Seeking the input of the forum, because I'm simply at a loss here.

Have two road bikes, both of which are measured out to an identical fit. The primary bike I dialed in the fit 3 years and 20,000-someodd miles ago and it was virtually perfect. This spring I suddenly, out of the blue, became very uncomfortable and unbalanced on both of them. Like an overstretched type of unbalanced. I found myself naturally riding further out on the nose of the saddle more, trying to counteract it. I started getting saddle sores and cuts in places I'd never had them before, and the saddle would feel like knives around my sit bones right away. Also lot of sudden hand numbness. It literally felt like I had borrowed someone else's bike, who was taller/longer arms and more flexible than myself (I can almost palm the floor).

Now, mind you, this wasn't after taking the winter off and then getting back on the bike and not being accustomed to it or having gained stomach weight. I rode it all through the winter, even with many layers of kit on, never taking any appreciable breaks right into spring. So one week I was comfortable, the next it was hell and hasn't gotten any better.

So the first thing I did was stick a spacer back under the stem on both bikes. Then I angled the bars from slightly down to back up to level, which should have shortened the overall reach quite a bit. No improvement. Then, despite my hesitancy since I had the saddle position so dialed for so long, I slid the saddle forward. Still no improvement. Then I moved the seatpost down about 3-4mm, still no improvement. At no point in all of this have I changed shoes, cleats, or bibs. Waist size is the same, flexibility is still the same, everything is the same.

While I would heed the advice to simply 'go get a fit', the fact that this setup was so good for so long and then out of nowhere is so far off, doesn't lead me to believe that the fit is the problem. But nevertheless, it's turned cycling from an enjoyable experience to one I'm quickly growing to dread for the relatively few miles I can stand it. How can this happen?