When I was preparing to do my first triathlon, I did what a lot of people do-bought the first used road bike I could find that looked like it was probably my size. Road it for about a year, then before my first 70.3, I paid lots of money (well spent) for a fit and report to help me with a list of tt bikes that would fit me. Then I went shopping. On a TT bike, I need a super tall, but short bike to accommodate my short torso, long legs. Specifically, stack-580, reach 390. I wound up with a Kestrel 4000, and fell in love. Good bye knee pain, etc. etc.
I kept my roadie (Felt F75) as a back up/trainer bike. This is the bike I had the fit done on, and the fitter informed me it was ridiculously too long for me, and a bit exasperated, tried to dial it in to get it as comfortable as possible. Poor guy. Anyway, at the fitter's suggestion I bought smaller handle bars, tweaked some things here and there, but drew the line at going so far as to sacrifice handling.
Fast forward a year-now that I know what being comfortable on a bike feels like, when I do ride my road bike, I can only stand it for really short rides. I feel so stretched out, it's impossible for me to get comfortable and feel like I have no power.
SO! I have decided to sell my roadie and get one that fits me better. My question is... short of spending a lot of money on ANOTHER fit report for a back up road bike... what are some ways to determine some road bikes that would fit a short-tall rider? I have done some looking on the dealer's pages and google, but can't see a whole lot about geometry. Also, I'm looking to buy used (I'd like to keep my money in my tt bike), and there aren't a whole lot of bike shop options in my area, so that kind of rules out a packaged deal (fit and bike) at a store, unless absolutely necessary.
Ideas???
http://trismashley.blogspot.com
Anything that gets your blood racing is probably worth doing. -Hunter S. Thompson
I kept my roadie (Felt F75) as a back up/trainer bike. This is the bike I had the fit done on, and the fitter informed me it was ridiculously too long for me, and a bit exasperated, tried to dial it in to get it as comfortable as possible. Poor guy. Anyway, at the fitter's suggestion I bought smaller handle bars, tweaked some things here and there, but drew the line at going so far as to sacrifice handling.
Fast forward a year-now that I know what being comfortable on a bike feels like, when I do ride my road bike, I can only stand it for really short rides. I feel so stretched out, it's impossible for me to get comfortable and feel like I have no power.
SO! I have decided to sell my roadie and get one that fits me better. My question is... short of spending a lot of money on ANOTHER fit report for a back up road bike... what are some ways to determine some road bikes that would fit a short-tall rider? I have done some looking on the dealer's pages and google, but can't see a whole lot about geometry. Also, I'm looking to buy used (I'd like to keep my money in my tt bike), and there aren't a whole lot of bike shop options in my area, so that kind of rules out a packaged deal (fit and bike) at a store, unless absolutely necessary.
Ideas???
http://trismashley.blogspot.com
Anything that gets your blood racing is probably worth doing. -Hunter S. Thompson