Bike fit - Cyclist new to Road biking position

[Pita]

Hello! I'm new to road biking but have been cycling every day for years on a hybrid. I just purchased a lightly used road bike and I am looking for some information on fit (I have been fitted professionally for frame size so I know I have the right frame but nothing else has been tweaked). Here is the question: If I feel like my hip flexors are doing more work than the quads and I feel I'm generally lacking power would I need to lower my handlebars? When cycling I find my hip flexors are getting sore and my lower back and shoulders are getting fatigued. I had made some changes after the initial test ride (I did an 80K test ride with both difficult hills and flats with no pain or issues at all). I flipped the stem and moved the seat forward because I felt I was reaching too much with my arms but now I'm having these issues above.
Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks

 

[daveryanwyoming]

Originally Posted by Pita .
....If I feel like my hip flexors are doing more work than the quads and I feel I'm generally lacking power would I need to lower my handlebars?....

It's hard to say what is right or wrong with your fit without a lot more information and ideally some side shot video of you riding under load as in on a trainer. But it's very unlikely that loss of power will be corrected by lowering your bars and tightening up your hip angle.

A good bike fit starts with work on the saddle including: saddle height, saddle fore/aft position, and saddle tilt. Then bars come into play but lowering bars is all about aerodynamics and to some extent comfort and lower generally doesn't improve raw power although it can very easily improve speed as you lower your frontal area and it can improve comfort especially for riders that adopt a good road riding posture and learn to ride with sufficient anterior pelvic tilt and a relatively straight and elongated spine.

Best bet is to get a professional fitting as it's more complicated than just getting the bar height right. But if you want to fit yourself check out some of the advice and look at the illustrations on this site: http://bikedynamics.co.uk/guidelines.htm as a starting point.

-Dave