On Monday, September 16, 2019 at 4:22:28 PM UTC+1, Tom Kunich wrote:
On Monday, September 16, 2019 at 7:34:38 AM UTC-7, Andre Jute wrote:
My bikes are set up to within a millimetre by a long process of changing only one thing at a time and then testing it. I find that any other setup gives me pain in the small of my back by the weight of my arms pulling on the muscles down my back. Any other pains I ascribe to creeping age.

I sit on a big triple-spring Brooks saddle (guaranteed to give the weight weenies a fainting fit) and I try not to adjust it every year, as advised, because it upsets my bike fit.

I swapped bikes with a guy I met on the road who had a much more powerful version of my motor fitted, for only about twenty minutes, and the next day was lying across the bed reading a book on the floor because I couldn't sit in a chair. Nothing wrong with his bike, good fat balloons too, just that it forced me into an unaccustomed "sporting" position. He said something like that about my bike too, though he couldn't be more than forty and looked pretty limber.

Here it was 18C yesterday, for Ireland pretty near a heatwave. I rode out for an hour, choosing the biggest hills to make my own air conditioning on the downhills, and came home soaked, with my heart rate over the permitted level for the entire ride. Feel better for it today.

Carried a banana but it came home with me.

***
I'm particularly sensitive to vibrations in my hands, even micro vibrations. About ten years ago I bought Brooks grips consisting of thick rings of leather used end on and held in cast ali end pieces by short bicycle spokes (I kid you not). I bought them as a novelty, maybe a joke. But they've proven to be better at keeping vibrations out of my hands than any of the gel grips I ever tried.

Andre Jute
You never know on which road you find salvation -- St Peter

I find that changing one thing doesn't work well since, say, stem length is dependent upon saddle position or height. Also the sort of riding you do makes stem length important - long fast descents like to have a long, low stem whereas crit-like riding wants a more upright position with a shorter stem. Finding the sweet spot is a long process.

I'm talking of taking a bike that is already set up with a tape measure to within millimetres of another, known-good bike, and then fine tuning it. It probably helps that all my last three bikes, though different frame sizes, were pretty much alike in their angles, all being Dutch sports commuter styles. Also, I make things easy for myself: they all have the same Uno (Kalloy) North Road handlebars, 600mm wide so that my arms fall straight down from my shoulders, and they all start out with a stem adjustable for both reach and inclination, and the seat height and effective seat post angle are fixed in advance and not adjusted, so all I'm looking to adjust is the effective top tube lengthy by adjusting the stem (stem length plus height of bars above the seat by rotating the stem) and the reach of my arms and wrist angle onto the grips by rotating the bars in the clamp end of the stem. It's a process that works for me, but it's a bit time consuming because every little change is proven by a test ride.

Andre Jute
Gotta know what you want before you start work