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Difference in Handlebar width.



 
 
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  #11  
Old September 16th 19, 04:14 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Andre Jute[_2_]
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Default Difference in Handlebar width.

The Brooks B73 saddle that I like a lot, not quite as hew-yuge as the B90, which has a Chalo-size suspension system:
http://thorncyclesforum.co.uk/index....60311#msg60311

Brooks' magic grips that I also mentioned:
http://thorncyclesforum.co.uk/index....23365#msg23365

Andre Jute
Can my component mate with your component?

On Monday, September 16, 2019 at 3:34:38 PM UTC+1, Andre Jute wrote:
My bikes are set up to within a millimetre by a long process of changing only one thing at a time and then testing it. I find that any other setup gives me pain in the small of my back by the weight of my arms pulling on the muscles down my back. Any other pains I ascribe to creeping age.

I sit on a big triple-spring Brooks saddle (guaranteed to give the weight weenies a fainting fit) and I try not to adjust it every year, as advised, because it upsets my bike fit.

I swapped bikes with a guy I met on the road who had a much more powerful version of my motor fitted, for only about twenty minutes, and the next day was lying across the bed reading a book on the floor because I couldn't sit in a chair. Nothing wrong with his bike, good fat balloons too, just that it forced me into an unaccustomed "sporting" position. He said something like that about my bike too, though he couldn't be more than forty and looked pretty limber.

Here it was 18C yesterday, for Ireland pretty near a heatwave. I rode out for an hour, choosing the biggest hills to make my own air conditioning on the downhills, and came home soaked, with my heart rate over the permitted level for the entire ride. Feel better for it today.

Carried a banana but it came home with me.

***
I'm particularly sensitive to vibrations in my hands, even micro vibrations. About ten years ago I bought Brooks grips consisting of thick rings of leather used end on and held in cast ali end pieces by short bicycle spokes (I kid you not). I bought them as a novelty, maybe a joke. But they've proven to be better at keeping vibrations out of my hands than any of the gel grips I ever tried.

Andre Jute
You never know on which road you find salvation -- St Peter

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  #12  
Old September 16th 19, 04:22 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Tom Kunich[_5_]
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Posts: 1,231
Default Difference in Handlebar width.

On Monday, September 16, 2019 at 7:34:38 AM UTC-7, Andre Jute wrote:
My bikes are set up to within a millimetre by a long process of changing only one thing at a time and then testing it. I find that any other setup gives me pain in the small of my back by the weight of my arms pulling on the muscles down my back. Any other pains I ascribe to creeping age.

I sit on a big triple-spring Brooks saddle (guaranteed to give the weight weenies a fainting fit) and I try not to adjust it every year, as advised, because it upsets my bike fit.

I swapped bikes with a guy I met on the road who had a much more powerful version of my motor fitted, for only about twenty minutes, and the next day was lying across the bed reading a book on the floor because I couldn't sit in a chair. Nothing wrong with his bike, good fat balloons too, just that it forced me into an unaccustomed "sporting" position. He said something like that about my bike too, though he couldn't be more than forty and looked pretty limber.

Here it was 18C yesterday, for Ireland pretty near a heatwave. I rode out for an hour, choosing the biggest hills to make my own air conditioning on the downhills, and came home soaked, with my heart rate over the permitted level for the entire ride. Feel better for it today.

Carried a banana but it came home with me.

***
I'm particularly sensitive to vibrations in my hands, even micro vibrations. About ten years ago I bought Brooks grips consisting of thick rings of leather used end on and held in cast ali end pieces by short bicycle spokes (I kid you not). I bought them as a novelty, maybe a joke. But they've proven to be better at keeping vibrations out of my hands than any of the gel grips I ever tried.

Andre Jute
You never know on which road you find salvation -- St Peter


I find that changing one thing doesn't work well since, say, stem length is dependent upon saddle position or height. Also the sort of riding you do makes stem length important - long fast descents like to have a long, low stem whereas crit-like riding wants a more upright position with a shorter stem. Finding the sweet spot is a long process.
  #13  
Old September 16th 19, 06:02 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Andre Jute[_2_]
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Posts: 10,422
Default Difference in Handlebar width.

On Monday, September 16, 2019 at 4:22:28 PM UTC+1, Tom Kunich wrote:
On Monday, September 16, 2019 at 7:34:38 AM UTC-7, Andre Jute wrote:
My bikes are set up to within a millimetre by a long process of changing only one thing at a time and then testing it. I find that any other setup gives me pain in the small of my back by the weight of my arms pulling on the muscles down my back. Any other pains I ascribe to creeping age.

I sit on a big triple-spring Brooks saddle (guaranteed to give the weight weenies a fainting fit) and I try not to adjust it every year, as advised, because it upsets my bike fit.

I swapped bikes with a guy I met on the road who had a much more powerful version of my motor fitted, for only about twenty minutes, and the next day was lying across the bed reading a book on the floor because I couldn't sit in a chair. Nothing wrong with his bike, good fat balloons too, just that it forced me into an unaccustomed "sporting" position. He said something like that about my bike too, though he couldn't be more than forty and looked pretty limber.

Here it was 18C yesterday, for Ireland pretty near a heatwave. I rode out for an hour, choosing the biggest hills to make my own air conditioning on the downhills, and came home soaked, with my heart rate over the permitted level for the entire ride. Feel better for it today.

Carried a banana but it came home with me.

***
I'm particularly sensitive to vibrations in my hands, even micro vibrations. About ten years ago I bought Brooks grips consisting of thick rings of leather used end on and held in cast ali end pieces by short bicycle spokes (I kid you not). I bought them as a novelty, maybe a joke. But they've proven to be better at keeping vibrations out of my hands than any of the gel grips I ever tried.

