Dem bicicletas dos, doe.

[troyguitar]

So I started looking into handlebars a little more today, and apparently I should be running some of the narrowest bars on the market. My tiny shoulders are all of 35cm wide. Most bars are only made down to 40, some to 38, and only a precious few in 36. My bike came with 42.

You don't want to go super narrow, you lose some stability with narrow bars. But you'd gain some aero.

Are they not supposed to match your body size?

[troyguitar]

Are they not supposed to match your body size?

I mean, to some degree I suppose so. Part of it is personal preference too.

I don’t like super wide bars, but I also really don’t like super narrow bars. They’re too twitchy.

If you get a chance I'd be super curious to know how wide your shoulders are at the stupid joints. I already forgot the name, but mine are 33-35cm.

[troyguitar]

If you get a chance I'd be super curious to know how wide your shoulders are at the stupid joints. I already forgot the name, but mine are 33-35cm.

I'm right around 40cm per the tape I just stretched across my chest shoulder to shoulder.

So a "super narrow" bar for you might just be a "fitting" bar for me? I've only ever tried the one 42cm bar.

[troyguitar]

Fuggit. I'm paying the $250 for a pro to tell me that I'm about everything. Fitting session scheduled for August 6th.

If I can't do a 5+ hour ride without pain on August 7th, then I'm going to keep bitching about this shit for the rest of my life.

[fledonfoot]

Fuggit. I'm paying the $250 for a pro to tell me that I'm about everything. Fitting session scheduled for August 6th.

If I can't do a 5+ hour ride without pain on August 7th, then I'm going to keep bitching about this shit for the rest of my life.

I remember a day where you were complaining about 20 minute rides killing you. It was two months ago. I think?

Did I go under the knife for a couple of years or something?

[fledonfoot]

Also: in4 your fit specialist to tell you to pick up autocross or something instead.

[troyguitar]

Fuggit. I'm paying the $250 for a pro to tell me that I'm about everything. Fitting session scheduled for August 6th.

If I can't do a 5+ hour ride without pain on August 7th, then I'm going to keep bitching about this shit for the rest of my life.

I remember a day where you were complaining about 20 minute rides killing you. It was two months ago. I think?

Did I go under the knife for a couple of years or something?

It was 1 hour rides on the trainer that were killing me. It still starts hurting after 20ish minutes most days, I just choose to play through the pain. Exercise isn't supposed to be fun.

I did a 5 hour ride last week. It sucked. 10 days later I still do not have full strength or feeling in my left hand.

[ChrisoftheNorth]

Fuggit. I'm paying the $250 for a pro to tell me that I'm about everything. Fitting session scheduled for August 6th.

If I can't do a 5+ hour ride without pain on August 7th, then I'm going to keep bitching about this shit for the rest of my life.

I think this is a good choice IMO. A few degrees of adjustment here and there can be the difference between a comfortable ride and a bad ride.

Also, pay close attention to what they measure and adjust so you can do it yourself in the future. I bought a bike that came with a fitting 10 years ago, and I asked the dude doing the fitting a bunch of questions and made mental notes for how the bike should fit. I've been applying those principles to bikes since.

[fledonfoot]

I remember a day where you were complaining about 20 minute rides killing you. It was two months ago. I think?

Did I go under the knife for a couple of years or something?

It was 1 hour rides on the trainer that were killing me. It still starts hurting after 20ish minutes most days, I just choose to play through the pain. Exercise isn't supposed to be fun.

I did a 5 hour ride last week. It sucked. 10 days later I still do not have full strength or feeling in my left hand.

I just mean I’m impressed with your determination and effort. Great job.

[fledonfoot]

The doctor cleared me ride the trainer this morning.

As long as I don’t fall off.

[D Griff]

It was 1 hour rides on the trainer that were killing me. It still starts hurting after 20ish minutes most days, I just choose to play through the pain. Exercise isn't supposed to be fun.

I did a 5 hour ride last week. It sucked. 10 days later I still do not have full strength or feeling in my left hand.

I just mean I’m impressed with your determination and effort. Great job.

From can't do a one hour ride to a five hour ride was done but it really hurt in two months is I have been riding much longer and I've never done a five hour ride.

[troyguitar]

I just mean I’m impressed with your determination and effort. Great job.

From can't do a one hour ride to a five hour ride was done but it really hurt in two months is I have been riding much longer and I've never done a five hour ride.

You go as far in 3 as I did in 5 and can do it every day without hurting yourself. That long ride was fucking stupid on my part. I have no business doing that when I'm not even comfortable after 30 minutes.

[D Griff]

From can't do a one hour ride to a five hour ride was done but it really hurt in two months is I have been riding much longer and I've never done a five hour ride.

You go as far in 3 as I did in 5 and can do it every day without hurting yourself. That long ride was fucking stupid on my part. I have no business doing that when I'm not even comfortable after 30 minutes.

but you have still made huge improvements; I feel like you attribute a lot of it to your equipment changes, which I'm sure is a big part, but undoubtedly you have also improved a ton!

I think the fitment still seems like a good idea though, I will probably do one as well if I ever buy a bike.

[troyguitar]

You go as far in 3 as I did in 5 and can do it every day without hurting yourself. That long ride was fucking stupid on my part. I have no business doing that when I'm not even comfortable after 30 minutes.

but you have still made huge improvements; I feel like you attribute a lot of it to your equipment changes, which I'm sure is a big part, but undoubtedly you have also improved a ton!

I think the fitment still seems like a good idea though, I will probably do one as well if I ever buy a bike.

I got literally 50% stronger, which is why the whole thing is so frustrating. My legs and lungs are now in pretty decent shape but I still can't ride without hurting myself.

