Originally Posted by
T-Mar
In the subject photo, lowering the bars farther would be detrimental. You don't want to straighten the arms. You want the forearms parallel to the ground, to minimize frontal area. Lowering the bars probably wouldn't fix the hunched back. In the early days of funny bikes, the vast majority of cyclists didn't have have the lower back flexibility to achieve a flat back. Only after this style of bicycles had been around for a while did cyclists start working on their back flexibility to further improve body position and aerodynamics.
Yes.
Very few of the people who currently own a plongeant bicicleta understand how to set it up as originally intended, judging from the photos.
Correctly done, the rider's position should be nearly identical to that on a conventional racing bike, with the bullhorns positioning the hands where they would be in the hooks of the conventional bike's drop bars or slightly below that level.
Also, depending on the steepness of the top tube slope, no more than 3 inches of the seat post, if that much, should be visible if the bike is the correct fit.
Finally, look at photos of the funny bikes ridden by the pros in the '80s. You'll never see one where the saddle isn't level.
This thread is absolutely one of the best ever started on BikeForums, and we should be grateful to VintageTTFan. It's just a shame that so many of the setups in the photos are just wrong.
I think many of us here would agree that a 1980's-era pro-level racing bike, conventional or plongeant, set up correctly, is aesthetic perfection, never to be surpassed. But funny bikes with wacky setups grate on the senses of those who know how they were meant to be set up.
For me, the effect is the same as that triggered by the sight of a racing bike with the bars rotated up and back, DUI rider style.