(no subject)

[owlectomy]

This makes me so sad, but -- I don't think my bike is a great fit for me. Now, I guess I should ride a lot and see what difference an overall improvement in my cycling fitness level makes, but I suspect the answer is eventually going to be a new bike. (I am not totally enthused at the bike shop that sold me the bike, which sized me by the "if you can get your leg over it I guess it's okay" method, which works less well on most women than on most men, and even less well on women with TEENY TINY T-REX ARMS. Ahem.)

In fact, I worry that I might fit badly on any off-the-shelf bicycle in the categories I want, as someone who's too tall for most "women-specific" bikes. But I'm reasonably sure I can get something great without having a custom frame made, because that is $$$$$$.

The trouble is, I can't really get the bike of my dreams on a moderate budget - the bike of my dreams, to be specific, is a steel touring bike or randonneuring bike or a do-it-all kind of bike that's sturdy enough for overnight camping or credit-card touring (the kind of touring where you stay in hotels and eat at restaurants, so you don't have to carry around a tent and a stove and all that.)

A bike like the All City Space Horse. Because COME ON IT'S A SPACE HORSE.

What I should ACTUALLY DO instead of buying a Space Horse:

- Get a professional fitting done, even though they will laugh at me because I'm a fat lady, to see if there's anything I can reasonably do to tweak the fit.

- (If that fails) Watch Craiglist like a hawk, because if I can get a well-maintained vintage steel road bike that fits me well, then I would happily spend a bunch of money to fix and update the components.

Comments

[green_knight]

I ride a 21" gentleman's bike, and it fits me like a glove.

I've been in bike shops that tried to sell me everything from a 16" upwards (What. The. Holy. Fuck.); most of which have operated on 'you can raise the saddle, that'll totally make it fit'.

It wasn't until I went and looked up what frame my earlier bikes had, and recalculated (they were in cm) and walked into a shop to demand a 21" bike to try that I found one which almost fit me like a glove - it was 95% perfect. (I now have the version with an adjustable stem for the handlebars which brought them back that fraction, and now I have A PERFECTLY FITTING BIKE!)

So my suggestion would be to try as many well-made bikes as you can to see whether any of them hit the sweet spot.

Also, my bike has an aluminium frame, but the added lightness means that it eats hills: I frequently look at a slope going 'I'll never get up that' and shift down and put my back into it and go 'ooops, got there' which has *never* happened to me with any bike I've had before, but I've got no doubts as to its sturdyness.

[owlectomy]

A lot depends on the quality of the materials, too; my steel bike is actually lighter than my (much cheaper) aluminum bike, because it's an alloy that is relatively strong for its weight.

Trying out as many as I can find is a good plan when I do decide to get a new bike; the trouble is that the sorts of bikes I want aren't always readily available in stores around here, so I'll have to try to work with a shop to make sure I don't special-order anything that turns out not to fit.