Yeah I know and $35 for a tuneup is a deal here. I think the cheapest tuneup here from a shop is $50. There are cheaper places to get one done though.

The LBS I bought most of my gear at quoted me for a tune up at $70 bucks. Seemed a little outrageous at the time, now I'm pissed. Time to shop around.

So, silly question. But if I were wanting to drop my posture a little bit, should I go little by little, or just flat out go for it? Currently I've got a flat bar with some risers on the bike that came with it when I bought the thing, and the stem is angled upwards to give you more of an upright position. I was considering taking the risers off this weekend, but with how cheap stems actually are, I was debating getting a stem that points straight out instead of up, to bring me down even more. Having only been riding for two weeks, I'm just not sure if I want to drop down too far too quick.

Well, you could start with lowering with taking out he risers like you mentioned and put them back on top of the stem afterwards. If you want to feel a bit more stretched out a longer stem might be the way to go.

or you could try just flipping your stem over. Then the upward slant becomes a downward one and stretches you out a fair bit.

I've been told about that, but I'm not sure how that would work considering the degree my stem rises. I've got a picture posted back on the second page of this thread, to me it just doesn't seem like it would work right with my current stem. Though obviously I could be wrong.

No you are right that stem wouldn't work flipping it over unless you really wanted some serious drop. LOL

Yeah I thought it looked like it would go low. How good are the adjustable stems? I was thinking that or just getting a straight stem, neither of which seem to be all that expensive.

http://bicycletutor.com/adjust-rear-derailleur/

http://bicycletutor.com/adjust-threadless-headset/

http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/s...se/FCRStem.jpg

This is my attempt at lowering my current stem to lower my position. Obviously the tube sticking out of the top is not supposed to be like that. From what I can tell, the rings at the bottom of the stem aren't actually risers, they're there so the metal of the tube doesn't show. If I'm wanting to actually LOWER my current stem, am I going to have to cut that tube, or is there something I'm missing?

I wouldn't go cutting your steerer tube just yet. That's something you can't come back from. And the spacers do serve a useful purpose from what I can tell. You can just transfer the ones from below the stem to above it unless your stem was all the way at the top of the steerer with nothing above it.

I thought about doing that. There's a cap with a hole for the bolt to go through so that it's not just a tube sticking out. But with what I've done, not sure if it lowers my posture enough, and putting ALL the spaces above just looks silly. My thing is, all the pictures I see of other FCRs, none have those spacers. So why is my bike different, and is there a way to buy a different tube, or is it permanently attached to the forks?

have fun riding the hell out

Plenty of people have bikes with the spacers above its just to test things out in your case so just do it and ride. I tested out an FCR likely the same year and model as yours and it had plenty of spacers so I don't think yours is special. In any case its probably good to have it longer because the worst case scenario is you have to get it cut.

Don't do any cutting just yet. Give yourself some time to be sure it's what you want. Kind of a "measure twice and cut once" deal.

As for the cramping--be darn sure you are taking in enough fluids and, if you are sweating a bunch, potassium/sodium like has already been suggested. I believe that cramping in usually a sign of lack of minerals. Also, the stretching will help.

As for the derailleur adjustment: it, along with things like fixing a flat and adjusting brakes, can be learned by watching YouTube videos. There is a ton of good instruction on there. For me, I have to be able to see how it's done before I can learn it. One word of caution: for any repair you want to learn, watch at least 2 or 3 videos. Most of them I have seen are fine but occasionally I run across one where the guy is teaching something completely wrong. If you watch a couple and they agree on how to do something then you should be fine.