I need help setting up my bike. I have a road bike that i have put clip-on bars, but need help getting seat height and handlebar height, ect so i have things close to correct.
Anyone have suggestions?
I will get a tri-bike eventually.
Tri-fit on a road bike is always tricky.
What kind of road bike? Seat-tube angle? Top-tube length vs. torso length?
Does the road bike fit correctly? (if it runs a little big compared to your body there’s no chance for a correct tri-fit)
There’s a good article on Tom D’s site - http://www.bikesportmichigan.com/bikes/karma.shtml - including road->tri conversion.
To get the conversion right I would consult a fitter first - determining if it’s possible at all! I’ve seen too many riders on road-bikes w/ clip-ons in a WAAY TOO STRECHED OUT position! Never mentioning throwing the bikes overall balance off, by moving the center of gravity forward…
Read this article as well - http://www.bikesportmichigan.com/editorials/0000053.shtml.
…afterall, it could come down to “I will get a tri-bike eventually.” as the best option.
The key question that has to be asked is CAN you ride a road bike in the tri/aero positioning. Many try( no pun intended), but only a few can really get away with this.
The most common problem is that many slap regular length aero-bars on a road bike and think this will work. The first thing to do is try the shorter aero bars such as the Profile Jammers and see if this works for you. If you have your saddle in a “normal” position on your road bike, you can move it forward on the rails slightly to theretically get a steeper angle at the seat-tube and open up the torso a bit. I would not suggest a forward position seat-post. These can put you way to far forward on your bike and this will really affect handling and/or can be quite dangerous and unsafe to ride.
A road bike will work for you if:
-
you are very well positioned on your road bike already in a low position
-
You have a long torso
-
you have good hip and lower back flexibility
You have to post more details. What kind of road bike. IMO, compact frames like the Cervelo Soloist or Giant TCR can work very well at a 75/76 degree “muti-sport” position. Going steeper on a road geometry can be very tricky. I ran a Giant TCR medium frame with a neutral seat post with the seat slide forward for 75/76 degrees and with Syntace C2 aero bars and it worked very well. I tried a forward seat post to give 78 degrees on the TCR and didn’t like it one bit.
There is an alternative for a road bike called the “big slam” position. Essentially you slide the seat back, lower it a bit and get some shorty aero bars and possibly a shorter stem. This is described reasonably well here http://www.timetrial.org/slam.htm