Forgiving Frames

Re:

None of us are getting any younger. Do yourself a favour and pick up a nice used Marin Titanium or Hei Hei if you can afford it and enjoy the ride. Nothing is as nice as Ti if you ride for a few hours or more. You can adjust the comfort level on top of that with yet more Ti parts or front sus. It just sucks it all up.

Re:

Nothing to add to all of the good advice above, the only thing I would suggest would be to convert to tubeless, as well as all of the known benefits the lower tyre pressures will help.

Writing as a back sufferer myself the most comfortable hardtail I have ever ridden is my 29er carbon XC race bike fitted with a shorter stem.

Hope this helps.

Re:

Thanks for all the input. Much appreciated. The reach is the same on both bikes. The spesh has a riser bar fitted as well which brings me higher than the old Dawes Edge. Think I will look at a To frame or full sus. Not sure I want to throw any more cash at the spesh as it's risky. Tyre pressures etc are all the same on both bikes.

I'm confused. Both have the same reach, but you feel stretched on only one?
Or do you feel stretched on both?

Re:

Yes I was wondering that....I have a set of measurements which I use to get nominally the same position on each bike - and one of them is simple, the centre point of the top of the seat tubes to the centre of the handlebars. But then it gets complex. The WIDTH of the handlebar can affect reach, since wider bars causes us to have shorter arms reach and to need a shorter cockpit to retain the same posture. Likewise an odd effect - if a seatube is slacker, it can cause us to have to put our lower body forward, pulling the top of the body from the bars, whilst sticking our arses out to get power into the pedals. I find one solution here is to get an inline post and put the saddle forward on the rails.

One person I did a bike fit with had terrible problems with her knees when cycling. But a quick look showed a terrible setup on her bike. She needed:

- the saddle forward on the rails by 3cm
- the bars rotated by about 90 deg
- the seatpost raising by 4cm
- all the controls at the correct angle, particularly the brake levers

Mahooosiove changes - and from that point onwards she had no problems at all.

mattr":3k61dzph said:

I'm confused. Both have the same reach, but you feel stretched on only one?
Or do you feel stretched on both?

Click to expand...

I know I was surprised. The older bike has flat narrow bars and the more modern bike has wider riser bars, which is, after reading the next reply, I feel more stretched?

Re:

Yerp ... that sounds like it’s that then....at least one part of the picture.....move the saddle forward on the rails if you can? Do you have an in-line post or a layback?

Got a bad back out riding. Stopped looked at bike. Upped the seatpost and moved the saddle back, tweaked the bar position a bit 'bad back' went within minutes.

Re: Re:

2manyoranges":1iadvr1k said:

Yerp ... that sounds like it’s that then....at least one part of the picture.....move the saddle forward on the rails if you can? Do you have an in-line post or a layback?

Click to expand...

If your position over the pedals is comfortable on the other bike, and the same on both bikes, do not do this. Get a shorter stem.

Pushing the saddle forwards is the absolute last resort if you've bought a frame that is too big.

If your position is all over the place, then meh, it won't matter much.