saddle position
Take Care Of The Little Things
Had a little reminder to myself today about how much the little things count. Allow me to explain...
Over the last couple of rides I've been nervous - my bike hasn't felt right. Or to be more precise, I've felt underpowered which was consequently making me nervous as I (quite logically at this time of year) figured that I'd eaten too much, put on weight, lost fitness and slowed over the festive period. Bugger.
Rewind to yesterday evening and a spot of bike fettling - a ride before I went to New York had left my bike quite dirty and I'd had no time to clean it. Riding out to watch the racing yesterday had added another layer of winter road muck and so I wanted rid of it. I also needed to resolve an issue with my front derailleur cable and add a couple of links to make my iLink cable outer longer (damn I love those iLinks)... but I digress. What I'm getting at is that I also decided to measure my saddle height, just to be sure. 7mm too low. Ah.
So back to today's ride, and a most welcome return to the sublime feeling bike I built back in November - thank Christ for that.
It was a timely reminder for me though - the bike wasn't feeling good, I was beginning to worry about my position, was ready to drop a line to someone about having a fresh fitting session and just check things out, was trying a couple of the spare stems I have laying about to see if I could do anything to make myself comfortable again. All along all I needed to do was to get the tape measure out and check my saddle height. It's like riding with your tyre pressures lower than normal where you feel like you're riding through treacle, yet it's such a simple thing to check and resolve.
Today's ride was a return to the 'souplesse' delights I enjoyed when I first built my bike and tried the longer cranks - the bike felt amazing again. And all for the sake of 7mm...
Take care of the little things my good reader - they often make the biggest difference.
Share
Over the last couple of rides I've been nervous - my bike hasn't felt right. Or to be more precise, I've felt underpowered which was consequently making me nervous as I (quite logically at this time of year) figured that I'd eaten too much, put on weight, lost fitness and slowed over the festive period. Bugger.
Rewind to yesterday evening and a spot of bike fettling - a ride before I went to New York had left my bike quite dirty and I'd had no time to clean it. Riding out to watch the racing yesterday had added another layer of winter road muck and so I wanted rid of it. I also needed to resolve an issue with my front derailleur cable and add a couple of links to make my iLink cable outer longer (damn I love those iLinks)... but I digress. What I'm getting at is that I also decided to measure my saddle height, just to be sure. 7mm too low. Ah.
So back to today's ride, and a most welcome return to the sublime feeling bike I built back in November - thank Christ for that.
It was a timely reminder for me though - the bike wasn't feeling good, I was beginning to worry about my position, was ready to drop a line to someone about having a fresh fitting session and just check things out, was trying a couple of the spare stems I have laying about to see if I could do anything to make myself comfortable again. All along all I needed to do was to get the tape measure out and check my saddle height. It's like riding with your tyre pressures lower than normal where you feel like you're riding through treacle, yet it's such a simple thing to check and resolve.
Today's ride was a return to the 'souplesse' delights I enjoyed when I first built my bike and tried the longer cranks - the bike felt amazing again. And all for the sake of 7mm...
Take care of the little things my good reader - they often make the biggest difference.
Share
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