Curved Slider vs Longer Chain Stay

[Kufman]

I am having some difficulty getting the handle bars on my stock V20 back far enough to reach them comfortably. I am not super short at 5'9" but apparently I have short arms. I have the slider all the way out to position 0 so I don't think it should extend any farther out. I was hoping that if I bring the bars down towards my stomach some this would help the situation. This can be done in 2 ways, either the curved slider or a longer chain stay. Which one is the better one to try? I will try to get pics of myself on the bike tonight. Thanks!

 

[LarryOz]

I am having some difficulty getting the handle bars on my stock V20 back far enough to reach them comfortably. I am not super short at 5'9" but apparently I have short arms. I have the slider all the way out to position 0 so I don't think it should extend any farther out. I was hoping that if I bring the bars down towards my stomach some this would help the situation. This can be done in 2 ways, either the curved slider or a longer chain stay. Which one is the better one to try? I will try to get pics of myself on the bike tonight. Thanks!

A longer chain stay might do it, but it will also flatten out the slider which makes it a little harder to ride (floppiness quotient raised). A curved slider will also help a little bit. You could also try some different handlebars. There are so many variations of curvature of the drops. You could also rotate your handlebars to bring the drops up and toward you more (or even try and reverse them) - lots of different way to skin this cat. ....,or buy some arm extensions.

 

[Kufman]

I did think about stretching my arms..... lol! I rotated the handle bars up but that gets the height so far up that it makes the arm length problem worse. I did think about turning them backwards. Could work but the shifters and stuff will be weird. Again, I need to post a picture for reference.

 

[Mathew Fy]

This can be done in 2 ways

Another option for you to lower your handlebars is to cut the fork stem as I have done and is described in post #26 of Ratz' excellent build diary.

 

[Kufman]

That could be done and it costs nothing but going back if things don't work out could be expensive. lol Thanks for the idea, I will keep it in mind.

 

[Kufman]

For reference, here is a picture of me "sitting" on my V20. It was the day I built it but you can see how straight my arms are and how high up the bars are.

 

[Bill Wightman]

It was the day I built it but you can see how straight my arms are and how high up the bars are.

That is not a bad arm position. My arms are that extended and I only need more wiggle room when I am going slowly so I sit up some. You can see from my old avatar pic that our arms are similar. With more extended arms you will use your shoulders more to steer and to me it is more stable at high speeds. You may have some arm stiffness initially but that goes away as the right muscles strengthen. Your head seems a little flat for learning the bike, but it can work if you don't wear glasses. I wear single-vision aviator glasses because they still give me distance correction in my field-of-view as I am looking down my nose.

 

[Beano]

Looking at the pic I'd say that's about right. You don't want to much of a bend in the elbow as this can lead to a poor hand position on the bar and on long rides could lead to pain in the wrists.

I'd perhaps try normal drop bars, that's what I have on my V20. I have it set up to allow a slight bend in the elbow with my arms almost straight in a superman like position with my hands lower than where they would be with the stock handlebars.

 

[Andrew Wilson]

IMO, you want to stick with the stock chain stay. I'm 6' with a 33" inseam and run the Medium stay and was OK with the stock.
I went through the same fitting process with bars and reach. First, I would take the plunge and cut the steerer tube and lower the bars. Trust me, it will be OK.
Next, you can probably slide the slider out beyond '0' just make sure there is enough in beyond the clamping point.
Bars , bar angle and brake lever position is where I played with a lot.
Narrower bars are better in you have the room, and you do. I had On One Midge, https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/HBOOMI/on-one-midge-handlebar
Much better than stock but I still wanted narrower and finally scored a set of Origin8 Gary bars in 31.8, the old style and they are perfect. Search this site on Handlebars and you will find a lot of info. The other thing is brake lever position. If you change the bars, dont wrap them yet. Ride, adjust bar angle/ brake lever position, ride some more. When you are happy, then wrap. I carried allen wrenches with me for a week till I was sure I was happy and havent adjusted since.
Heres my current setup with the Stem slammed, Gary bars and Med chainstay

 

[Kufman]

Couple more pictures

 

[Kufman]

Form on trainer. Might need to move pedals farther out. Arms are as straight as they go.

