Bar height - spacers
rally200
Posts: 646
Dumb question thus I expect. Is it OK to play around with bar height by putting moving spacers from below to above the stem, before committing to cutting the fork?
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in a word - yes. some people even leave it like that..
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I did this over the weekend and it seems to have worked ok. A lot of the bikes on the club run have handlebars way lower in relation to the saddle than mine though. Not sure what I can do though as the saddle is the right height and the bar won't go any lower.0
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Have it so it's comfy, not how it looks or compares with others. You can flip the stem to get a lower bar position (depending on what position it is currently in) or get a stem with a different rise angle. The Specialized stems have a shim that allows adjustment between 24 degrees, 16, 8 and zero.0
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On my winter/commute bike the bar is about 1-2 inches below the sadlle but on my "best" bike It's more like 3''. Helps to have a higher bar for comfort and traffic, I've seen 6'' drops on some peoples bikes, suppose It's speed vs comfort.0
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I would imagine a bigger drop is only of use on a flat road though? Can't imagine it would be very comfy climbing using such a setup?0
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phreak wrote:I would imagine a bigger drop is only of use on a flat road though? Can't imagine it would be very comfy climbing using such a setup?
Having low bars can be quite handy when climbing - can help the weight distribution. Having high bars can mean you haven't got much weight on your front wheel and you can pull it off the ground while climbing something steep...0 -
reddragon makes a good point, dropping the front actually makes climbing easier peversely, but make descenting more hair-raising. I've got a 3" drop from saddle nose to tops on my single-speed and i can make it up most hills I come across, but I've still got the core stability to support myself when moving hands in that position, any lower and I don't think i could do it easily.0
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ride_whenever wrote:reddragon makes a good point, dropping the front actually makes climbing easier peversely, but make descenting more hair-raising.
Hmm, for me at least it feels better to descend lower, especially with the need to brake.0 -
I prefer a bigger drop too. I've not measured it but it must be at least 3"-4" possibly more. I find if the bars are too high it feels more like I'm 'in' the bike instead of on top of it. Not a feeling I enjoy.0
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alfablue wrote:Have it so it's comfy, not how it looks or compares with others. You can flip the stem to get a lower bar position (depending on what position it is currently in) or get a stem with a different rise angle. The Specialized stems have a shim that allows adjustment between 24 degrees, 16, 8 and zero.[/quote
I think I might just leave it be on, the basis of if it aint broke... As it is I've got 5 1/2 " seatpost showing and about an inch drop to the bars (on a 2008 allez) and at the mo nothing hurts
Maybe I should work on fitness beofre fiddling about for what if I'm honest is largely aesthetics. sound right for a beginner?0 -
I would agree - there is an optimum setup for comfort and efficiency, never sacrifice this for aesthetics.0
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My Winter bike is set-up for comfort, as I'm likely to be out on it in unpleasant weather and that's enough without it being uncomfortable too.
It also has mudguards fitted so it'll get used if wet in Summer and is used for part-time commuting a day or two a week, so again I'd rather have it set up 'comfy' at the expense of 'speed'.
My Summer/best bike is set-up rather more racily, because it gets used on sunny Summer days when the roads are dry and I want to ride it fast.
I've just swapped-over a spacer on the Winter bike so that it's a bit more like the Summer bike, and in a week or two I'll swap another too, then when I switch-over to the other bike it won't be such a shock to the system.
Next Autumn I'll swap it back.
There's nothing stopping you doing something similar, even with just one bike.
Ride it with lots of spacers if that's the way it's comfortable, then as you get fitter, more supple, more experienced as a cyclist you can swap-over some spacers and fiddle about until you're happy.
If you then cut the steerer to that, you're stuck with it forever - if you then had a few months off the bike for some reason, you'd come back to the bike less fit and less supple and wouldn't be able to change it back.
And if you ever come to sell it, the purchaser would be stuck with it too.
If you buy a frame and forks to build-up yourself and it comes with 6 inches of steerer visible, sure cut it down. But when you buy a bike with 2 or 3 spacers on it, I'd just shuffle them around and not cut it.
As for aesthetics - lots of people seem happy to buy Thorns with lots of spacers...
e.g.
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My bike looks similar to that now having had all the spacers removed. I'm not very tall so my saddle is lower than in that pic. Other than buying a tiny frame I don't suppose there's much I can do.0
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phreak wrote:My bike looks similar to that now having had all the spacers removed. I'm not very tall so my saddle is lower than in that pic. Other than buying a tiny frame I don't suppose there's much I can do.
This is sort of what I was getting at in my last post on this. SHould you be thinking If you're at the taller end of the accceptable range for your frame then leave expect to leave most if the spacers & vice versa.0
