mrt2you

you could also drop your wobbling wheel in to a bike shop to get straightened.

chaadster

Wow! 6'1" riding a 54c?!?! You must have been pretty jammed up on that, knees hitting the handlebars n' sh*t!

Congrats on the upgrade, no doubt. How about a pic?

mprelaw

Even if you had more "natural padding" your sit bones would probably still not like your present saddle. The problem is that everyone has to find the best one for them.

I have zero natural padding too, but God must have given me the world's only universally compatible butt, because I can even ride on a Buttraper--uh, I mean Bontrager---saddle.

Pinhy

My friend has worked on the wheel a couple times on his "alignment apparatus" (dont know what it's called), I don't think it is going to get much straighter.





Thanks for the info. I do have some bike shorts, though I have been told there are better pairs out there, with better padding.




As for buying a wheel that might not fit, thanks for letting me know that, i wouldn't have thought of that. Fortunately, I wont buy something without my buddy's input. It was his old frame, so he knows all about what will fit.


I will post pics as soon as I get my new Continental 4000S (i think that is the model) tires on it. I have popped 2 tubes (once on the front and once on the back) putting them on. I cant get that last foot over the lip, so I use the tools. Most of the time i get it to work, but not so much luck this weekend. I am taking it to the shop tonight to buy another tube and have them put it on!

CraigB

Wow, indeed. You didn't mention in your OP how tall you are, nor the size of the bikes you were considering. I'm surprised a) you found a way to ride a 54 in anything close to a comfortable fashion, and b) it took this long riding in groups for anyone else to mention the fact that your bike was way too small for you.

Pinhy

It really wasn't that bad of a fit, in and of itself. I had the seat pretty high, got on and rode it...simple. Once I got on the 58....THEN I realized I had been really hunched over.

My riding group consists of a couple friends and that's about it. Most are inline skaters. This "new" guy (had moved out of town for 8 months so wasn't around when I bought it) is the one who immediately noticed.

Live and learn!

LarDasse74

It is hard to notice a bad fit when you have nothing to compare it to.

I used to think I could ride any 62 cm road bike or 21" mountain bike, until I bought myself a shiny new 21" mountain bike sight unseen, and couldn't figure out why I was suffering so much and could not ride as fast as I could on my last bike... I almost gave up cycling, figuring I was just too fat and it was too difficult. Turns out the bike was a poor fit! I got a new frame with taller head tube and longer top tube and I enjoyed riding again.
FWIW, my major complaint about BSOs (bike-shaped objects - the craptacular bikes sold at big box stores), besides the absolute absence of skill and care used during assembly, is that they generally only come in one size, and if you are not between ~5'6" and ~5'10", the bikes will not fit and you wouldn't even know what a bike is supposed to feel like.

Pinhy

Exactly!

Pinhy

Here's pics of the original and new bikes:


Original 54cm CAD2 R300



New 58cm 1985 Cannondale aluminum

LarDasse74

That is a sweet bike dude.

Pinhy

thanks!

components are a mix of old Ultegra, 105, 600 and RSX....nothing special. Cables, chain and tires are new (yellow tires looked horrid on the silver bike).

That seat is one of three I am borrowing from the guy I bought the original bike from. I need to get out and put at least half an hour on each to see how they feel.

As mentioned above, wheels will be my next venture. Would like to find some good used ones.

LarDasse74

If I were you I would adjust the angle of the saddel to be closer to level, as tilted forward as it appears to be will cause your weight to slide forward and put more pressure on your hands and arms.

Pinhy

agreed. I haven't even sat on this yet, I just put it on last night. I usually like my seats tilted up even more than normal, and you are right, this looks down (though I don't think it is as much as it looks in the photo).

LarDasse74

I like my saddle slightly nose up - I feel that keeps my weight on the wider back part. Of course, too far nose-up and it sorta gets jammed up into your crotchular region.
Often you have to adjust saddle height a little bit when you adjust saddle angle. And too high a saddle height will make it less comfortable.

Pinhy

UPDATE: New Bike!! Starting a thread HERE

bikebreak

Super!
Some 6' tall pros ride a 54, but they are using long stems and tons of saddle to bar drop.

You can get that rim trued up.

The seat will get softer as you break in your legs. Really, when your legs get stronger you can push harder on the pedals, which takes weight off your backside.

Pinhy

that rim is long gone....

Last spring, I bought a used 1999 Lemond ($230 at a flea market) that had a carbon fork, nicer Mavic wheels, better stem and Ultegra components. I put all those items on my aluminum C'dale and have been riding it like that since. I also bought an ISM Century seat back then too, so seat problem was solved too. I painted the fork and bottle cage to match as close as possible to the silver-blue Mavic rims.


Just took this pic, seat and aero bars are on the new carbon C'Dale in post above.

beast1989

I HATE to be that new guy who posts this question that you all have answered a million times over, so I'll just be a fly on the wall for awhile.

Pinhy

This thread "should" die....unless I get another new bike, which I dont see happening now that I have a bike I absolutely love!

You should start your own thread, saying hello, giving us info about your interests in riding and your size, and people will chime in with helpful info.

(you can also just dig through thread after thread and learn SOOO much, I did that while also listening to people in this and other threads I asked questions about. Had I been a little more patient and given more info out, I probably would have saved myself the purchase of the original 54cm bike