rpenmanparker 

You guys know that I like to "discuss" things. Truth is I am contentious as much to learn what other people are thinking as to get my own views across. By stirring it up, I get a very strong response from folks, and I feel like I hear what they are really thinking about something. Believe it or not I have learned an awful lot this way.

It turns out that on this subject I don't even have an opinion, just some memory which may be correct or false, I don't know. I would like to hear what others of my "vintage" remember about (are you ready for this) "the good old days before forums" with regard to the perception of comfort on a road bike.

It seems to me that before we could discuss the topic with such a huge and varied audience, road bike comfort was not nearly the issue it is now. Sure, not everyone was happy, but it just wasn't such a big deal. Maybe because everyone was riding steel. Every now and then you would hear about how much someone loved or hated an old time Brooks saddle (yep, about a 50:50 split). Folks knew they had to keep their real chamois soft with cream or whatever or they would suffer. But folks rode all kinds of saddles without much comment. They had heavy aluminum seat posts and stems and bars and didn't talk much about it. (Yeah, you would see a guy shaking his hands out now and then, but that was about it.) Gloves were thin as tissue. Bar tape had absolutely no padding. Shoes weren't moldable after heating them in the oven. I could go on and on.

Then Cannondale started building the oversize Al frames and everything changed. And the internet came along to give us forums. And deep profile rims were introduced. Now nobody (but me?) seems to ever be comfortable enough. How did we ride centuries on true thin chamois if now only the best-of-the-best shorts can allow such a distance? What has changed so much?

In summary to this day I have not ever been particularly uncomfortable on my steel, Ti, CF, or (long ago sold) Al bikes. If I have gotten chafed, perhaps it was because I was not riding ENOUGH, not too much. The steel, CF, Al and Ti bikes all feel about the same to me. I don't see the difference between Al and CF bars, stem, and seat posts. Saddles width is important to me, but no other feature seems to matter very much. A pair of $40 shorts feels as good to me as a $150 pair. It never occurred to me that the waistband on my shorts might be uncomfortable, and bibs would solve the problem. And yet, when I read on the 41, comfort is likely the number one topic one way or another. To other folks everything seems to make a difference in comfort, and every little difference is significant.

Is my memory (and sensory system) faulty? Please discuss.

EDIT: Whoops, I forgot to mention professional fitting to enhance comfort. Used to be we got comfortable relative to bike fit on our own. Just sayin.'

Germany_chris

I don't wear kit I ride a Brooks (on most of bikes) and keep my bars (on most of my bikes) and less than 2" below the saddle.

DXchulo

To be honest, I think the whole comfort thing is the bike industry's way of marketing to fat people. Look at the comfort bikes- they all have super high headtubes so fat people don't have to bend over too much. When more than half of the US is fat, it's a smart move on their part.

Fat people hate discomfort. That's why they're fat- they can't stand the thought of being uncomfortable for a mere 30 minutes a day just to stay healthy.

Jiggle

I agree, rpenman. I ride stiff Al and Cf bikes with bare cf saddles and non padded bar tape. I'm perfectly comfortable.

rpenmanparker 

I didn't see that coming, but it is certainly a valid perspective.

rpenmanparker 

I keep thinking of more examples. Wider tires. Did you see the width of the tires they were riding in the 80s TDFs in the Lemond-Hinault special on ESPN? Probably only 18 or 19 mm. I rode 19 and 21mm wide tires for years at 120 psi or more. I cannot say I find 23s at 90 front and 100 rear more comfortable. Yet there are posts right now at the top of the 41 thread list talking about all the comfort that tubeless and wider tires provide. Just another thing to wonder about.

3alarmer 

...this discussion makes me very uncomfortable.

xuwol7

Yes indeed, back in the day I just grabbed my Araya road bike and rode crazy long miles with it,(couldn't afford the Paramount or PX-10 but the Araya was a good solid Japanese bike).

Couldn't afford the Brooks so I just lived with the Avocet saddle, wasn't too bad.
Chamois and a$$ cream, never heard of it, I just rode a lot so my butt hardened up.
I learned through trial and error how to place my hands on the bars so they didn't go numb...etc

No internet or the vast selection of books that we have today, just some old guy that used to race telling me how to set up the bike and make small adjustments for my riding, worked great.

Now we have the internet etc. and sometimes we tend to over think everything...lol
I do have all my bikes dialed in for my body and my comfort but I always love to learn and some things can potentially be improved on.

I guess it boils down to:
Things I never knew existed but now I need and cannot live without...lol

Yes I am comfy......lol

squatchy

For sure it is marketing. Every year everyone has to come up with something so much nicer than last year's model. It's not only in cycling. Its in everything. Fly fishing, golf, motor cycles, guitars, clothing. Hell the list goes on and on. I have no idea if my Huffy or my Varsity was even close to fitting me. Never even crossed my mind. Who new you could actually even buy a different seat. Tennis shoes and cut off Levis and a sears t shirt were performance enough for me.

I don't think the fat thing is much of a consideration. You don't see too many fat people on higher-end bikes. I think they might actually be the type who would be happy on just about anything.

I think the ease of Internet shopping is parcally to blame. And it just dawned on me while written this. If you look back on more time. Back when people were more content it wasn't so common for people to have soo much credit card debt. The credit card companies started telling everyone they deserve to have everything they want. Fast forward to today's situation and it seems to connect.

squatchy

I forgot to say there are many very nice bikes in our garage. Each one dialed in perfectly with exactly what we wanted. Not only for comfort but they also have to look incredible as well.

