a bike that might feel comfortable for
one person might be an instrument of
torture for another but often getting
from torture back to comfortable is just
a case of changing a few inexpensive and
often free things so we're going to look
at how to change your position on the
bike to make it more comfortable and
then we're going to look at how to make
the bike feel smoother out on the road
so here is what to look at and why
saddle height is a point of adjustment
it's something that I would imagine
we're all quite familiar with but what
it's often more important from the
comfort perspective is the reach from
the tip of the saddle to your handlebars
if it's too long you'll find that it
puts loads of pressure on your lower
back and then also your neck shoulders
that have to rotate in order to
accommodate the extra length to remedy
it very simply change the stem for
shorter one bring your handlebars back
and that will relax your upper body but
you might not even have to buy a new
stem if you've got any spaces on top of
your current one and if you remove them
you can simply replace them underneath
the stem and that'll raise your
handlebars and that also has the effect
of relaxing the upper body for those of
you sitting there thinking about
aerodynamics I would say that yes on
paper a lower front end is more
aerodynamic but what's actually the key
is your body position so seeing as you
can bend your arms you can still get
really Aero even with a higher shorter
stem simply by doing just that meaning
it can be comfortable for most your ride
but still get Aero when you need to you
handlebars themselves are often
overlooked as a way of adjusting your
position on the bike when an actual fact
it can radically alter it so just look
at these two for example these compact
bars have a reach of 70 millimeters and
a drop of 122 whereas these have a reach
of 80 millimeters and a drop of 148 and
the difference between them will be
proportionately much greater for smaller
riders than larger eyelas but in either
case they're still going to
significantly affect your position now
personally I always run a compact bar so
one with a short reach and a short drop
because I can then run a longer and
lower stem while still staying
comfortable because my position doesn't
vary that much when I move my hands I
can't recommend looking at handlebar
size enough really if you've got small
hands and so you stroll to reach the
brake levers when you're on the drops
then a compact bar will help or if
you've got a poor low back flexibility
then likewise a compact bar is going to
help you use the drops more but then if
you've got really large hands or you're
simply a total rider then larger bars
are gonna mean that you have more
variation to your position there are a
couple of things to talk about handle
bars before we leave them moving away
from position and more towards
smoothness on the road the first of
those is stiffness or rather flexibility
because although a stiff handle bar is
really good for control actually a
flexible handle bar is noticeably
smoother now it's not something that
manufacturers tend to talk about so it's
hard to recommend one over another but
you often find that carbon handle bars
have greater vibration damping
properties than an iminium and that's
just because it's easier to build that
characteristic into the material no
matter what material handlebars are made
of that you can always add an extra
layer of bar tape now that's great for
people with big hands because it
increases the damage of the handle part
so it makes it more comfortable to hold
but it also adds an extra layer of
padding as well
I mentioned saddle height earlier but
what about the saddle itself it
certainly makes sense to change it if
you're not comfortable but what should
you look for well it's hard to be
specific and I'm no expert in other
people's saddles but personally I find
that I can pretty much get on with
anything after one or two rides on a new
seat and get comfortable and away I go
that said I do have my favourites I
don't tend to like lots of padding far
rather have a softer shell to the saddle
that I can kind of settle into so that
might be something that you want to look
for similarly you also want to look at
the saddle rails themselves now carbon
rails tend to be a bit stiffer and
transfer more vibration from the bike up
into your body
whereas titanium rails I find at least
tend to be a little bit more comfortable
you will find that the greatest
improvement to comfort and smoothness on
your bike will come from your tires in
fact I spoke to an engineering friend of
mine he was trying to do some research
into the damping properties of different
seat posts here's actually an
interesting guidance part you may think
but he was struggling to tell the
difference owing to the effect of tires
generally lowering the pressure is the
key to smoothness but you will need to
increase the size of your tires if you
drop the pressure too far a small tire
and low
Russia is a recipe for impact punches
now personally I can run about 85 psi in
a 25 C tire if I go up to 28 C tire then
I can drop to about 70 psi and that is
like a magic carpet it's so smooth
before increasing the volume of your
tires they you do need to check they'll
actually fit into your frame most road
bikes probably go up to a 27 but even
that might be a bit of a push like it
would be on this bike if you are going
to swap your tires out for larger ones
then you will often find that a more
expensive tire has a more supple casing
and this allows it to deform around all
the tiny imperfections in the road and
that has a really really significant
effect on damping the buzz coming up
from the tarmac if you want to increase
the comfort of your road bike then look
at your position first
perhaps shorting the reach from your
handlebars to the saddle also put larger
tires in and then of course make sure
you check handlebars and perhaps double
wrap them if you want to know how to
change your handlebars or in fact double
wrap them then we've got videos show you
how to do precisely that just up there
and just down there before going to
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