Andre Jute
You never know on which road you find salvation -- St Peter


I find that changing one thing doesn't work well since, say, stem length is dependent upon saddle position or height. Also the sort of riding you do makes stem length important - long fast descents like to have a long, low stem whereas crit-like riding wants a more upright position with a shorter stem. Finding the sweet spot is a long process.


I'm talking of taking a bike that is already set up with a tape measure to within millimetres of another, known-good bike, and then fine tuning it. It probably helps that all my last three bikes, though different frame sizes, were pretty much alike in their angles, all being Dutch sports commuter styles. Also, I make things easy for myself: they all have the same Uno (Kalloy) North Road handlebars, 600mm wide so that my arms fall straight down from my shoulders, and they all start out with a stem adjustable for both reach and inclination, and the seat height and effective seat post angle are fixed in advance and not adjusted, so all I'm looking to adjust is the effective top tube lengthy by adjusting the stem (stem length plus height of bars above the seat by rotating the stem) and the reach of my arms and wrist angle onto the grips by rotating the bars in the clamp end of the stem. It's a process that works for me, but it's a bit time consuming because every little change is proven by a test ride.

Andre Jute
Gotta know what you want before you start work
  #14  
Old September 16th 19, 09:21 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
[email protected]
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Posts: 824
Default Difference in Handlebar width.

On Sunday, September 15, 2019 at 11:44:52 PM UTC+2, Tom Kunich wrote:
I have been riding 44 cm handlebars for a very long time. And I have always had sore shoulders after long rides.

I changed my LeMond to a 42 as a test and it made a remarkable difference.. No more sore shoulders on the hard rides I've been doing.

Yesterday I rode the Colnago on the metric and when I got back from the ride my right shoulder was so painful I couldn't rotate my elbow above shoulder level.

On Friday I had changed the 100 mm stem on the LeMond to a 120 carbon fiber model that has a full contact front piece. In this process I didn't fully align the stem properly. Today riding out on a short 21 mile recovery ride my LEFT shoulder began hurting and leaning down and looking closely I could see that the stem as only a couple of degrees off perfect. Midway I stopped in a store and got a coffee and then pulled out a multitool and aligned it as well as you could by sight. Riding off the pain was completely gone.

So not only is the bar width pretty important but the alignment has to be a whole more closer than you might had suspected.

Yesterday's Metric had a 14.5 mph average and I had missed breakfast so stopped and got a Breakfast Jack which I sure won't do again. I had a slight stomach ache all day. So I started the ride a little low on energy and the stops sure didn't help any. Trail mix and bananas?

On the second rest stop I had half of one of those plastic glasses of Gatoraide which I also don't like. My brother had showed up early so I didn't have my extra water bottle with Propel in it.

In any case, I'm sure that the stress on me yesterday made me more sensitive to the alignment of the bars today but it did show that the alignment has to be really close.


My Canyon Aeroad came with 40 cm wide handlebar (one piece aero bars). I was very unsure about this (was my first of the shelf bike) because I always used 42 cm handlebars so far. The 40 cm wide handlebars felt so much better that I replaced the handlebar of my winter bike after my crash also with a 40 cm one. Never thought 2 cm would make that kind of difference in feel.

Lou
  #15  
Old September 17th 19, 10:51 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Tom Kunich[_5_]
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Posts: 1,231
Default Difference in Handlebar width.

On Monday, September 16, 2019 at 1:21:58 PM UTC-7, wrote:
On Sunday, September 15, 2019 at 11:44:52 PM UTC+2, Tom Kunich wrote:
I have been riding 44 cm handlebars for a very long time. And I have always had sore shoulders after long rides.

I changed my LeMond to a 42 as a test and it made a remarkable difference. No more sore shoulders on the hard rides I've been doing.

Yesterday I rode the Colnago on the metric and when I got back from the ride my right shoulder was so painful I couldn't rotate my elbow above shoulder level.

On Friday I had changed the 100 mm stem on the LeMond to a 120 carbon fiber model that has a full contact front piece. In this process I didn't fully align the stem properly. Today riding out on a short 21 mile recovery ride my LEFT shoulder began hurting and leaning down and looking closely I could see that the stem as only a couple of degrees off perfect. Midway I stopped in a store and got a coffee and then pulled out a multitool and aligned it as well as you could by sight. Riding off the pain was completely gone.

So not only is the bar width pretty important but the alignment has to be a whole more closer than you might had suspected.

Yesterday's Metric had a 14.5 mph average and I had missed breakfast so stopped and got a Breakfast Jack which I sure won't do again. I had a slight stomach ache all day. So I started the ride a little low on energy and the stops sure didn't help any. Trail mix and bananas?

On the second rest stop I had half of one of those plastic glasses of Gatoraide which I also don't like. My brother had showed up early so I didn't have my extra water bottle with Propel in it.

In any case, I'm sure that the stress on me yesterday made me more sensitive to the alignment of the bars today but it did show that the alignment has to be really close.


My Canyon Aeroad came with 40 cm wide handlebar (one piece aero bars). I was very unsure about this (was my first of the shelf bike) because I always used 42 cm handlebars so far. The 40 cm wide handlebars felt so much better that I replaced the handlebar of my winter bike after my crash also with a 40 cm one. Never thought 2 cm would make that kind of difference in feel..

Lou


That caught me by surprise as well. I did the last third of the Tour de Fuzz which was on the same course as the Harvest Century with my right arm killing me. The problem is that it is such a pain in the ass to thread the cables through that aero bar that I'm in no hurry to replace it since I seldom do rides over 50 miles.
 




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