Thanks, Zach. I’ll check these out. I did move my seat forward a few cm before a 35mi ride today. To be clear, the seat was still in the previous owner’s position, not fit to me specifically. It felt fine, so I had left it for the three months I’ve had the bike. New position feels fine, too.
My thought was that this seat position change would both reduce my reach a little and, more important, make me a tad more upright so as to reduce arm/hand pressure and make the core take on a bit more. Maybe a shorter-reach stem (5cm vs 8cm) is worth trying, if the nearer seat and perhaps higher stem don’t do the trick to make the full cockpit easily used. The change helped a little—I definitely felt a bit more stable when riding one-handed on the drops for hand-signals. Numbness seemed less and later, but I need to see if that carries forward for a few more rides. I do 100-110 miles a week, so I figure I’ll let each adjustment play out for a week before trying the next thing. My arms are bent slightly at the elbows in all positions, so I think that’s not an issue. But hard for me to judge. My core, legs, neck, wrists, and arms don’t get sore, and my shoulder (mostly triceps) and mid-back experience just minor strain that goes away very quickly. My 60-something cycling buddies experience that too. I also felt a bit more confident on the hoods, so I’ll use those a bit more as well. (I have never favored hoods, not even in my 20s, when I last rode drops. So there’s some mental retraining needed!) But I’ll have to find a new mounting location for my Ortlieb mirror; maybe just under the hood in the curve. It’s now where the ramp meets the hood, which is perfect if I don’t use the hood but interferes with the brake reach if I do. Fwiw the noodle bar and the Tallux stem are 25.4cm diameter. Regardless of solution, what I want to avoid is the instability of being over the front wheel that I experienced with the Domane, which is among the less-aggressive modern bikes (and popular for good reason) but still too forward for me. Turning and stopping were wobbly and became scarier each ride. Toe-clip overlap was also a big issue. That bike fitter wants me on a compact, forward geometry because that’s his high bias. Already been there! The Roadini feels just right for stability and balance, and it’s really comfortable for my whole body, save the finger numbness. On Saturday, March 21, 2026 at 4:06:21 PM UTC-7 [email protected] wrote: > 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/b4e7d7a6-acdd-4401-93a9-f743bc3487cfn%40googlegroups.com.
