Originally Posted by
corynardin
Let me start off by saying congratulations on deciding to jump into triathlon!
It is going to be harder for you to get a good fit on a mans bike being a woman. My guess is that your bike is too big for you. Women tend to have relatively longer legs and shorter torsos then men. So a man who is the same height will have a shorter inseam and longer arms and trunk. My wife is two inches shorter than me and yet we have identical inseams.
So what does that man to you? The saddle height might be ok, but my guess is that the top tube is too long for you. To an extent you can ”fix” that by using a shorter stem.
Concerning the saddle. There is no universally perfect saddle. Saddles are like shoes. My local tri shop has loner saddles that you can try before you buy. I don't think that is a common practice for shops but it should be. Go ahead and see if adjusting the angle helps at all.
Also, there are tri specific shorts and the padding is pretty minimal. Basically a thin piece of felt or foam. In my experience it does little in terms of comfort.
Just curiously what are your rides like? How long, what type of terrain?
Oh, and you can put drop bars on your bike and even get aero bars for them but that is going to be pretty expensive by the time you get bars and integrated shifters and having them installed.
IMHO it would have been better to have bought a road bike and added some clip on aero bars.
From what I understand and what the bike shop told me, this tri bike was designed for a woman. He mentioned some details as to how he can tell, but pretty much the only thing I remember is that the wheels are 650 instead of 700 which he believed was one of the indicators that its a woman's bike. I also know that the previous owner was a woman.
I bought bike shorts, but due to school conflicts, I have yet to ride the bike with them on.
My bike rides aren't very long right now. Only about 6 miles at a time and on flat paved road. I have to stop at a few red lights along the way. Apart from some cracks in the road and debris, I ride the bike on a relatively smooth and safe surface so I don't cause any damage to it.
How much would drop bars and integrated shifters cost?
Also, I adjusted the saddle angle a bit downward and it seems to help.
I was going to buy a road bike, but they were all super expensive and I felt like this was a great deal for the bike. Haven't really regretted the purchase so far, I'm just not sure if it will come back to bite me in the butt in the long run... haha