MORE ROADINI AND CONTACT POINTS
Wanted to provide you with more pictures of my roadini built since these all turned out so sweet! Plus you will now get the final chapter of the contact points story!
For the previous episodes on contact points, click here:
It's funny that most of the people, commenting on my roadini, are going nuts on the combination of tune hubs on a rivendell, since this was only coincidence (if such thing exists) that I did find these wheels. Or like Picasso said: I do not seek, I find. And how lucky I felt when finding these wheels that are now such a big part of the bike, aesthetically and technically! Especially when you know that, when bought new, the front hub alone did cost more then what I paid for the complete wheelset. Rimbrake stuff prices drop insanely these days... And now adding this special look and vibe to this bicycle. It's like rolling on Ferrari Testarossa rims on a '49 Cadillac.
And with a chefs kiss on my lips... only for your personal enjoyment... more pics of this beauty.
This brings me right onto the topic of the last remaining contact point in my series on how to feel good on a bicycle and what really changes the ride: the handlebars.
First of all, if it's up to me, get a handlebar where you have multiple options to grab. Dropbars, swept back bars, stuff like that. Flatbars are the worst for comfort, since they more or likely only supply one single position of your hands on the bars plus the wrist is turned 90 degrees inwards to what your natural wrist position would be (look how apes grab onto treebranches). But again, just like with the saddle, there's more to it then only choosing your specific model. There's always so much to alter or adjust. I wanna start with the distance between your saddle and your handlebars. And the easiest way to adjust this distance is by changing the position of your saddlerails on the seat post. You will have at least 1-2 cm where you can play around back and forth.
The next part you can change up without having to replace the bars is the stem. Again, 2 cm means another realm, start easy. Goal is to find the spot where you neither feel stretched out nor cramped into the bike. Trust your gut. You don't need calculators for this one. The bodys ability to adopt is awesome and if it's feeling a little bit stretched out, chances are high that you're already way too stretched out on your bike. You will know when you're in the right place.
The last thing that is crucial for feeling comfortable on your bike is the height of the handlebar compared to your saddleheight. This adjustment, again, will change a lot. And it's not always the case that the higher the handlebar, the more comfortable the ride. Sometimes you will even have to lower your handlebar in order to feel better. This all has got to do with weight distribution. If you lower your handlebar, the weight on the hands/wrists becomes heavier but at the same time, the weight on your sitbones/saddle becomes less. It's that easy... If your butt hurts, try lowering the stem. If your wrists hurt, try a higher handlebar setup, bringing more of your bodyweight back onto the saddle. This is exactly why I love quill stems. Adjusting can be done in a couple of seconds and you don't have to cut your forkshaft when having the stem fully dropped. Yes, I know, your favourite carbon frame doesn't come with a 1 inch quill stem, so when in doubt, leave the forkshaft longer and have a nice spacer tower of doom.
And that's it! There's a lot to adjust, a lot to change up, when properly setting up a bicycle to your bodys needs, but if you know how and where to tweek, it's not that hard, it just takes time.
Time playing around. And that my dear, is exactly what we're here for.
Good luck, happy play.
xoxo,
Alex
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