I installed a +2 cm stem on my black bike, which was running a 12 cm -17 stem with some older (longer reach, deeper drop) bars. In effect the change lengthens my reach by 2 cm without dropping the drops down (well technically a few mm). I also moved the saddle back just a touch, after doing some "mirror fitting experiments" along with some of all you guys' thoughts on power and such. With the Adamo saddle I have a longer range of usable saddle platform fore/aft. Seems promising.

If it works out then I'll eventually order a +2 cm longer frameset.

I went through a similar experience and ended up with the the Lake CX237 in wide sizing. Really great shoe for wide feet IMHO. I replaced the insole with one that had more arch support, and foot pain/discomfort is a thing of the past for me even on long rides. My only real complaint is the boa dials seem to slip a little and I have to periodically re-tighten (which at least is pretty easy to do while riding).

That's the model I got. I haven't had boa shoes before and I would have preferred a different system but boas seem to be the thing now. What insoles did you get?.

Archcrafters. Probably overkill for a lot of people, but I have pretty high arches and also need the metatarsel pad as I was starting to get symptoms similar to Morton's Neuroma on my right foot (pain in the ball of my foot that got pretty bad on long rides).

Because I didn't feel like running my only 10 speed wheel on the trainer last night, I threw my trainer wheel that I converted to 11 speed on the TT bike last night..

Using friction shifting I was able to shift through the whole cassette without any excessive noise from the chain (no more than it makes if it needs cleaned/lubed..which it does). If I had it set to indexed it was all over the place (not surprising).

With 10s chain? Impressive.


I'm in the middle of a fit crisis, bad thing to have the day before Quabbin. In the past 3 weeks I experimented with a short stem (90, instead of 120) for a lower, closer position. I ended up sliding my (new) seat forward (Power vs Toupe) as well. Going back and forth from that to the trainer bike with a higher 130mm stem, I liked the trainer bike better and hit my knees on the bar with short stem bike. Going to fit the 120 stem back on the race bike but...on long stems I've been having rear wheel skipping issues especially over bumps. So I'll be adding that back into the mix. Sucks a lot at Wells and I imagine Quabbin doesn't have perfect pavement like Ninigret does.

I will have to double check when I get home, but I think its a KMC x10.93, its the chain I have typically bought for my bikes.

You can consciously weight the rear a bit more. It doesn't take a lot, maybe 1 cm. If you're getting skipping problems in a straight line I can't help you. But if it's just the turns then slide back on the seat a bit. The added weight on the front end should make the bike feel much more stable, both in turns and the straights. This is especially true at higher speeds. A longer stem will make the bike feel slow when you have to turn the bars to steer, like at sidewalk speeds, like if you had to turn around on the sidewalk to roll back to registration.

FYI that's what I went through when I went to the custom frame. It's effectively 5-6 cm longer (top tube length, seat tube angle). I gave the builder the basic numbers, he did extremely minor adjustments, and that was that. I specified 40.5 cm stays, like normal, not taking into account I was moving the drops forward about 5-6 cm. The rear wheel chattered across the pavement in turns even when I didn't pedal. I didn't realize just how far forward I'd moved the center of gravity on the bike. I had to consciously sit back in the turns and I could never really pedal hard in a turn.

I specified my next frame (black one) to be "as short as possible" in the chainstay. I got 39.0 cm, which was about what I hoped for (my shortest ever chainstay bike was a touch shorter). I can pedal or whatever through a turn and the bike is super agile when out of the saddle. It has a very long wheelbase due to the long front end - I think it's 102 cm, which, for a 40 cm seat tube bike is extremely long, but the short stays make the bike agile.

I sent my original frame back (it's red now) to be shortened. He could get them to 39.3 cm, limited due to the round tubes on the red bike vs the cut out seat tube on the black bike. 39.3 cm is still okay, I no longer have wheel chatter in most turns. Only when I'm really pushing it will the rear start to feel light.

moving your seat forward and taking 30mm off reach?

1. Garmin 520 is off. Plug it in to the computer. It powers on. Later, unplug it. It stays powered on. Battery goes dead. Notice this the next time I ride my bike. Really annoying. Is there a setting to make it not power on when plugged in? Who ever needs to use their bike GPS while it's plugged into a computer?


