himespau 

I don't know if I've put this in the proper forum or not, but here goes:

Thanks to some very helpful advice from many members of this forum, I've gotten myself new brake pads (salmon koolstops), cables and housing, levers (aero and interupters because I spend too much time on the tops from the old nonaero with suicide levers), a threaded to threadless stem converter, a new stem, and new handlebars (both stem and bars are Easton EA50's because I got them crazy cheap at Jensen). (I'm planning on reusing the tape I took off because it's in good condition and only has like 100 or so miles on it). Oh and a new seatpost and my saddle only has ~100-150 miles on it tops.

So anyway, I want to get my fit dialed in, but I also want to get the bike put together (my wife's pregnant and wants me to get my tools and bike parts out of the corner of our apartment so we can get a crib in there). The thing is, I've changed pretty much everything on the bike and I don't know how I'm going to fit myself on it. I mean I have a good idea what's comfortable base on how I had it before, but, now, I've got to get it back to that point.

My threaded to threadless converter stem doesn't have the rise of my old threaded stem, so I got a stem riser thing (not the spacers but a threaded riser designed to raise short threaded stems) that I'm thinking about trying. I guess my basic question is how do I get the brakes put together so I can play with fit (no trainer).

Do I just run it the way I have it now (no stem riser), and leave my cables extra long on the other side of the straddle (I have center pull cantilevers with that old school straddle thing)? That way if I want to put the riser in (my fitness is improving, so I may be cool with the lower position but won't know until I try), I can just cut new housing to put on from the interupters to the spots they go to on the frame and just pull the cables out?

To me that seems the best option (plus, that way if I like it low, I can return the riser without having used it), but I'm looking for other suggestions if there's a better way.

I'm not crazy enough to ride around no brakes until I get the fit thing figured out.

fietsbob

Need the cable left long enough to reach the High position.. You tried Up Angle stem?

Soma [merry sales imports] has a quite tall threaded to threadless stem .. FWIW..

one way to judge fit , Ride by a window you can see yourself in and look..
seem stretched or cramped?

himespau 

Yeah, I actually felt a little cramped in the setup before. I mean it was ok, but not great so I'd been planning on dropping the stem a little and I bought a longer stem when I bought the threadless converter, but I wasn't expecting the threadless converter to be so short. The stem is only 6 degrees so flipping it won't raise it a ton. I'm sure the adjustability of the Soma you suggest would probably make my life the easiest, but I've already bought these parts (and have used my current converter stem, so I can't return it), so I think I'd like to try to make a go of it with these parts.

I think the current setup might work, but I'm just not 100% sure and didn't know about running the brake cables because I didn't know if it was better to set it up at the tallest and then cut the housing if I want it shorter or what. Not a huge issue, I just read from Sheldon's website that you don't want to have your cables any longer than they have to be.

fietsbob

It's easier to cure too long than it is too short, just have to go over everything,
once you got the posture on the bike better.

Try an adjustable angle stem , or a fixed 40 degree.