My name is Mary. I started riding bikes when I was 4. My first bike was a steel commuter with durable tires, a nice fender and a basket. When I discovered it was the wrong size and sold it on Craigslist. Turns out it was something of a collectors item. Maybe I should have kept it.
My second bike was a women's specific model. IT was a Gray/Pink Murray with 24" wheels with gray knobbies that were a good on-road/off-road transition tire. After that, I found heavy duty hardtail MTB from Target. It's best feature was that I didn't have to lock it up. Ever.
I have done almost everything there is to do with bikes, including commuting, training, messengering, street racing, professional racing, wrenching, coaching, fitting, frame painting, traveling, making races, teaching mechanics, camping. It seems a darn shame to let that knowledge go to waste.
Go Mary!
ReplyDeleteI just changed my fit a bit (I didn't used to be able to reach the hoods, really) and it has led to instant power. But it still needs tweaking, so I would love to learn more :)
Thanks for looking out for all of us!
If you have a way to send me a picture of you on the trainer we can definately figure some stuff out. There are a lot of "tips" and "tricks" out there that are supposed to help women (smaller people) work with parts. Ideally, we would live in a world where we wouldn't need "tricks". That said, the tricks we came up with are designing parts right now.
ReplyDeleteA number of companies make bars with shallow drop and shorter reach. We can do a post on bars next week.
The standard way to position shifters is to set the bottom tip of the lever on the same plane as the bottom flat underside of the bar. Depending on drop and reach, that could be a really inefficient set up for a small small handed, short torsoed human.
There is a trend toward moving the shift levers way up on the bar so that they are effectively an extention on the flats. It starts with bar position, however.
The default position for bars is to make the bottom flat part of the bar parallel to the floor. Next try making the hoods level with the flat top of the bar. Position the levers straight out from the bar. The goal would be to keep your wrists from twisting excessively either way.
The wrist twisting concept is the same for Mtb bars. Straight bars are super easy to cut and you shouldn't hesitate to do it. But back to levers. Put the brakes and shirt levers on the bars. Loosen the bolts so you can position them easily but tight enough so the hold the place while you get the allen wrench. Sit on the saddle and put your hands on the levers. Your forearms and the back of your hands should be straight. Tighten the bolt.
It's ergonomirific!