celerystalksme

alright...so i took my new cx bike on its first real training ride today...and noticed how different it felt than my roadbike while in the drops. feels fine when riding in the hoods...but i felt like i had to scoot my but way back on the saddle in order to feel comfortable in the drops. makes sense though...the cx bike has a 0.8cm shorter top tube, zero setback seatpost, 1cm shorter stem, and the stem is angled up.

i'll have to scoot the seat back on the rails a smidge, flip the stem, and maybe get a longer stem. i've heard that rule that your stem should be blocking a bit of your front hub from view...right now, i can see the hub in it's entirerty.

but that got me curious...i never really self-examined myself while riding in the drops on my roadbike. so i got on my roadbike. what i noticed is, my knees come up really high...and overlap my elbows. is that normal? the tops of my knees come up and go a couple centimeters above the bottoms of my elbow.

secondly...i noticed that my head an chin are literally 1cm above my stem/handle bar! i'm surprised i haven't hit a bump while riding in the drops and busted open my chin! i this normal or should my bars be lower?

carpediemracing 

Picture would help. Also relative size and relative position. If you're on a 63 cm frame, not a good sign. If you're on a 44 cm frame, it may be right.

"Relative position" because if you're intentionally hunching over, well, yeah, of course you'll be close to the bar. I've burnt my chin on the front tire when in an aero tuck, and I still have to watch out so I don't bite my tongue off by accidentally slamming my chin into the tire on a high speed descent. But when I'm in the drops in a "normal natural postion" I'm fine.

Elbow knee relationship depends on your torso length. Shorter torsos get more overlap. Longer ones barely any. Up-down overlap is dependent on that relative position. Down low my elbows come up pretty high, but when my forearms are naturally more upright they don't.

cdr

celerystalksme

The frame is small...it's a 49cm (both cross bike and roadbike). As for the 'relative position'...I was not really intentionally hunching over, just getting into a comfortable position.

brians647

Holy crap! If I get that far forward, I'm SURE I'm going over the bars!

dstrong 

You must have a setup like this or a really long chin!



Even if I rest my adam's apple on the front of my stem, my chin's almost 12 inches above the top of my tire.

Lazyass

So measure everything on your road bike and set up your cx bike to the exact same measurements.

celerystalksme

well, i was actually asking about riding in the drops on my roadbike in the second part of my post.

Lazyass

Ah, sorry. Could be crank length, saddle height, bar drop. May want to get fitted.

celerystalksme

the roadbike was professionally fitted...and then came back for a fine tuning adjustment. but i'm just curious if this is the way it's supposed to be because this is the first time i've really paid attention to what was going on while riding in the drops...and i've never really paid attention to others as they've riddin in their drops.

carpediemracing 

Aero tuck, not just on the drops. My tuck is from the tops, next to stem, chest just above bars, head over front tire, butt up in air, knees holding top tube. I used to do it wrong because I guessed at how to hold the bars - I held them like I was doing a regular curl, i.e. knuckles down. Now with knuckles up it takes a lot more to get my head down to the tire - but I still smell the warm rubber on descents.

I'll have to take pics or something one day.

cdr

Road Fan

If it works for you, i.e, comfortable, fast, powerful, good handling, can use all bar positions, not painful, then it's right. There's no absolute standard for total bike fit. If the roadie works better than the CX, you can't really go wrong by matching the CX to the road bike, and then riding it. If your style on the CX is different than it is on the roadie, you may want to make some small different adjustments.

Road Fan

celerystalksme

definitely comfy...pretty fast...i have enough control to handle the bike pretty well...i can use all my bar positions...it's not painful at all.

BUT...the powerful part...i'm not so sure. i feel more powerful in the hoods...and obviously much more powerful riding out of the saddle.