Greetings and seeking fitment advice

cwiehle

Hello everyone, first post here. I'm 5'6/ 42yrs old/148 lbs, have a Nishiki road bike that i think is 50cm but may be 52, can't remember. I have replaced the stem with a 80mm, and my seat is already full forward. Knee is pretty close to KOPS, if anything a bit behind. My issue is this- I feel the most comfortable 1" back form the hoods where I always find myself settled in. If I ride on the hoods there's a lot of weight on my hands and my elbows are almost straight. I am at the point where I have to buy a forward mounting seat or a shorter stem (or new bike from LBS and get a proper bike fit, but this frame size is supposed to be right in my range and my wife will be a bit disgruntled if I bring home another bike). I have been doing some reading on saddle location vs performance but haven't learned much. Opinions are pretty much all over the board.

If I change the stem how short is too short? If go the route of a fwd mounted saddle is it okay to run with knee forward of KOPS?
Thanks Chris

sungod

ignore kops, it's just an old bike fitters' tale, there's no scientific evidence for it being 'right'

step one is to get saddle height correct
step two is to get saddle set-back and angle correct
if the bars aren't in the correct position for you at this point, then you adjust the bars, not before

try...
https://www.stevehoggbikefitting.com/bi ... can-it-be/
https://www.stevehoggbikefitting.com/bi ... oad-bikes/
...and other articles on the same site

cwiehle

sungod wrote:

ignore kops, it's just an old bike fitters' tale, there's no scientific evidence for it being 'right'

step one is to get saddle height correct
step two is to get saddle set-back and angle correct
if the bars aren't in the correct position for you at this point, then you adjust the bars, not before

try...
https://www.stevehoggbikefitting.com/bi ... can-it-be/
https://www.stevehoggbikefitting.com/bi ... oad-bikes/
...and other articles on the same site

Okay, and I was just giving you KOPS location as a reference point to where I'm at. I guess I was more concerned with how far is okay in front of KOPS. I'll read your links later, supposed to be working right now.

ForumNewbie

cwiehle wrote:

Hello everyone, first post here. I'm 5'6/ 42yrs old/148 lbs, have a Nishiki road bike that i think is 50cm but may be 52, can't remember. I have replaced the stem with a 80mm, and my seat is already full forward. Knee is pretty close to KOPS, if anything a bit behind. My issue is this- I feel the most comfortable 1" back form the hoods where I always find myself settled in. If I ride on the hoods there's a lot of weight on my hands and my elbows are almost straight.

I had the same feeling with my arms straight and lot of weight on my hands . However when I changed my body position to be slightly lower so that I could bend my arms, then I was putting a lot less weight on the bars and I felt more comfortable.

You could also try flipping the stem to raise the bars a bit, which will shorten your reach.

cwiehle

ForumNewbie wrote:

cwiehle wrote:

Hello everyone, first post here. I'm 5'6/ 42yrs old/148 lbs, have a Nishiki road bike that i think is 50cm but may be 52, can't remember. I have replaced the stem with a 80mm, and my seat is already full forward. Knee is pretty close to KOPS, if anything a bit behind. My issue is this- I feel the most comfortable 1" back form the hoods where I always find myself settled in. If I ride on the hoods there's a lot of weight on my hands and my elbows are almost straight.

I had the same feeling with my arms straight and lot of weight on my hands . However when I changed my body position to be slightly lower so that I could bend my arms, then I was putting a lot less weight on the bars and I felt more comfortable.

You could also try flipping the stem to raise the bars a bit, which will shorten your reach.

I have some hip and lower back tightness I am currently seeing a PT guy about. If I crouch further it lights ervything up. Stem is already flipped so it's more upward.

kajjal

You are doing the right thing starting with the saddle height and position. KOPS is a handy guide to get roughly the right position and then adjust as needed from there. Then bars and stem to adjust height and reach.

My old road bike had quite long reach handle bars at over 100mm, the new one has shorter reach (75mm) and shallower drop bars which for me are far better and i ride in the drops alot more now.

Bike setup is a very personal thing and guides often suggest a head down racing position which is not what most people want. More often people have either no or little drop from the saddle to the bars rather than several inches.

dj58

Kajjal makes a good point, check to see if your handlebars are a compact design as these can help reduce the reach to the hoods, also you may need to adjust the position of the shifters/levers on the handlebars.

cwiehle

Thanks guys, bringing it to lbs tonight to get their opinion and hopefully compare some top tube lengths as well

cwiehle

...so I hit my bike shop yesterday and asked him for some fitment advice and after some measurements He told me the bike measured out to be a 54cm, so somewhere along the line Dick's messed things up. The sticker on my bike says Med and the paperwork says 50. I ordered a Specialized Diverge today.