How To ACTUALLY Get Comfortable On Your Bicycle

riding posture is simple yet it might be the single biggest factor in how much you actually enjoy riding sitting upright with your hands relatively high and near is comfortable leaning forward with your hands low and your arms stretched out is efficient i.e fast if your bike is the right size yet you never feel quite at ease on it then this may be part of the problem even so there are several ways to get more comfortable we'll start with a closer look at the effects of riding posture and try to explain some issues you might have experienced without totally realizing why then we'll cover how to adjust or replace a few parts to fine-tune your posture so you can ride quickly enough while actually enjoying the trip to give an extreme example picture someone training for a race compared to someone riding to a park in an old european city of course their bikes are different on many levels but let's focus on how they sit the racer is bent as far forward as possible that reduces wind resistance and lets you use your glutes more effectively while pedaling in addition to your quadriceps however that position puts a lot of weight on your wrists which some people find more bearable than others it also requires tilting your head up and holding it there if you're like those of us who sit at a desk all day you may have limited upper back mobility which you might compensate for by kinking your neck even more sharply it's also hard to observe your surroundings from that posture that's not a problem when you're racing or training but it's not ideal if you're around traffic and need to turn your head perpetually or if you're just trying to gaze at the scenery finally a deep forward bend pretty much requires stretchy clothing everyday apparel like you'd wear to the officer to the supermarket feels restrictive in that posture the city cyclist makes the opposite trade-offs your torso is totally vertical so you'll experience much more wind resistance and will have to rely more on your quadriceps and less on your glutes for pedaling power but the flip side is there's not much weight on your hands or wrists and your arms are relaxed not stretched out front your head and neck are in a comfortable neutral angle that anybody can sustain for a long time that position doesn't require much mobility plus it's easy and relaxing to see your surroundings this is also doable with everyday clothing it won't feel too restrictive so there's no need to suit up in lycra unless you prefer to most of us will be happy somewhere in the middle but i strongly suggest airing toward the upright side that's because on a more upright bike you can always lean farther forward into a sprint or a headwind if needed but on an aggressively forward leaning bike you can only sit so far back upright before losing hold of the bars fortunately you can tweak and experiment with this with only minimal expense and hassle in most cases whether you're trying to dial in the riding position of your bike or you're shopping for a whole new bike here are a few starting points for all around non-competitive cycling handlebars make all the difference in the world different bars and stems give several inches of variation in whether your hands are forward or backward high or low and rotated in or out once your saddle is at the right height the goal is to get the handlebars to roughly the same height as the saddle or even a little higher and then adjust the saddle and handlebar position slightly until your arm extension and weight distribution feel just right there are three basic ways to move and rotate your hand position they are stem adjustment stem replacement and handlebar replacement of course your saddle also moves a couple inches but that's intended just for subtle changes the easiest way is just to move the stem up or down remember the head tube tilts back toward the rider a bit so moving your stem up or down is not perfectly vertical it effectively moves a little bit forward or backward at the same time so this can make a surprisingly big difference in how your bike feels a quill stem is standard on many city bicycles plus almost all types of vintage ones you simply loosen the bolts slide the stem up or down while paying attention to the minimum insertion line then tighten it again but a threadless stem is the norm for modern road mountain and hybrid bikes and it's a little more involved you have to unscrew the stems cap remove and rearrange the stem and spacers optionally flip the stem then tighten them all back down again there's no shame in getting a bike shop's help with this since reassembling it incorrectly can create play in the headset which might damage the headset bearings and even the head tube of the frame itself you can buy a different stem that's up to a couple inches longer shorter higher rise or lower rise than your current one this makes sense if you fundamentally like the feel of your handlebars but adjusting the current stem alone doesn't suffice most stems have a removable face plate so you can leave your levers and grips on the handlebars during the swap but some especially quilt stems require removing the levers and grips in order to slide the bars out of the old stem and into the new one it's annoying since grips can be a real headache to take off but it's not complicated if you want a different hand rotation or more than a couple inches of change in position then consider new handlebars all together why would hand rotation matter well think about how your palm's almost face each other when your arms hang by your side at ease the closer they stay to that angle the less strain you'll feel while riding it's the same underlying principle as with ergonomic keyboards and mice for instance straight bars do technically offer more control but that's seldom necessary unless you're riding pretty aggressively off-road as in jumps and rock gardens and whatnot most people find their wrists and elbows more comfortable on bars that sweep back at least 30 degrees or so and perhaps much more sweat back bars may also shorten the reach and therefore put you more upright but others have offsetting curves so your overall reach doesn't change much brands like nitto velo orange surly soma and jones offer a variety of comfortable and practical choices heads up your breaker shifter cables might not be long enough for a drastic change in handlebars they're not too hard to replace unless you're talking about a hydraulic brake line but just keep that constraint in mind and if you're on a road or touring bike with drop bars then you already have a nice range of ergonomic hand positions available if the bar still feels sort of cramped then consider wider bars by about two or four centimeters and perhaps ones with shallower drops that are easier to reach and to stay in check out the link in the description for a blog post that covers handlebar choices in more detail with a focus on commuting and urban cycling if you're truly uncomfortable with drop bars then it's possible to convert to upright just one word of warning most bikes with drop bars also have shorter wheelbases shorter top tubes and steeper head and seat tube angles that are all optimized for a forward leaning position if you make a drastic change like going to sweat back bars with significant rise then it can make the bike feel strange and twitchy because it moves your center of gravity and weight distribution so far from what the frame designers optimized the geometry for that said you can start with modestly more upright bars like the mustache or albustach bars made by nitto which do accept road brake levers tons of others like the velo orange milan or postino put you slightly more upright but they'll probably require different brake levers and shifters that can get fairly complicated and expensive so unless you enjoy tinkering with your bike for its own sake which many of us do you're otherwise better off buying a more upright bike altogether finally once your hands are in a spot that keeps your torso and neck and arms comfortable you might need to find a saddle that works in that position for small posture changes it's usually sufficient to tilt the saddle up or down and perhaps slide it forward or backward but for larger posture changes or if you just never liked your saddle that much anyhow then consider replacing it that's because it needs to be wide enough to support our ischial tuberosities also known as sit bones but not so wide that it interferes with the pedaling motion the thing is our sit bones flare out a little bit so as we sit more upright we may shift onto a wider portion of our sit bones at the same time being upright means our arms bear less weight and the saddle bears more so the ideal cushioning and springs if any and saddle surface contour will all change accordingly besides individual anatomy differs quite a bit an appropriate saddle for one person's road bike might suit another person's hybrid there's a link in the description to a blog post that covers this in more detail there are all sorts of sophisticated bite-fitting techniques that are probably worth it if you're a dedicated athlete but for the rest of us who simply want to get around town or enjoy a sunny weekend leisure ride being comfortable is basically as simple as sitting just upright enough assuming your bike actually fits in the first place then you can start by choosing swept back handlebars that are at least as high as the saddle then dial it in by adjusting the bars and stem in small increments finally keep in mind that extreme changes in posture may negatively affect how the bike handles so consider whether you're really riding the most appropriate style of bike in the first place i can't answer that for you but it's important to ponder that if you find yourself needing a radical change just to get comfortably upright thanks for watching and i'd appreciate your hitting the like button if you found this helpful until next time stay safe out there [Music]

Channel: Two Wheels Better

Views: 517,595

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Id: yQXB41eIGeo

Length: 10min 2sec (602 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 24 2021