small person with new road bike

[joanne]

hi i collected my new road bike on friday its a specialized dolce sport ive managed to get out twice this weekend and im really pleased with the overall feel of the ride compared to my old hybrid but i am 5ft tall and have small hands and im really struggling to reach the brake levers, i was just wondering if anyone else has encountered this problem? ive read that you can get shims to adjust the reach just wondered if anyone else has had them added and if it works?

 

[lulubel]

I haven't adjusted the reach on my brake levers, but I do have small hands, so I know it can be a problem. Did you get the bike shop to set the bike up properly for you? It might be worth going back and explaining the problem because sometimes it's as simple as adjusting the position of the levers on the bars slightly.

 

[joanne]

yeah im going to go this week see what they can do

 

[billy1561]

I had spacers fitted to a previous road bike. Took the lbs about a minute to do. Completely free and much better. Go ahead and ask them.

 

[Widge]

Hi...........

I didn't think I had particularly small hands untill I bought my road bike a few weeks ago and found sqeezing the brakes from the hoods a real effort.

Some shifter and brake combos have a mechanical reach adjustment.

My bike has 2300/Sora type triple brifters and these have the option to fit 2 sizes of pad into the shifter top to reduce reach. I imagine that these rubber 'bumpers would ideally come with any new bike or groupset purchase, but in the event I sent off to SJS (I think) for a pair of both sizes (couple of quid each) and fitted the largest.

Helped a lot.

...although they are DIFFICULT to get hold of.

I wouldn't mind betting that most LBS's have a handful lying around without even realising it? Worth an enquiry?

w