Apologies if this is a repeat. I got a delivery failure... so without pictures.
I too have struggled with this a bit. I don't want to entirely dismiss bike fitters, but they seem to struggle with the idea the classic bikes can be wonderfully comfortable. I've found many of Dave Moulton's blog posts on fit quite useful: https://davesbikeblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/different-thought-on-frame-sizing.html He will help clarify why moving your saddle forward might make things worse. In order to keep your hips open, most people need more saddle set back with the bars higher. As the bars come down, you'll generally slide your saddle forward. High bars and a forward saddle often don't play nice. Your bars don't look categorically too low, though that's entirely depends on your body, core strength, flexibility, power output. I do wonder if you could be too stretched out. I'm amazed what a few mm let alone a couple centimeters can mean in terms of fit. You have a fairly short stem, but many including me and my wife have found the shorter reach and drop of the Soma Highway One bar comfortable. It also is available in 26.0 and will likely fit with some effort in your current stem. The widest is 46cm I believe, so a fair bit narrower. By reducing the drop, you could still favor the drops while enjoying the other positions more. As Patrick said, move positions helps many. I like my bars closer to me and bit lower, since I find it encourages me to ride with elbows bent. Straight arms seem to lead to problems, with in a high or low position. Try to find a position that encourages a comfortable fit with your elbows bent, if that's not true already. It also takes a lot of mental retraining if you've spent many hours with straight arms. For my gravel/drop bar mountain bike, I've set it up for a lot of time in the drops. I had double wraps the bars. Now I use a bar with a very un-riv flat top to distribute weight and a oury grip slip over the bottom of the drops. I find this better than double wrapping bars. Double wrapping isn't a bad place to start if you have large hands and it increased the diameter. I wrap with a cork/gel tape on the bottom and something that strikes my fancy on top. A 3.5-4.5mm tape could also work. I find gel inserts feel bad for me because that poke into the cup of my hand rather than distribute my weight over some distance. Finally, I recommend trying road togs. They feel a bit expensive for what they are, but they let you hook your thumb in the drops with helps open up the ulnar nerve. I also have those on my gravel bike. These two bars work well for me but are 31.8. The Zipp was made in silver so those sometimes pop up. They don't look too out of place on a classic steel bike (and if something is comfortable, I come to find it beautiful). I used the Spank?oury/Togs in December doing the White Rim trail in 2 day with drop bars and no suspension. My hands weren't numb with makes me think I did something right. https://www.sram.com/en/zipp/models/hb-dbsc-sl7x-a2 https://spank-ind.com/products/spank-wing-12-vibrocore%E2%84%A2-drop-bar Togs: https://togs.com/products/road-togs?srsltid=AfmBOopYI6610Q2-1I5VAAN6fOPOssQeowSv79VaXUcdQ7y4WQnf_7QI Oury Grips. https://crustbikes.com/products/oury-v2-grips?variant=39508047429722 For the Oury grips, I used a road bar to punch a hole in the end because I use bar end. No need if not. They slid over the tape and were snug an stable. A bit of rubbing alcohol could help if it's close. Too many thoughts. Hopefully, some help. Zach in Albuquerque (who likes long rides on drop bars on chunky gravel occasionally resulting in angry ulnar nerves). -- 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/CAHRs5j%2BYGTFM4oaXZcW-xj_%2BNv%3Duv1A%2BB9jda%2BqgNpAx7%2BAc2w%40mail.gmail.com.
