hey, i've been biking mostly on the hoods and when needing more aero position down on drops. my bike was fitted for me however recently i've started to do sprints on the drops. i feel a bit crowded when sprinting out of saddle. i feel i should be more stretched out, dont have as much leverage. i noticed my arms are at 90 deg and just below chest. no matter how forward i try to go, my butt still hits the saddle.

measuring my previous bike which i had no problem with before i measured the stem a little longer, and the drops are a little longer passed the hoods. if i were to invest in the length of stem or bar, which would i be? honestly i just go the easton90 because its shallow however the stretch is shorter now but its comfortable for me. i noticed my body was more upright than my old bike (i believe its a combo of the stem and bar though.) i was thinking since i invested in bars that i feel are comfortable already, would the stem be the next step? im sure this will influence the hoods and tops...but not sure if this will make drops for sprinting any better...unless the bike is too small?

thanks for any advise! appreciate it.

bump...sorry! can anybody suggest?

I can't understand what you wrote. Can you summarize in lines?

1. I ride on hoods, sometimes drops
2. When I sprint on drops (what bars/stem/bike) I feel crowded
3. Crowded = ?
4. I want to (a) or (b), which would seem to work better?

Other info:
- picture of current bike, better would be you on said bike
- picture of you sprinting on drops
- maybe picture of old bike too

Seems like you have a bike that fits and have a ruler, so adjust the new bike and select components that generate the same distances between the various contact points on the new bike. If the seat height and setback are correct, choose a stem that puts the tops of the bar the same distance from the saddle and the same distance below it (measure from the floor to the top center of the saddle and the floor to the top of the bars, subtract the latter from the former). Then choose the same bend bars as your old bike to get the same position for the drops.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and suggest going +20-30mm on your stem for a week or two and seeing what it's like. If you're always riding in the hoods and feel cramped in the drops your reach is probably way too short.

i measured the contact points on my old bike and compared to my new.

old bike set up (c-c):
1.saddle to top bar 26"
2.saddle to hoods 31"
3.saddle to drops (farthest stretch) 30"
4.stem 4.5"

new bike set up (c-c):
1.saddle to top bar 25.5"
2.saddle to hoods 30"
3.saddle to drops (farthest stretch) 29"
4.stem 4"

old bike feels way too much stretch...and new bike seems just a little under. so how can i be between? get a stem 4.5"? or 110mm

or should i have stuck with a longer reach in the bars? but i guess the least expensive is stem?

Those changes are HUGE all at once. Your fitter needs to put it all back to where it was, IMO.

Then send a consult fee to CDR to help you get it right.

when you are truly sprinting, your position becomes less important. you'll pull yourself out of the saddle and the bike will be moving beneath you. it's only 30 pedal strokes, make 'em all count.

You've measured everything with respect to your saddle. Where is the BB in relationship to the saddle and bars? You may have a different saddle position with respect to the BB on your new ride and I would think it's the relationship between BB and bars that really matters when sprinting.

i measured saddle to bb. old bike is 1" longer than newer. when sprinting on old it feels ok, but new i feel is a bit shorter.

what is CDR? i got this bike at store almost a year ago too.

just wondering if i shouldn't even bother investing in a stem? thought i could meet in between the measurements so i wont feel either extremes...

What are the two frames? Manufacturer, model, size? How far down your bars are will make a difference too.

You're measuring things which are not really relative even though they may seem so. For example, say I tried to make cake and it burned in the oven. I might tell you that I preheated the oven to 350 deg F, or that I used 3 eggs. But what would be most pertinent is if I told you I baked the cake for 5 hours instead of 20 minutes.

If you're sprinting out of the saddle everything is in relation to the bottom bracket, not where your saddle sits. You've given us zero information on crank/bb placement on your two bikes.

So, to get back to your original question, you need to either have pictures of the bikes (from the side) or describe, in text, pictures of the bikes. Appropriate descriptive things would include frame geometry (all of it, not just one or two dimensions, or you can post pictures of the bikes), stem height/angle/length (or a picture of the stem on the bike), saddle height and set back (or a picture of it), crank length, stuff like that.

As you can see pictures are a lot easier than text.

Right now we just know the cake is burnt. No one can give you any advice without you sharing relative information with us. Right now there's not that much relative information (okay, virtually none) so you're not going to get much help.

Also, although we're in the US, most bike fit stuff here is in metric units. Using metric measurements will encourage those thinking about posting any ideas. You want to encourage people to post answers, not discourage them.

cdr