Handlebar Reach

RICH78

I have recently purchased a Road Bike. How can you tell that the Handlebar Reach is correct. At present I feel that my arms are strained when my hands are on the drops of the handlebars.

Is their a process I can go through to determine what the handlebar reach should be?

onbike 1939

Here is a way which will give you an indication.
With your arm bent at right angles place the elbow against the toe of the saddle. With fingers outstretched they should be able to touch the bars.If this is not possible then you may be able to bring the seat forward enough to do so. If not, the you may have to purchase a shorter bar stem. The real problem could be that your Top-tube length is too long but the above adjustments may help.

Chris James

It sort of depends on what it feels like to you.

A general rule of thumb for road bikes is that you start with your saddle position first. Position it vertically placing your heel on the pedal with a straightened leg. Trying cycling and see if you are rocking your hips. If not, the saddle position vertically is about right.

Then position it fore and aft by dropping a plumb line from the front of bone at the top of your shin (just below the kneee cap). This should be above the pedal spindle (effectively the centre of your kee is directly over the spindle)

Finally you move onto reach. Placing your elbow at the nose of your saddle the centre of the bars should be approximately the length of your arm to the tip of your fingers PLUS the width of your four fingers away. You can play with stem length and angle to achieve this. It is often said that your bars will obstruct the view of your front axle for a correct setup, although this depends on the height of your bars to a degree.

This just gives you an idea of a fairly standard setup. You will want to fine tune over time. If you are MILES away from the above though you might be wrongly setup.

Chris James

This link does something similar to what i have suggested, although they have come up with yet another arm hand combo for length!

http://www.cliftoncc.org/static.php?con ... bike_setup

Onbike1939's arm length only to the bars sounds very short though, unless I have misread it?

monty_dogcp

Most people ride on the hoods these days and so set-up their bikes accordingly - often bar drops are used very infrequently - so make sure you're bike is right for your normal riding position. Are your arms locked at the elbows or do they have a slight bend? - they should be relaxed and you shouldn't need to 'grip' the bars. How far are the tops of the bars below the level of the saddle - generally it veries from between level to about 4 inches - much more and you have to be tall or pretty flexible. As siad, make sure you get your sdalle height and layback right first before looking at adjusting the reach/depth of the bars.