Just bought my first road bike and put it on a trainer for the winter. Still tweaking the saddle and such for a more comfortable ride but I’m not there yet.
Just bought my first road bike and put it on a trainer for the winter. Still tweaking the saddle and such for a more comfortable ride but I’m not there yet.
Bike fit is the route I took. I got a report with optional measurements for me, which I’ve used to set up other bikes since the fit.
Outside of a fit, first check saddle height and angle. Checking the distance from saddle to handlebar is harder (well, measuring it is relatively easy, knowing what it should be for you is the hard part).
But after the fit, I definitely felt stretched out on my old bike that now sits on my trainer. I changed the seat post to a zero offset post, and that did help some, but I’d have to change the stem to get closer, and for sentimental reasons, I’m hesitant. When I had the fit done, I wasn’t using that bike much, so it wasn’t worth getting it fitted, but then a few months later I started doing indoor riding using zwift, and that bike is on the trainer. So, in hindsight, I wish I had gotten it fitted.
I got a new bike the other day. I got the handlebars set to match my fitted bike perfectly for height and angle, but after a ride, my wrist hurt (and still does a day and a half later). I think the saddle is too far back with the offset seat post, so I was leaning too much on the bars, making my wrist hurt. I’m surprised at how much it hurts, honestly. A zero offset seat post is on its way to me now (and lighter carbon fiber to boot).
My wife is suggesting I get a new fit done. Probably not a bad idea. But I think I’ll get it sorted with this seat post.
Sore wrists can mean your seat is a big too high too. Or your reach is too far. Try holding your bars 10mm back from your hoods for a bit, and see if your hands still hurt. It’s not always the stem either, sometimes bars can have too much reach as well, it kind of works in concert. But yeah pull your hands back for a bit and it’ll definitely feel kind of weird but just focus on seeing if your wrists still hurt after riding in that position for a bit.
If it’s better it’s your reach. If it’s not, drop the post like just a hair, and see if it’s better. It could be seat position too for sure, but I believe it’s usually reach to look at first if it’s in the wrists.
Oh I’m pretty sure it’s a reach issue; that’s where I was going with the talk of getting a new seat post. Everything else lines up almost perfectly. I didn’t mention that the two bikes have an almost identical geometry, within a millimeter or two in every dimension, so it was easy to compare them.
What about the reach on the bars though? Look that up to make sure there’s not a big difference there, before buying the seat post. The bars on my newest bike are 15mm shorter reach, so the stem is actually 10mm longer than the one I was running before.
They’re actually the exact same bars and stems - both are Cannondale 3s (the new bike has newer versions with different graphics, but the length/angle/reach/drop/sweep/etc is identical). When I put the bikes next to each other and rotated the bars on the new bike to match the old, it was like I was seeing double for a moment. The component groups are slightly different - the CAAD12 has an Ultegra Di2 R8050 group, while the SSEvo has a mechanical R7020 hydraulic disc setup with the huge reservoirs - but the distance from the back of the bars to the curve in the brake hoods is identical, too.
There are occasionally advantages to being a Cannondale nut. ;) (I also have an old R500-ish model built on the 2.8 frame from the early 90s with a custom paint job, back when they were made in Pennsylvania. I know these frames have little to do with that one, even though the CAAD12 is a descendant of the the 2.8. But I inexplicably like Cannondale. There’s no sane reason for it. My gravel bike is a steel Velo Orange, though, so I’m not completely nuts.)
You did make me think of something, though: I’ll double check that the angle of the bars is the same. It’s possible I made the new bike’s angle too low by accident. That would certainly contribute to this issue.
I actually already ordered the seat post. and it’s on the way. :) Given the extremely similar geometry of the two frames, I assumed I would need it when I bought the bike. I thought I might avoid it when I saw how much adjustment the saddle had, but after the first ride, I was convinced that I’m going to need the post. If nothing else, it’ll give me more adjustability in the saddle position than I have now (the saddle is all the way forward, so the only adjustments available make the reach longer) and save a little weight.
As similar as the two frames are, the saddles are completely different. The CAAD12 has a Specialized Power Arc saddle that I got during the fit. The Evo has a Selle SMP Dynamic Saddle. The latter is longer than the Power Arc, so it’s hard to compare the two for position. If I measure from the nose, which is what’s given in my fit report, I don’t get the same effective reach. I tried to use the rear of the saddle to line them up, but that obviously hasn’t worked. I’m hoping the SMP saddle works for me; if not, I’ll get another Power Arc saddle for the SSEvo. (I intend to keep both bikes long term.)
Definitely check the angle. Even having those hoods mounted down the curve a few more mm can knock everything out. These friggin road bikes lol.
Sounds like you have it roughly figured out though.