5 mm , what a difference it makes in the ride

[Smiley]

I was talking to Rapid Tourist yesterday about having dropped my stem 5 mm and going out for a 43 miler this past Saturday. I figured I am in mid season shape and the weather is warm so WHY NOT TRY . After all I am a fit guy so who should practice experimentation better than I. During my ride I fiddled with my hood position twice to raise the hoods in essence compensating for the lower stack height of the bars. I could feel that just with the 5 mm drop that I had more weight on my hands weighting the front wheel and almost felt that I was tipping a tad forward. FYI I do ride with about 3 cm drop from saddle to top of bars currently .So I wake up the next day with terrible back shoulder pain that I thought was due to a bad nights sleep . When the light bulb goes off realizing it was due to a postion change on the bike. I switched back my spacer count and now I know I am where I need to be.
Its nice to make a change and realize that your truly dialed in to your riding position. Have any of you tried tweaking with your positions lately . This is really the best time to find out while its hot and your in better than mid season form if any change is good or bad.

[dgauthier]

I was talking to Rapid Tourist yesterday about having dropped my stem 5 mm (. . . ) I wake up the next day with terrible back shoulder pain

Five millimeters is a *heck of a big change* to do all at once. I would try to change your bar height the same way one would change one's saddle height: drop it 1mm a week for 5 weeks.

Oh, wait! Threadless stems make that sage bit of advice just about impossible to implement, don't they. Oh well . . .

[Smiley]

Yes ahead spacers are a pain to find in smaller sizes . I'll stick to what works.

[va rider]

Wow, I didn't think 1/2 cm was that huge a difference. I change my bars in 1 cm differences. I spent a couple of bucks on 1 cm spacers from performance. Easy to change. I think they sell 5 mm spacers as well.

[zap]

So thats what you were ****ering with on Saturday.

Smiley, its not that your necessarily dialed in, it's just that your not used to the position.

As you say, what kind of riding do you want to do.

Toodle around, keep the bars high because its easy.

Wanna go fast, get the bars as low as possible while still being able to produce the watts. Muscles will strain for a while, but man you'll go fast.

Hang in there for another month.

[Smiley]

Nah , I know my body and the 5 mm higher position was best . This coming from you Zap that can't touch the toes ??

[zap]

I can now :)

But you do bring up an interesting point... oh... dinner is on the table...

[H.Frank Beshear]

Smiley, I run up to Madison to CronoMetro to get fitted. Sorry its a bit closer than the east coast :D . Craig and Colin are the fitters/owners real nice folks for you midwesterners. They came down to our club meeting this spring for a fit seminar. Someone asked if they fit themselves, they both laughed. It's hard to fit yourself regardless of how well you do with others was the response. If we didn't have each other we'd ride bikes that didn't fit. I think even fitters need to be fit sometimes. Take care Frank