Originally Posted by
reynolds101
Yeah this is what Ive been doing since Ive had it, but I would still like to be able to just cruise sitting down without having the family jewels squashed after every bump. And if you dont mind me asking why do you feel that mountain bikes are uncomfortable?
Could just be the fit. A properly fit road or mountain bike should not be messing with your DNA-to-be.
A saddle on a road bike is simply
not a resting spot; it's designed to keep your hips over the pedals and the seat post from becoming more than a little friend....weight distribution is more equally spread to your arms, legs, and butt.
Reynolds101, the attraction of a road bike, especially to a former BMX-er, is speed. Pure and simple go-fast. Even touring bikes, at a liesurely pace, are moving pretty well. With that comes certain features of a road bike that are different than what you may be used to.
Simply put, the purpose of a suspension is not to comfort the rider; it's to keep the wheels in contact with the ground. A road bike tends to assume that the rider is avoiding road hazards. Road hazards, in the road bike world, include small rocks and pretty much any object or deviation in the road surface that can upset a 1" wide tire with lots of air pressure.
A Free Spirit, outside of a few rare models (acknowledgement to Darwin), is a sturdy, fairly heavy steel bike, generally with steel wheels, made to compete with equally heavy Schwinns of the era, at a lower price. With weight comes a measure of smoothness, and you can smooth it out a lot, but it's still a road bike, and a pretty basic one. Fun, but not the speed thriller you can easily get for decent prices today. Even the heavy Scwinns of that era, while lunkers, are pretty smooth.
Walmart is selling an aluminum road bike with 3x8 Sora for $400, by the way, which I have to admit is an excellent way to get into road biking with a minimum investment and shallow learning curve on the shifters, etc. Not that I'm advocating that. My opinion is that once you get a really nice road bike, you'll
quickly learn to appreciate what it's like compared to the more entry-level bikes. It's often akin to the difference between AM and FM.
Based on what I've read, you may be better off selling that bike and searching for a better road bike, often called a "bike shop" bike, which means they were available only in bike shops. The used market is very reasonable, and you have a wide variety of options in shifters, frames, wheelsets, etc.