Bike fitting - shape of bars

poprad

My bike has a 560 top tube and feels a bit long, even with the stem shortened from 100mm to 80mm which has always led me to believe that I needed nothing bigger than a 56cm. I'm just over 5'11 but with shortish legs and long body.

As I'm think of getting a new (sportive-oriented) bike i thought I'd go to Sigma Sports in kingston and see what they recommended. They measured me (they use static measuremnet rather than having a jig or adjustable bike) and came up with a recommended top tube length of 585mm!

They then sat me on a 58 Roubaix and a 58 Trek 1.9 and they seemed to fit. So, from thinking I was a 56, i'm a 58.

Anyway, where I'm getting to is that it appears that the bars on my bike slope away quite quickly and the hoods sit quite low.

I've attached pictures of my bike and of a Trek 1.9 and a Roubaix. It is quite obvious from these photos that the hoods sit up much more on the Trek and the Roubaix than one my bike. Hence my 560 top tube (+80mm stem) feels as long, if not longer, than a 580mm top tube with 100mm stem feeling of being slightly stretched.

I can turn the handlebars on my bike and get the hoods into a good position, but that means that the drops are unusable and, just looking at the bike with the bars turned (haven't got a picture, but trust me), it is obvious that they are not meant to be turned in this way.

So my question is, do people think about this when they are building their own bikes? Also, do the bike-fitting shops take this into account? The computer print-out from Sigma dealt only with the distance to the end of the stem, it don't think it had any information on the siting of the brake hoods.

I guess the moral is that you've got to try the bike or you've got to be fitted on a jig that has the same bars/brake position as you are going to buy.

I suspect there are names for the different profiles of the bars, but it would be useful to know that with a particluar set of bars the hoods are going to be X cm from the end of the stem.


Poprad
http://2006.lemondbikes.com/images/2006 ... d_disc.jpg

Roubaix
http://213.121.209.233/retailer_images/ ... _37460.jpg

Trek 1.9
http://www.trekbikes.com/uk/en/bikes/20 ... eries/19e/

poprad

The Poprad link doesn't seem to work.

http://www.lemondbikes.com/viewLarger.p ... &year=2006

plug1n

Yes, a proper fitting should include the reach and drop of the bars

Also, the static measures completely ignore your flexibility which dramatically influences everything else, including top-tube length, i.e. how upright you are
(in my case inflexible and very un-aerodynamic)

topdude

Hi, i know exactly what you mean, i built up my own road bike and it took 3 different handlebars to find the right ones for me.
ITM anatomic bars didn't suit as i could not get the tops and drops in a usable position.
Specialized anatomic bars were better but way too flexible and the flat section on the drops was wrong for me.
Finally i got some Ritchey bars with a nice compact curve and no anatomic flat section. Excellent.
You need to spend some time adjusting the bar position and brake levers (i spent a whole evening on this) before applying the tape.

Barrie_G

This should be a link to the Poprad HERE

I do see what you mean about the bars they do slope a lot further down on the top on the Poprad than the others do.

nickwill

Plug1n wrote:

Yes, a proper fitting should include the reach and drop of the bars

Also, the static measures completely ignore your flexibility which dramatically influences everything else, including top-tube length, i.e. how upright you are
(in my case inflexible and very un-aerodynamic)

That is why I have very little faith in this sort of bike fitting.
Contrast this with Paul Hewitt's approach which uses a jig to fine tune all measurements, and allow for all variables.
A dynamic approach like this avoids the pifalls of a totally measurement based approach.

clive250960

I had a similar problem and was directed towards these (http://www.bontrager.com/model/04041/en) Bontager bars by a LBS. However that meant a new stem as well for me as mine is not o/s. As I was unsure if the bike was possibly a size too large I decided to not spend out on that as well, and opted for the best alternative they could suggest. I waited some months for them to arrive, then gave up. I subsequently converted the bike to flat bars (I can hear the laughs) and now have a bike on which I have no problems with reach to the brakes, and less vibration through the bars.