coopman

I think that most sub-$1000 bikes are going to fall in the 30-35 lb. range. Is she complaining about the Jamis bike's weight?

gazz

The Jamis was an ebay find in order to get her riding (never learnt as a child). Very easy to ride, but she's mentioned how it's very heavy manouvering at low speed (especially following our 4 yr old). Would something like the women's FX or Liv Alight still be easy to ride?

coopman

Can she touch the ground easily while riding the bike? If so, there might be times when she is better off putting her feet down and walking the bike instead of trying to pedal. One big advantage to the "crank forward" bikes is that it is easier to touch the ground.

gazz

She can just touch the ground with her toes at the lowest seatpost height and since it's a suspension seatpost, I can't lower the seat any further down towards the seat tube. Can I buy a new seatpost and attach the existing saddle to it?

coopman

Sure, that can easily be done. The Explorer is 30.5 lbs. according to the Jamis website specs., so that's pretty lightweight for a bike in its price class. Do you have a local bike shop? I'd take the saddle & seat tube over there and ask them to help you.

gazz

Thanks mate, sounds like a plan. Her's is the Explorer 1 femme with the front coil susp so it's a good deal heavier at 35.5 lbs. In any case, lowering the seat so she can place her foot down easier would be the go. Cheers

coopman

Ah, OK. The seat post dia. is given in the specs. on the Jamis site. I assume that a standard 2 rail saddle is what the bike has.

gazz

Alright cool will check it out tonight. Thanks!

OldCruiser

Love my Roll , just bought a Rockhopper, shouldn’t bought another Roll and put some trail tires on it . Rockhopper is very uncomfortable to ride . All of my weight is on my hands .
I’ve ordered what I need to raise the bars ,I hope . Hope I have enough cable .

Anyone ever setup a Roll for trail riding ?

bobwysiwyg

I'm following this thread with some interest. The day may come when low entry is going to be my only resort.

coopman

I picked up my new Roll Sport Low Entry this afternoon from the LBS and just finished up a 6 mile ride on it. I'm still playing with the adjustments a bit, trying to get them optimal for me. I'm not all that impressed by "The Cup" saddle so far. I had to take just as many butt breaks as I did with my beach cruiser. Maybe it just needs a minor tweek to feel better. The saddle clamp pitch adjustment mechanism is as different from the beach cruiser as it could be. It took me a while to figure that out. It has a bolt in front and another in back, and they operate in a push-pull sort of way. One good thing about it, it won't slip on you like many saddle clamps will.
I was hearing some minor squeeking from the front wheel and figured out that it was not quite seated properly in the fork (we had to take the wheel off at the store to get the bike to fit into my CRV). That was my fault.
I was enjoying the ride so much that I went around the block an extra time. I sure do like having the gears to fine tune the pedaling effort and to be able to speed along at a pretty good clip. It's not a road bike but it will definitely leave the beach cruiser in the dust. It will go as fast as I desire to go.
I will probably have this as my only bike for the rest of my life (my wife was not very pleased when I told her that I had ordered it).

OldCruiser

Wait till you swap out the Cup for another saddle . The double bolt seat post is a pain to swap saddles. But easy to adjust once you get the hang of it . I prefer a single bolt .
Good luck with your new Roll . I can see a low entry in my future.

Newspaper_Nick

Double bolt option gives you complete freedom of skew adjustment of the saddle. You can fine tune the tilt. With single bolt, you are limited with the number of grooves chiseled on the seat post mount.

OldCruiser

The double bolt post on the Roll I own would only let me tilt forward (down) a few degrees . Fortunately, it was just enough to get the nose of the saddle in the right position with a Brooks Imperial saddle . I’m not sure it would be enough with some other saddles I’ve own .

hokiefyd 

The adjustment bolts work in tandem. As you tighten the front bolt (to lower the saddle), loosen the rear bolt. This type of seat post is basically like having the saddle on top of a fulcrum, and both bolts pull on each side, holding it steady. As you tighten one, the tension on the other becomes MUCH tighter as well (because the pivot is on top of the fulcrum). As one side comes down the other side has to come up. Once you have the adjustment where you want, you can ensure that both bolts are tight; just tighten them evenly so you don't pull the angle down one way or the other.

These types of seat posts should offer a large degree of adjustment, so if you find that you're limited in one direction or the other, I suspect you may not be loosening the other bolt as you tighten one of them.

OldCruiser

I know how they work .
I left the rear bolt loose until I had tightened the front screw until it bottomed out , then it would only take a couple of turns on the rear to tighten it . Maybe the one I got was defective.
It still doesn’t doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s a pain to swap out saddles . Maybe I don’t know what I’m doing there either .

Newspaper_Nick

Have you tried swapping the front bolt with a shorter and rear bolt with a longer one? Just an idea.

OldCruiser

Don’t see how that would make a difference. I believe both bolts are the same length anyways . The slot in the lower would have to be longer to allow more forward tilt .
by tightening the front bolt completely with the rear bolt loose , it adjusts the downward front tilt to its max allowable. Then the rear bolt is tightened to hold the rear .
I could possibly gain a little more tilt by pushing the saddle forward . Right now I have it back as far as it will go .

Newspaper_Nick

A design flaw? The seatpost has too much of a reverse tilt maybe? Actually, looking back at the photo, it certainly has too much of a tilt and the seatpost mount seems to be the wrong choice. Maybe they should change it with a more forward tilting one.

hokiefyd 

By this description, I agree it sounds like the seat pivot is tilted all the way forward. It would be strange for Specialized to spec a seatpost that doesn't allow much adjustment. Because the seat tube has such a slack angle, you'd think the seatpost used would be of a design to allow more forward tilt than usual (relative to the angle of the post). Perhaps not!

coopman

There was a tag on my saddle that showed that the nose of the saddle should be tilted upwards, not level.
I don't feel like the stock suspension seat post is doing anything. If it is doing anything, it's pretty well useless.

OldCruiser

My Roll didn’t come with a suspension seatpost.

wyd

Going to be joining the Roll scene. I been riding my Specialized Crosstrail and really like it but after riding a Roll I really like the upright seating as it's just so much more comfortable and easy on my neck and back. My local shop is getting me a new 2018 Roll Elite in the Teal Tint Specialized is having some great deals right now so my dealer is hooking me up. Really nice to have a friend that owns a bike show. Can't wait til it comes in and I can hit the local rail trail and take it for it's first ride. Weather permitting should be doing a 23 mile ride on it. Right now the weather is looking good.

coopman

Glad to hear it, wyd. Congrats.

Lu..

When I bought my Roll, I hated the stock suspension seat post. My weight would cause it to compress every time I pedaled when I demoed it. I know you can adjust the compression rate, I believe even lock it out, but I asked the LBS to swap it out to finalize the deal. They replaced it with a Kalloy Uno seat post & the stock "Cup" seat is leveled as it should be.