my bike looks like, but a white saddle on a Black/Maroon bike? a little de trop maybe? Besides, being an inveterate tinkerer, my always mucky hands would soon make this pristine white thing the colour of Tracey Emin's day off knickers. I will try it for comfort and suitabilty etc and put it in the swappsies box.

As for the 'original' saddle.... It has only 'TFI' marked. A google-about really only came up with this:

http://www.terrybicycles.com/About-Us

'The original women's bicycle company'

Which might explain why I found it so uncomfortable! I love women's bums, but they ARE a different shape (praise be!) and I guess that this saddle (which seems to be very good quality) is anatomically made for a woman.

 

[wakou]

A little thinking, and the mysterious TLA "BCD" resolved to "Bolt Circle Diameter" ?? Correct???
A damned stupid measurement, IMHO as 5 bolt cranks have only a theoretical opposite to measure to, but measuring to the crank centre and doubling it means the same??
In which case I can't swap them and keep the rings as as the MTB has BCD=110mm and the Spec has 130mm.....
So that goes in to the "future projects" file. BTW I managed to ground the pedal the other day, not a sharp bend, nor was I going fast, so shorter cranks are deffo something to consider.....

 

[al-fresco]

Bike sizing really is a nightmare, not least because of the different way frames are measured. I'm just under 5' 8" and a 54cm Specialized Langster is a perfect fit as is a 50cm Surly Cross-check. Specialized measure from the centre of the crank to the top of the seat tube whereas Surly measure from the centre of the crank to the top of the cross tube. The length of the cross tube is almost the same (54.8 on the Langster, 54 on the Cross-check).

My Saracen, on the other hand, is too big. Oh, I can reach the pedals, and the seat isn't right down on the tube but it's too big. And it isn't until you get a bike that's right size that you realise it.