First ride...this is going to be a learning curve

First blimble on a road bike for about mmmmm...lets just say quite a few years.
Just finished the bike and although its not quite there, its there enough to take out and play.
The gears are all over the place at the moment ( a combi of me just doing a quick tune and mix of Campag and Shimano) but still, can't blame the bike, found myself in the wrong gear a lot of the time.....come on Carl...spin more!
The front set up is wrong...dunno what yet but I feel too much weight on the bars...hands slip down to the levers if I have them mid-curve (?)
And down on the drop is way to low (feels it anyway)
Scary bit.....came to a not very steep but very long downhill and gave it some welly.....and got what I can only describe as the beginning of a tank-slapper (you know what I mean if you have had a 70/80's motorcycle)
Wobble at the front..very un-nerving. Had to stop and check the bike for loose QR's etc.
Mmmm...too stiff...too low...dunno. Don't want it again though.
But for my first hour back as a roadie...good fun.

mmm ..... drops too low? Same on mine, very rarely use drops. I reckon its all to do with everyone using smaller frames than in years back. Even seen the pros in the televised crit series attack whilst on top of the bars.

The wobble is called shimmy. Can happen for no known reason, even on what is a well set up bike. Its a clash of everything - frame geomety, road surface, wind, how youre sitting etc, etc.. Ive only seen it once on my mates colnago. He'd ridden that bike for years and since then, with nothing similar. If it happens, the cure is to grip your knees against the top tube and dampen the bad resonance.

You'll be faffing with positioning for years, we all do, esp when youre looking for reasons why youre going badly.

Shimmy is often caused by the rider - especially if you tense up. Relax, let the bike do its thing - which is easier said than done at the time. Else, as pigman says, grip the toptube with your legs. Or change something random - do your headset up a bit, change tyre pressures, whatever - it'll never happen again and you'll think you've cured it. Everyone's happy!

terryhfs":juytr1n1 said:

Shimmy is often caused by the rider - especially if you tense up. Relax, let the bike do its thing - which is easier said than done at the time. Else, as pigman says, grip the toptube with your legs. Or change something random - do your headset up a bit, change tyre pressures, whatever - it'll never happen again and you'll think you've cured it. Everyone's happy!

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You're not wrong....first ride...not that comfortable...bars all wrong for me..tense rider.

Shame it happened on my first road ride...bit nervous going fast and down now, but have ordered new (compact) bars, diff. stem etc

Hopefully

Most people have the drops too low, as they set up the bikes like pro ones they see in magazines.

Generally the pros use drops for all-out sprinting and breakaways. We need them for going into the wind etc, but something less extreme is in order unless racing.

Pros are young, hyper-fit and above all paid to be in pain, for us it's meant to be fun. :shock:

Try a shorter stem and shallower drop bars. More modern shifters are located higher up the bar, so your hands shouldn't slide from the top of the bar onto the hood.

Thanks Hamster.....with the current set-up, with my hands down in the drops...I can just reach the brakes levers with my forefingers....clearly that is wrong.

I'm changing the stem set-up with a quill to ahead set-up...I have ordered a slightly shorter stem and compact bars. I have also changed the post to in-line rather than set-back.

Should all be good with these changes I hope

been riding road since Christmas and LOVE it !!

Brought a new bike last week and spent the best £100 yesterday having a proper set-up with a guy called "bike dynamics" mainly due to forever playing with my previous bike trying to make it comfortable with knee problems and just getting fed-up with it

The outcome for me was brilliant!! and it really opened my eyes to how even the slightest change can improve things and now i know its set up perfect for me with all the measurements to transfer onto any bike i ride.

No more fanning about but also no excuses !!

Yes, money well spent. It took me two years of faffing around to get things right on my road bike. It's well worth it as I can now spend 100+ miles in the saddle in comfort.

In general, road bikes have too tall gears and too low bars. IF you never use the drops then they are too low. They should be functional and not just there for decoration

started road biking last year with no experience at all. built the bike on my own with help from the online resources. took me a while to find the proper setup but after two longer rides in the last weeks i think i found my final setup.
i totally agree that minimal changes can have a huge effect. spent about 1 hour in the drops on a recent ride which made my balls hurt quite a bit. altering the saddles nose down a bit solved the problem.
i will stick to the more prolike riding position because for me road biking is all about pain anyway. if i don't feel like crap after the ride it didn't pay off.

it was quite funny with my upper riding position, the man said my position was very aggressive and was surprised i did not have any back shoulder issues. So when fiddling about he tried a shorter stem to create a more sporting position but I still managed to naturally create my aggressive position with the shorter stem so he gave up

I'm off to mayhem in a min but if anyone is interested in the PDF report i have been given for the appointment PM me and i will email it over. It does make interesting reading.