One of my bikes lately.


https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-I...004_153507.jpg

HAWT! Thanks for sharing

They are at an awkward angle. Need to be rotated down a bit. I'd prefer a shallow drop compact natural curve bar on the bike with the drops pretty much parallel to the ground.

Look at the bars. the drops of the bars are pointed down. Imagine standing and trying to sprint in the drops with the position of the bars. The hoods are also fairly high on the bars. There is no right ow wrong i guess, but there is a general rule of thumb.

Funny, I also got a Tommaso recently (same frame I believe) and just took it on its first long ride (100k). I think I've settled on this bar height after lowering it more during that ride.

http://ryanlabarre.com/images/bikes/tommaso_fitted.jpg

that angle of the picture doesnt really show much for the bar height you decided on. take the photo at handlebar height

Worse lightning now, but better angle to see that?

http://ryanlabarre.com/images/bikes/tommaso_fitted2.jpg

yeah, that is better angle and lighting. you should really think about raising the front of your saddle

Actually, that was another adjustment I made on this long ride. When doing shorter rides at first I had it closer to flat... but about 20k into the bike's first longer ride, I started getting pressure up front and just felt uncomfortable like I couldn't get my sit bones situated. Dropping the nose helped immensely, the rest of the ride was 10x more comfortable/stable in that area. Definitely leaving it like this for awhile; maybe will go back up a tiny bit, but not much.

I will probably drop the angle of the bars a little, I raised the angle when dropping the height (started w/ drops parallel to ground), likely will settle somewhere in between. Kind of want to cut the steerer if I leave them this low...

This is my old bike / summer commuter, apologies for NDS, was just the most similar angle and best background :thumb:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-L...602_171500.jpg

obviously comfort is important, but keep in mind your saddle should not be positioned like that. This means there is an issue with your set up.

-saddle is to far forward or towards the rear.
-wrong shape saddle
-tilt was wrong when you were feeling discomfort.

Finding the right saddle can be discouraging, difficult and frustrating. I have gone through 12 saddles now and finally after 5 years of cycling have found one that I love. Specialized romin evo pro with carbon rails. it just fits my body. At the end of the day, your saddle position is not right.

I totally agree. As you can see it's just the stock Tommaso saddle since it's a new bike, I just wanted to do at least one long ride on it and try to fit all the stock stuff, before trying new. The Selle Italia seat on the Trek is amazingly comfortable at the shown angle, and is a much different shape for sure. I rode that bike for 5 years and had tried many more positions on it, so everything there fits like a glove.

She's a beaut! Great backdrop too. I have a similar bike of the same vintage (1990 1400) which I have upgraded over the years and still ride today.

Thanks, and wow -- yours is quite nice as well! I had been toying with the idea of killing the dt shifters and going with brifters like that, but I just couldn't bring myself to. I have this weird fondness for dt shifters still, and wanted to keep a bike with them... similar to enjoying a regular manual transmission even after discovering + appreciating one operated with nice paddle shifters.

I can understand the sentiment. There's beauty in simplicity. I owned her since about '92 when I bought it from a friend. This was my only road bike at the time, and I upgraded the front end six years back when I started getting serious about road riding (I was originally an MTBer). I wanted STI but got snowballed and ended up doing everything - brifters, 1" threadless carbon fork, headset, and stem. I lucked out and came across a NOS 7-speed Shimano brifter upgrade kit. Whowouldathunk? A couple months back I then upgraded the bars and cranks. It's a remarkably comfortable ride IMO for aluminum, and she fits me perfectly, hence why I'll never get rid of it. At one time this was Trek's top shelf aluminum bike, and was still made right in Waterloo, WI. She's now my rain or just toolin' around bike. People freak when I tell them it's a 22 year old bike.

HOT! Well done..:thumb:

Really cool look you've got going there.

This picture should be posted in every first bike thread. Totally rideable bike, a perfect example of what you can get second hand with a little money left to buy some modern parts. All for probably less money than you could land a bike with 2300 brifters. I totally hear you on keeping a DT bike in the stable- makes the modern stuff all the more revolutionary to go back to the roots every now and then. I've always thought new drivers should learn on a manual car to appreciate what an automatic does for you.

Impressive work matching the reds- there is a lot of variation out there, you nailed it. I've always been hesitant to stretch old aluminum frames, and i don't think this would have been a 130mm rear- did you coldset, shorten the axle or do you just splay the stays to get the wheel in?

Thanks -- yeah, I'm very picky about keeping up the color scheme, glad it shows. If you notice the water bottles and under-seat bag on my Tommaso, those reds were initially chosen to match the Trek, too ;)

It was originally a 126mm rear, and there's enough flex to easily carefully spread it and pop in the 130mm, I didn't do anything fancy. May have got lucky, because everything lines up perfectly with no issues whatsoever. It has only been about 7 months with this new wheelset and 130mm rear, though. It went on along with a new chain and 8 speed cassette, to replace the original 7 speed threaded setup. It doesn't shift as nice with the wider 8 speed as it did with a narrower 7, but it's not too bad.

And yes, even after 5+ years of ownership, 10 miles a day of commuting + occasional long weekend rides, and quite a few parts... the TCO of this bike is still MUCH less than just the initial cost of my new carbon bike, which I don't even ride as much! It was/is most definitely a perfect first road bike. Well under $1k total spent on the bike and all the parts etc over the years. It helps that I already had a decent set of tools from being an avid mountain biker for longer, only relatively recently got into road bikes.

Nice ride there cali_axela. The cockpit has an interesting look to it with the hood low like you have them.

You mean like how automatics make every four-cylinder car a soulless well of lameness? ;)

(drive a 6-M TSX 4-cyl b/c anything with a bigger motor would get me in trouble -- even our MDX O_o)

I agree though, on car shifters and bike shifters.

Dude, I've been wanting a 6MT TSX for years! Been driving my Integra 11 years now and really need a 4-door badly!

The day I bought my road bike 2 weekends ago I rode in my friend's 430+ HP Mitsu Lancer Evo, that thing is bad@$$.

Awesome!

HOT with a BUT !! Water bottle cages are different. Other than that, absolute hottie !

Yeah, I can't have a car like that. That's the nice thing about cycling: you can (briefly) go pro racer speeds, on a real pro racing rig, on public roads and never get in trouble. If I try that in an Evo, I'll never drive again.

When I bought my TSX (special ordered as 6MT was rare), the sales guy gave me the option of not buying it and getting my full deposit back b/c he had customers lined up to pay sticker for it when it arrived. After that, I watched for the next 18 months as the Edmunds TMV of my used TSX stayed above purchase price :)

My down tube example. '91 Fuso cold set to 130mm. Dura-Ace shifters have a wonderful 'clunk' to them.
http://imageshack.us/a/img196/6198/fusok.jpg

I had a '92 Trek 2100 back in the day. Used to see a lot of the Red aluminum 1400's on the road. Should have picked up one myself instead of the carbon bonded to aluminum frame.

I don't think I posted this in this thread yet.....
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y44...R/DSC02367.jpg
My 1986 Alan Record Carbonio build I completed about three months ago....
It turned out much hotter than I was expecting....

Chombi