Yes, pro cyclists are well known for attention to details, down to the mm. Pro road riders always have a backup bike on the team car. Despite the best efforts of duplication, they never are the same as their preferred bike. Same parts, same measurements, etc, but obviously there's more to it than the eye can see. When a pro rider has to do a bike exhange, if the mechanics can fix that bike from the team car while the rider rides on with the spare bike, a rider will often ask to swtich back to their preferred bike when given the opportunity.
I've stopped keeping track of where I place the bars, stem and saddle because no matter where I set them, I find myself tweaking something days or weeks later. I have a log book of a bunch of irrelevant numbers ! In the case of winter, where I try to ride on rollers every other day indoors, I'll try all sorts of setups because I have all my home tools at hand without fussing with tools in bike bag on the road. Basically, I've realized I'm not limited to, or by, and one certain setup and numbers. Take some time off the bike and everything seems so new. That said, after over a foot of snow of late, I suddwnly have no desire to even think anything about a bike. Not just the work to remove all the snow, but out walking the hills with pristine snow that only a few deer have been is both taxing and energizing. It's the freshest of air ! Plus it's been -4 to 15d F. This kind of winter is just too inviting to be outside to think about a bike right now. On Wednesday, January 28, 2026 at 6:00:49 PM UTC-5 Patrick Moore wrote: > I’ve read that Eddy Merckx never stopped making minute adjustments to his > saddle height throughout his career; tho’ perhaps this was due in part to > his injury from the accident with a spectator. > > So at least the great Eddy and I have this much in common. > > Patrick Moore, who very surprisingly felt distinctly slower than Eddy on > the ride home just now against a ~10 mph headwind (and carrying 29 lb of > groceries. Never saw Eddy do *that*). > > On Wed, Jan 28, 2026 at 3:52 PM Jay <[email protected]> wrote: > >> They call us, "micro adjusters", vs. "macro adopters". Heard that on a >> cycling podcast years ago. I can feel just a few mm difference. I wish I >> wasn't so picky, but if the bars are too far by 5mm, it makes a huge >> difference to my upper body comfort (= discomfort). >> >> On Wednesday, January 28, 2026 at 5:49:22 PM UTC-5 Patrick Moore wrote: >> >>> The 1999 Joe Starck Riv road custom has for >25 years been my Platonic >>> archetype of bicycle fit and feel, and my body, torso and shoulders and >>> arms and hands, in particular, just fit “instinctively: reasonable bend for >>> power and aero, easy to use hooks and hoods and flats. One just “falls >>> into” the right position. >>> >>> So I try to set up all my other bikes to mimic that fit and feel, and >>> I’ve pretty much succeeded with the Matthews road bike for dirt and the >>> Roadeo, despite a ~3-4 cm higher bar and 10 cm stem on the dirt road >>> Matthews, and a much different stem — 90 mm, + 30* — on the Roadeo, versus >>> 80 mm, 3-4 cm below saddle, for the Starck. >>> >>> The 2020 Matthews IGH fixed gear road bike is a geometric clone of the >>> ’99, but despite using the same seatposts, saddles, stems, bar, brake >>> levers dialed in exactly the same way, so I thought, the reach just felt a >>> wee bit too long. >>> >>> This once again annoyed me on today’s errand ride, so after some more >>> compulsive measuring I decided that I’d missed the exact bar/stem height by >>> a couple of mm, and raised the bar by a scant 1/4” — scant in the sense >>> used in recipes. >>> >>> Transformation! So do such miniscule adjustments make big differences. >>> I’m very glad, as the Matt IGH fixed gear gets a lot of miles. >>> >>> Alhamdulilla! >>> >>> -- >>> >>> Patrick Moore >>> Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum >>> >>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> >>> Executive resumes, LinkedIn profiles, bios, letters, and other writing >>> services >>> >>> >>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> >>> *When thou didst not, savage, k**now thine own meaning,* >>> >>> *But wouldst gabble like a** thing most brutish,* >>> >>> *I endowed thy purposes w**ith words that made them known.* >>> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "RBW Owners Bunch" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> To view this discussion visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/a9b6247d-e18a-4b53-b214-f35523e6d7b3n%40googlegroups.com >> >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/a9b6247d-e18a-4b53-b214-f35523e6d7b3n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> > > > -- > > Patrick Moore > Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Executive resumes, LinkedIn profiles, bios, letters, and other writing > services > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > *When thou didst not, savage, k**now thine own meaning,* > > *But wouldst gabble like a** thing most brutish,* > > *I endowed thy purposes w**ith words that made them known.* > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. 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