He who dies with the nicest and the most toys wins

Lazyass

Been riding since '87. Jacked up seatposts and slammed stems are the proper look today. Which often requires a too small frame. And of course the resulting discomfort is blamed on shorts, saddle, gloves, shoes, ect. Then they're screwed because they already cut the steerer tube so they move their levers as high on the bars as they can and also rotate the bars up. And they have numb hands. Hardly ever see anyone in the drops for more than a minute at a time anymore. I believe when someone posts a picture of their bike and a member replies with "slam it", that member should be banned for life.

Silvercivic27

No, it's not. It's ignorant.

loimpact

Ha ha.....I find this topic very pertinent!!

I battled what to do leaving the hybrid world (which I loved) going to road biking. In hindsight, I'd probably have been just as well served on an endurance geometry as the race geometry I chose......HOWEVER.....I'd have never been able to live down the "would I have been faster?" variable in my riding and would have probably despised said 'endurance bike' thereafter.

I get a little more comfortable every ride but could easily see myself going to an enduro or even back to hybrid riding when I get old.

Hybrids are great bikes. You hop on, go, they're comfortable, fast and do 90% of what I want to do on a road bike anyway.

Still, I am subject to the internet, group ride, hyperbole, b.s. whatever you wanna call it and will enjoy road biking until I tire of it.

Oh, and yes, I still need to get a pro fitting. We all do, right??

WhyFi

Why jump through various hoops to explain the proliferation of voices of discomfort when you can simply explain it in two words?

The internet.

rousseau

When I first got into road biking several years ago at the age of 40 I put gel inserts on top of my bars (under the tape), wore thickly padded gloves, and had a cushy split saddle. For comfort.

I now use the absolute thinnest tape possible, essentially akin to tennis racket tape, wear non-padded gloves (Giro Zero), and swear by my San Marco Regale Racing Team saddle.

I've lost weight this year. This has made me a lot more comfortable on the bike. I can bend over more easily. It's very gratifying, and is something I have to remind myself of whenever I feel tempted by donuts. Mmmm....donuts.

To the OP: A guy I ride with recently got a new bike. Having gotten back into riding, he'd originally just pumped up the tires on his 1973-vintage bike and used that for a while. His reaction was that the new bike is really, really nice by comparison. Like night and day. Don't know how much comfort is a part of the equation, but I suspect it probably figures into it to a degree.

Bandera

I've never been uncomfortable on a properly fitted road bike although what's considered a proper competition fit has changed from when I started on "Merckx Fit" and tweaked to the "Guimard/Lemond" fit I still ride on 2 of my 5 bikes today. At my advanced age I like the fit of my CF Merckx EMX-3: same TT length, seat height, crank position, bar width, stem length and 3cm less drop (until I start pulling spacers) as my '92 Vitus. Lively, stable enough and efficient, oh and comfortable too.

That being said the competitive rider of today rides w/ considerably more drop than we did "back when" requiring serious adaptation and core body conditioning while brifters bring a different fit requirement than DT controls. Not something a recreational rider will endure, but very efficient for those who put in the seat time.

-Bandera

linnefaulk

Somewhere between the wood bone shakers and the sloths who never have to leave their recliners in Wall-E is the right amount of comfort.

wphamilton

I hesitate to chime in because I'm not an old-timer when it comes to cycling - everything I know that doesn't pertain to a 60's era Schwinn 3-speed comes from the last half decade. But I will say that I give comfort on a bike almost no consideration, as long as I'm not creating pain or injury in some joint. I have a $14 saddle from China and I like it. Stiff aluminum frame is fine by me. If I liked to ride for more than 3-4 hours at a time I might be more worried about it. Or vice versa. But I think that most people don't and the emphasis kind of befuddles me.

Jiggle

It's right on the money. I look at some of these bike positions and think, 'How on Earth can someone ride that thing?' Upward sloping stems with bars the same height as the saddle, gel saddles, two layers of cushy tape....oh, it's ridden by a great big fat person. That explains eeeeeeverything.

Pendergast

I think part of it is that in the pre-brifter days we were out of the saddle more often. I know I was. Instead of running through the gears to get back up to cruising speed or to climb small hills, I'd just stand for a few pedal strokes. Now it's click, click, click, click, click. I'm not uncomfortable now, but STI has sure changed the way I ride.

Silvercivic27

No, it's not. To suggest that only fat people like to be comfortable or that it only takes 30 minutes of exercise per day to not be fat is just stupid. There are plenty of lazy people who are skinny, and there are plenty of skinny people who also do not do one minute of exercise a day. There are also plenty of "fat" people who exercise probably more than you do in a day. There are also plenty of people out there with bikes that have aggressive race geometry who are skinny and either suck at racing or don't race. Think about how uncomfortable life is for someone who is obese. Think about ignorant statements that drivers and other non-cyclists make towards you every time you're out there riding and how it makes you feel. Then go chow down on some humble pie.

3alarmer 

....****

Lazyass

Yes, it is.

LAJ

Typical. Just because a person is old doesn't mean they constantly have to act their age.

3alarmer 

....to be genuinely comfortable on the bike, a lot of accessorizing and fine tuning is required.