krobinson103

My flatbar roadie is complete and a joy to ride.... for anything under 3 hours. Beyond that its direct tranfer of enetgy from road to saddle gets on my nerves. My long distance mtb with front shocks locked and wider slicks doesn't bother me until 10 hours in. Thus, how do you tame the bumps to make it worthy of a fun century as compared to just suffering through it?

jbchybridrider 

3 hours is a long ride for most people, 3-5 is what I aim for and feel the fatigue from it. You should be pretty happy with how your going now, you could also try something I bet no one has tried before with a road frame "suspension seat post"

Burton

Fatter tires come to mind, but without any details at all about the bike - even thats just pure speculation. Hows about some pics?

giantcfr1

I've done in excess of three hours on my BadBoy on occations and don't have any issues with arse, nuts, hands etc..
It may be just a balance between your handlebar height vs saddle height (saddle to bar drop)
As you probably know neither the saddle nor bars should be holding your weight independently, rather both working together along with your legs to ensure a comfortable ride.
AND of course good fitting knicks.

krobinson103

there be the toy. Yes the saddle is high and yes the frame is somewhat smaller than ideal for me. Its the best I can do with that particular bike.

David Bierbaum

As an easy experiment, try putting the saddle from your MTB on your roadie, and see if that makes the difference... Also, I second the "fatter tires at lower pressures" opinion. Since you specify the saddle as the source of your discomfort, I can assume that your position, posture, and handlebar ergonomics are okay for you.

Although looking at that picture, I notice that the handlebars are lower on the roadie than on the MTB behind it. You may just want to try a stem extender (or adjustable stem, since I think that's a quill stem, isn't it?) on the roadie to increase the handlebar height, since it might just be the different position you are in on the saddle that is causing problems.

pierce

there's always a Thudbuster(tm) seatpost... I'd suggest the 'short' one for hybrids, the long one is more suitable to a hard tail mountain bike you'll be doing jumps and drops on.

the typical suspension seatposts suffer from twist and wobble. the seat moves back and forth like 10 degrees or more, extremely disconcerting when you're pedalling. the thudbusters use a parallelogram design, where the seat moves back and down (keeps the hip-to-pedal distance relatively constant). the only downside is, they are a bit heavy.

krobinson103

Weight doesn't bother me. Notice the alloy frame and rack. Its functional rather than light. I may try a flat bar riser quill stem. That gives me more reach and will bring the bars a little higher. At present its too upright for my taste so to raise the bars I need to stretch it a bit.

pierce

a thudbuster requires a fair amount of seatpost height, especially the big one, and it also can interfere with your rack load as the seat moves back and down.

its probably not a good idea to use a seatpack with one.

dynaryder

There's part of your problem. If the bike's not fitted right,it's just not going to be comfortable.

Wider/lower psi tires will help. What's the fork made of? If it's alloy,that combined with the straight blade design is going to roughen the ride.

I'd go with the tire swap first,and maybe have a shop check your fit. You might be able to do something with different bars or stem to change your riding position and improve the ride. A carbon fork will help,but I don't know if you want to put that much money/effort into it.

krobinson103

Its a cheap bije to start... I just played with some parts I had. Don't want to put too much into it.

Burton

OK - so at this point my suggestion would be to install some barends and overtape them with bar tape. You might want to move everything in to reduce the handlebar width as well. You can do that without cutting the bars just to try it out. That will add some reach to your fit, which might be enough to make your ride more comfortable.

krobinson103

There is a bike sitting in the corner at my closest lbs due to be decommisioned. It has a longer reach stem on it. I'm not sure if another 2cm of reach will help much, but its a tempting idea to pick up that stem and see if it helps. It won't go any higher, but it will make it a little longer and perhaps a tad more comfortable. I already have bar ends on - they don't show up well on the photo, and the bars have been narrowed already. It feels great up front.



I tried to replicate the cockpit I have on my other two bikes...


Both of which are very comfortable. But, I think its a case of the frame/fork and the tires themselves. They are simply different. I'm not sure how much wider a tire I could mount on the bike... I have 175 slicks on the mtb and these seem much narrower. I think they are either 25 or 28c.

fietsbob

Knees and elbows, get off the saddle and let the bike move underneath you,
when you see a bump, ahead.

GrouchoWretch

Steel frame and 40c tires?

Burton

Noticed the barends in the photo. I was thinking more along the lines of Ergon GC3's but doubt you'd want to put out that kind of money so was thinking something inexpensive could come close. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bar_ends.JPG
The idea was to stretch you out more.

Meandmybike

Not many people spend 3+hours on a bike. Although if you're touring then 3 hours could be only a third of your ride. There's no such thing as comfortable long distance riding but drop bars give you more hand positions so you can just keep changing. I'd imagine most if not everyone can ride in an upright position for longer than in a dropped position before feeling the need to move. If you can gain speed while free wheeling then that's a time to lift your butt off the seat and a few seconds can give you a half hour of relief. Standing up when going down any sort of hill, even the smallest of them.

Burton

Really!!

And there I was, actually having FUN!