EDIT: I don't have enough posts to post a link to the video, lol!

 

[benphyr]

Others are better at bike fit than me but it appears to me as though:
- the leg length is perfect - in that you need a little bit more flexibility with moving bottom bracket (MBB) so that you can turn and pedal at the same time (not on the trainer of course... though apparently you can "turn" on Zwift now but I digress.)
- the arm extension seems a little stretched so you may want to rotate those bars up (counter clockwise on the side view from the right in the green shirt) so that your hands are perfect for drops and better for hoods

Boom extension: I recall posts indicating that 4" inside is adequate. And that the position numbers are arbitrary and not the same on different models, years, etc. nor for absolute fit measurements but are provided to help you return to your settings if you change them or set it up for someone else to try.

 

[Bill Wightman]

As stated gather up your Allen wrenches and get out on a quiet parking lot and just adjust in real time. There is a lot of value in putting in brain acclimation time while you decide what adjustments are best. You will likely do what balances and gives reliable stability best now and later tweak the bike for speed after say 500 miles.

 

[benphyr]

You also could touch bases with Cruzbike as sometimes there are alternate sizes of some parts that are not necessarily part of the stock package but that they do have available to fit non stock individuals!

 

[Andrew Wilson]

Agree with leg extension, looks good. Again, cut your steering tube down. It’s left long for that reason. As stated above, the numbers are for reference, so slide it out more if needed. If you still want the bars lower, then a curved slider might be the ticket. I prefer some bend in my arms as the pic above of me shows.

 

[chicorider]

Everybody's fit preferences will be different. I fiddled with mine for months, but what I noticed was that the biggest adjustments happened right away. From there, the changes became ever smaller and more gradual. For me, I wrestled with leg extension the most, starting with the pedals too close in. As I would move them out, noticing how each move felt better, what I was looking for was that one last outward adjustment that felt not better, but worse, even if only a little bit. "Ah! My legs are now too straight." Then I would ease it back in to find "just right." I took the same approach for arm extension (I like a little more bend in my arms), and head rest. I haven't touched any of it for years now.

I do agree that cutting your steerer tube down will most likely put your bars at a nice height, as long as you plan to stick with that chainstay.

 

[Kufman]

Everybody's fit preferences will be different. I fiddled with mine for months, but what I noticed was that the biggest adjustments happened right away. From there, the changes became ever smaller and more gradual. For me, I wrestled with leg extension the most, starting with the pedals too close in. As I would move them out, noticing how each move felt better, what I was looking for was that one last outward adjustment that felt not better, but worse, even if only a little bit. "Ah! My legs are now too straight." Then I would ease it back in to find "just right." I took the same approach for arm extension (I like a little more bend in my arms), and head rest. I haven't touched any of it for years now.

I do agree that cutting your steerer tube down will most likely put your bars at a nice height, as long as you plan to stick with that chainstay.

Speaking of a longer chainstay, is there any advantage to the longer chainstay? Power?

 

[Andrew Wilson]

Speaking of a longer chainstay, is there any advantage to the longer chainstay? Power?

From what I understand it’s mainly an aero improvement but some people are more aero with the standard.

 

[Mathew Fy]

is there any advantage to the longer chainstay?

I think your current chainstay I just right. The bottom bracket seems to work best when it’s about hip height. Differences will affect handling, comfort, and aerodynamics. Probably not power so much.
Cruzbike measured aerodynamics and published the results in this post. For example, they discovered that a longer chainstay can increase drag.

 

[Kufman]

I lowered the slider without cutting the tube. It was shorter than the clamp anyway. Also found that the whole head assembly was way too tight and was binding the steering. I just thought it was the weight of the MBB that I felt. I like the lower handle bars much better. Easier to reach and better visibility. Steering feels much better when it isn't bound up. Have to find a new place for my speedometer but I have some ideas for that.