[D Griff]

but you have still made huge improvements; I feel like you attribute a lot of it to your equipment changes, which I'm sure is a big part, but undoubtedly you have also improved a ton!

I think the fitment still seems like a good idea though, I will probably do one as well if I ever buy a bike.

I got literally 50% stronger, which is why the whole thing is so frustrating. My legs and lungs are now in pretty decent shape but I still can't ride without hurting myself.

FWIW ( I know you've struggled more than I have with this, but still), I am limited far more by discomfort/pain in the back, ass, and elbows than I am leg/lung fatigue. I think this is normal. I did see a huge improvement in a slight handlebar angle adjustment though, so it can obviously work wonders.

[ChrisoftheNorth]

I got literally 50% stronger, which is why the whole thing is so frustrating. My legs and lungs are now in pretty decent shape but I still can't ride without hurting myself.

FWIW ( I know you've struggled more than I have with this, but still), I am limited far more by discomfort/pain in the back, ass, and elbows than I am leg/lung fatigue. I think this is normal. I did see a huge improvement in a slight handlebar angle adjustment though, so it can obviously work wonders.

Ass and arm/elbow/shoulder pain stop me before my legs and lungs do.

It's actually why I prefer kayaking more, there's none of that pain, just not many places to do it where I live.

[D Griff]

FWIW ( I know you've struggled more than I have with this, but still), I am limited far more by discomfort/pain in the back, ass, and elbows than I am leg/lung fatigue. I think this is normal. I did see a huge improvement in a slight handlebar angle adjustment though, so it can obviously work wonders.

Ass and arm/elbow/shoulder pain stop me before my legs and lungs do.

It's actually why I prefer kayaking more, there's none of that pain, just not many places to do it where I live.

my wife loves kayaking, I find it (still water) to be a little boring sometimes, but it is nice and relaxing/low impact.

[ChrisoftheNorth]

Ass and arm/elbow/shoulder pain stop me before my legs and lungs do.

It's actually why I prefer kayaking more, there's none of that pain, just not many places to do it where I live.

my wife loves kayaking, I find it (still water) to be a little boring sometimes, but it is nice and relaxing/low impact.

Depends how you do it. If you want a workout, you can get a solid sweat going if you try.

[troyguitar]

The doctor cleared me ride the trainer this morning.

As long as I don’t fall off.

The trainer is pretty great for mindless exercise if you can get comfy on it. Riding along while blasting some tunes or watching TV is and allows you to eat junk food without getting fat. I'm thinking about trying to get the wife set up to use the trainer while I ride outside. If she can get strong enough to make it up the hills in the neighborhood then she might actually be willing to ride outside.

[troyguitar]

Also: As I get deeper into the rabbit hole of reading/watching every possible "bike fitting" resource that exists on the internet and trying out everything that I can reasonably try, it is becoming more and more clear to me that my bike is probably just plain too big (long reach) for me. At least too big at my current level of core strength and flexibility. To get the handlebar reach into a comfortable place for me is likely going to require a short-reach handlebar and a zero length stem, which is going to be twitchy as fucking hell.

I have no clue how seemingly everyone else in the world can comfortably hold themselves up at an awkward angle (i.e. standard road bike "easy endurance" position) indefinitely with zero effort. My abs are not that strong. More than a few degrees of forward tilt requires support from my hands if I'm going to maintain it for hours. Maybe if I do 300 pushups a day for a year? But why the fuck can everyone else just ride comfortably without doing that?

[troyguitar]

They're bent but still bearing a lot of weight - I've unfortunately gotten pretty good at using my elbows as suspension. In the past couple days I have changed everything about my positioning and it's definitely better than it was but I still don't see how it's going to be possible to be comfortable without reducing reach by around 100mm or taking a year off the bike to work on yoga and core strength.

[troyguitar]

height 176cm
weight 64kg
shoulder width AC to AC 34cm

Measurements taken according to https://www.competitivecyclist.com/Stor ... p#measures

cycling inseam 82cm
trunk 63cm
forearm 35cm
arm 64cm
thigh 58cm
lower leg 55cm
sternal notch 142cm

Pedaling video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rm-xlkVYlpI

bike:

http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/mot ... e-bike.htm

bike geometry (size 55):



stack 592mm
reach 381mm
bb drop 65mm
stem 80mm -7deg
handlebar reach 100mm, drop 138mm, width 420mm
20mm of spacers underneath stem, 30mm available above stem
changed cranks to Shimano FC-T4060 Alivio triple 26/36/48 with 170mm crank length and 182mm Q-factor
saddle changed to Ergon SMC
seatpost changed to 20mm setback
Shimano M530 SPD pedals
Bontrager Foray shoes with cleats as close to the heel and as far to the outside as possible

[troyguitar]

If I bend over any further then all of my weight goes on to my hands. That's as low as I can get and attempt to hold myself up without my hands.

[troyguitar]

I've had the stem upside down and maxed out, up to 50mm higher than pictured, combined with the seat slammed forward 30 or 40mm. No improvement really, I still can't keep weight off the hands.

This is why I'm taking it to the pros. I am out of ideas and still can't even get into the ballpark.

[troyguitar]

I made a few more changes (saddle higher, cleats further forward, bars rotated down) based on feedback last night and gave it another shot this morning. Dunno if it is better but it's definitely not worse. Speed is up a bit again while pain is about the same or maybe a little less. Cracked 17 mph average for what I think is the first time ever.

https://strava.app.link/dgbiJCInw8

I'm finding that I can only maintain a somewhat "proper" form with core engaged and all that jazz for a few minutes at a time, plus it gets harder the more tired I get. I probably should not exceed 2 hours in a day for the foreseeable future. Whether that's a fit or a fitness issue I don't know, but it seems like people in way worse shape than me can ride a lot more comfortably for a lot longer... so I'm still fucking it up somehow.