2. I have always ridden with cleats positioned as far back on the shoes as possible. I did this initially just because it felt comfortable, got used to it, never messed with it. I have since read somewhere that cleats back = more endurance, cleats forward = more power. I just got new shoes and thought I'd try moving the cleats forward, but I'm hesitant to trigger what I'm sure will be a cascading insecurity of everything related to bike fit (should I then move the saddle forward too? etc). Is there anything to the back/forward endurance/power thing?

Hey, it was more experiment than fit adjustment. Got new Cervelo aero bars that added a bunch of reach and I wanted to try less before that. I got a new seat too so it was a new variable, it was probably too far back to start with.

I really suck at breathing. Asthma doesn't make things easy, and I picked up the horrible habit of chest breathing while working on a ship with lots of diesel exhaust fumes. I really wanted to see improvements in breathing with a shorter cockpit but as the stem shortened, it went lower as well. So not much if any improvement.

Unfortunately I started this debacle on the trainer (more comfortable sitting upright) and am now on the road, hips more rotated now. Will have to take a spin with an allen wrench this afternoon. I've not had any problems while seated, it's all sprinting out of corners or up hills.

On a related note Tsunami is still producing, website is old and maybe even down at this point. I contacted him a while back.

My left cleat is way back and my right is middle/forward. This is due to a slight difference in leg length; I also have a shim underneath my left cleat because of this. FWIW I do not notice a difference in endurance or power between the two legs.

My Edge 1000 does this also, really annoying. People have reported this as a bug to Garmin, but they can't be bothered to fix it so maybe it's a "feature" (even though the older Garmins didn't do this). I've just gotten into the habit of making sure to power it off when unplugging, but I still forget sometimes. Make sure you have the power-save/sleep mode enabled, so at least the battery won't drain as quickly if you do forget (I think it can go several days in sleep/standby mode).

On the topic of cleat position, is it possible to avoid crank arm rubbing? I've always had a little bit of rubbing, but with a new pair of shoes I tried moving the cleats inward all the way however they can still rub if Im not paying attention.. not to mention the cleat position just feels off to me. I was thinking about adding another pedal washer to see if that helps. I guess crankarm rub is just inevitable for some people.

I believe you need to rotate the cleat, not move laterally. When you hang your feet in the air, leg muscles all loose, which way do you feet rotate? Set your cleats up like that, but less extreme (the back of my skiis cross on the lift, can't pedal like that obviously).

thanks ill give that a try. been a while since i checked my cleats. i know my right foot rotates outward more than my left. good thing they make cleats with variable amount of float.

No need for different float, just rotate the cleats different amounts.

I'm rotated forward also. It's a matter of pushing your hips back while you're sprinting, pedaling, whatever. I'm starting to not think about it anymore but I thought about it a lot for a long time, due to wheel skip etc.

I chatted with Joe a couple weeks ago. He told me he's good to go on frames also. I'm not in a position to do anything but right now I'm experimenting fitwise with what would be a 2 cm longer frame.

Also I'm trying to think of a way to minimize headtube height on an aluminum frame, or at least lower where the stem attaches to the fork.

attach it below the headtube and move the crown race above the stem

:)

I was thinking of a hole in the head tube, a la Gitane TT bike from the mid 80s. Linked elsewhere in BF:
https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7248/7...be7e9fbf_b.jpg

Or trying to adapt a current/modern fork that can hold a 31.8 bar, although I need some decent reach, not 80mm or whatever. I don't have any good ideas on this direction though.

I'm struggling to see how that strategy would work on an aluminum frame, and how structural integrity can be maintained with 1/3 of the head tube cut out to make room for steering

Me too :)

I mean, I'm sure it can be done, but if it's not efficient then it won't be usable. I was imagining two pretty thick floating cups holding bearings with the top/down tubes meeting well behind the steerer tube to make room for stem clamp stuff. Those arms holding the rings would have to be super beefy so it's probably not practical. Also I don't think anyone really wants to try and reinvent how the front end of a bike works, except maybe the guy Rob English.

Another more realistic idea was to do a 29er kind of head tube set up, which seems to be a bit shorter since only one tube goes into the head tube.

As it is I'd do one recessed cup headset (like Chris King) and I want to have a tapered steerer (1-1/2" lower).

why the strong desire to get so low?

I ask that too. If you want to go non-UCI - use a recumbent. But you can go optimum on current bikes.

Some folks are about that low life. But really, have you seen his bike geometry?

I refitted the 120. All is well. I think I was suffering from early year inflexibility.