rat fink

The thing is, I'm most comfortable doing speed oriented riding. I have sometimes have lower back pain (off the bike; from work) and surprisingly, the stretched out position helps it. The position on that bike is optimized for efficiency/endurance. As it sits, I'm comfortable riding that for up to, maybe, 130 miles, or ~7 hours of saddle time a day. Because of the way I ride, it wont be my back that hurts at the end of a long day of riding, it will be legs/whole body.

I forgot to answer this... For the most part, I copy the same position, from bike to bike. This bike, however, has two bottle cages which is usually good for about 3.5 hrs, for me. For longer durations, I sometimes incorporate a Camelbak or carry a bottle in my jersey. It has a 39-25 low gear, but I'm thinking of getting an 11-27/28 to get better gearing for the hills at ~20% that I occasionally encounter. High quality tires at the correct pressure are a must, but I would only consider getting wider tires if I were to be hitting gravel covered areas often. For me, 23c is sufficient for groomed single track. I might get some fenders for it, if I was expecting to ride a long distance in the wet.