Is my bike too big for me?

[slowmotion]

I bought my first road bike 14 years ago and it felt distinctly odd. I just had no experience of the riding position and didn't know if it was normal to be uncomfortable. Like you, it felt too big.
Here's a clip that I found really useful.

[media]
]View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAl_5e7bIHk[/media]


Just tweek it a little bit at a time and find what feels comfortable to you.


Personally, I got a shorter, more upright stem and narrower bars. They made it feel much better.

 

[philipgonzales3]

I have some footage of me, mostly starting and stopping from my security cameras.

If that doesn't look like a world class athlete then I don't know what does! /s

Not sure why i care so much about the opinion of strangers regarding my bike fit lol. But if someone is so inclined please provide any feedback, comments, insults, etc. 😀

ttps://youtu.be/vp-YaymB3lQ?si=ujJBQH4afZNx8Xcp

 

[cyberknight]

low quality screen grab, you do seem to be sitting very upright

 

[Paulus]

low quality screen grab, you do seem to be sitting very upright
View attachment 735343

View attachment 735344

Personally I would say it's a bit small if anything. You are very upright.

 

[cyberknight]

Personally I would say it's a bit small if anything. You are very upright.

its hard to say , the OP posted that they had to have the seatpost replaced it they could get it low enough, seat set at .883 but they have long arms and atm running a high rise stem

 

[Dadam]

You could try rotating* the bars forward slightly to make the forward parts (I don't know what that bit is called but where the tops bend round to face forward before the hoods start) horizontal. That looks like it would drop the hoods by half an inch or so. Then just ride it for a bit and see how you feel. If it's less comfy, move it back. Costs nothing apart from a couple of minutes with an allen key. If you like it there, leave it for a bit and go for a few longer rides, then consider moving it some more. Bearing in mind your core strength will improve and you might get used to the lower position over time and prefer it. Or you might not. Either is 100% fine. Everyone is a different shape and what suits one doesn't suit another. The lower back soreness is probably your back muscles being used more than they're used to. But don't ignore it if it gets worse.

* In case it's not obvious just loosen the 4 bolts in the stem clamp (2 above, 2 below - you seem to have a phone mount in the top 2) enough so the bars can be rotated by hand but stay in position; not enough so they flop down. Then make sure you tighten them up again. If you don't have a torque wrench just remember the rough amount of force you used to loosen them and use no more than that for the final tightening.

I have a fairly similar back story. Work in IT so sat down most of the day, and a few years ago I started cycling on a hybrid. A few miles at a time (under 5 miles to work), then 18 months ago got a drop bar road bike. But for me it was the other way round, I felt a bit too stretched out and got numbness in the hands for having too much weight on them, so I rotated the bars up slightly and that helped.

 

[boydj]

I have some footage of me, mostly starting and stopping from my security cameras.

If that doesn't look like a world class athlete then I don't know what does! /s

Not sure why i care so much about the opinion of strangers regarding my bike fit lol. But if someone is so inclined please provide any feedback, comments, insults, etc. 😀

ttps://youtu.be/vp-YaymB3lQ?si=ujJBQH4afZNx8Xcp

The fact you can get your feet on the ground while seated would suggest that your saddle is a little on the low side.

 

[EckyH]

The fact you can get your feet on the ground while seated would suggest that your saddle is a little on the low side.

In my opinion there are two measurements which influence that: bottom bracket drop and tyre diameter.
On the cyclocross or the track bike it's much more difficult for me to reach the ground (aggravated by the tyre diameter of the cyclocross bike) than on my commuter. In all three cases the saddle height is correct.
That's why I wouldn't give the "you can get your feet on the ground while seated" argument much weight.

E.

 

[Reynard]

It looks more or less OK to me. As other posters have said, we're all different. The best way to get a ballpark fit is as follows.

Sitting on the saddle, your leg should be straight (but your knee not locked) with your HEEL on the pedal at the bottom of its stroke. You cycle with the ball of your foot on the pedal, and so your leg will still have a slight bend in it at the bottom of the pedal stroke. With you sat like this, your feet may or may not touch the ground. In my case they don't.

The reach is measured as being between saddle nose and headset (that's the top of the fork where it fits into the stem) - it should be the same as the distance between your elbow and the tips of your fingers.

This is also a good way of swapping a basic set-up between bikes, and I'd wager that if you took the measurement from saddle nose to headset, and from the bottom bracket, along the seat tube, to the top of the saddle, they'd be near enough identical between your hybrid and road bike.

And if you pop a multitool in your pocket, you can tweak a bit as you ride. Bottom line is, if you're comfortable, it *IS* right.

 

[philipgonzales3]

Ok so I found a guy that does bike fits out of his house. Has 30 years experience and went through posts on the FB group he is in and people seemed happy with his work. He also does mechanical services. My thinking was, I had so much doubt about my positioning that I needed a pro. Figured it couldn't hurt and would help me get some reassurance that I'm at the correct saddle height. He wasn't very expensive either. $125 USD. Seemed like a good deal to me.

Turns out it wasn't (the "correct" saddle height I mean). Not sure why such the big discrepancy but he raised it up high. This was based on the angle of my leg that he measured, as well as the data about the angle in which I was putting pressure. Also coached me some on cadence (90rpm), showed me that I was heavily favoring my right side, more coaching on the pedal stroke etc. He also adjusted the bars. They were basically angled to high and the drop position wasn't that usable or optimal or what not.

I'm still getting acclimated to all the changes, so we'll see how I get on, but I'm hopeful this will help me out in the long term. He seemed to know his stuff.

Top is the before and bottom is the after.

Before:

After:

Not very flattering pics with the beer belly but hey at least I'm working on it!

Oh yeah, as you have probably spotted he also gave me the push needed to go clipless.

May not be the "best" shoes but hey for $59.99 I think they'll do the trick for now.



For the pedals I just "had" to go the matching route and get the 105 to represent the "groupset of the people".

These were like $150 USD but it is what it is. Gotta "pay to play" as they say.



I went on a 1 hour ride and didn't fall (yet), so I'll take that as a win! My rear end hurts a bit but bike fitter says I need to acclimate to actually sitting on my sit bones rather than soft tissue (butt). Not actually any faster yet but was too busy worrying about unclipping, cadence, pedal stroke etc. to be fast. I'll get there! Lol

 

[cyberknight]

Dont worry to much about getting cadence spot on 90 rpm as its a ball park figure, some spin more or less dependant on your body .
tbh im think you could do with a slightly shorter stem as you do appear to be rounding your shoulders to reach the bars but im nit picking

 

[Gunk]

I’d say that looks about spot on, worth taking a simple multi tool out with you when you ride on the road so you can stop and make minor tweaks to to the saddle and bars to finally reach that sweet spot.

I was out on my road bike a couple of weeks ago after 12 months of it just sitting in the garage, instantly I just felt it wasn’t quite right, I lowered the saddle by about 1/2 inch and it suddenly felt made to measure.

 

[philipgonzales3]

Dont worry to much about getting cadence spot on 90 rpm as its a ball park figure, some spin more or less dependant on your body .
tbh im think you could do with a slightly shorter stem as you do appear to be rounding your shoulders to reach the bars but im nit picking

He did mention to let him know if I had any shoulder pain but so far so good. 🤞

 

[ExBrit]

I didn't read the whole thread so someone might have said this already. That is a fabulous paint job on your bike.

 

[philipgonzales3]

I didn't read the whole thread so someone might have said this already. That is a fabulous paint job on your bike.

Thank you! It is one of the reasons I went with the last gen vs current gen. I was looking at a current gen al5, which came in matte black and matte green. I like a little color in my life so was stoked to pick up this bike on sale for ~1K USD off.