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Guest
I've just come out of my first custom frame and it turned into a debacle - mostly, I think,
because of me and my big mouth sounding like I knew something when trying to specify a frame that
would fit me.
So, now I've got a $1,400 utility bike (too twitchy to really ride, seat about three inches behind
KOPS, fork shoulders hit down tube if wheel turned too far).....and I'm ready to try to try to do it
right. "No pain, no gain"...right?
I'd throw myself on the mercy of Habenero and expect a good outcome except that one of my
requirements is S&S couplings and Hab doesn't do them.
So, it's steel again for this one and I'm thinking Sycip's "Diesel" (
http://www.sycip.com/Pages/diesel.html ) but sized for my somewhat-strange bod.
I've got an FS that, IMHO, is a perfect fit for me except that my weight is so far back that the
front wheel is really, really light. A mixed blessing. Really easy on the front wheel and shocks,
but it tends to come unglued too easily when climbing. Just once in my life, I'd like to try riding
a bike that actually, officially, fits.
I've dropped a plumb line next to the center of the BB spindle and measured the distance back to the
center of the saddle clip and I'm told that this measurement is called "setback". To get my butt on
the saddle at KOPS, I've had to increase the setback by exactly two inches (via a HellBent set back
seatpost and moving the saddle all the way back in the clip).
I'd like the custom bike to put the saddle where I want it without resorting to a set back seatpost
and give me a little room to play with by allowing the saddle clip to hold the saddle in the center
of the rails instead of all the way forward.
The only other oddball dimension that I want is a 180mm head tube. (i.e. about 7"). I want this just
to reduce the number of spacing rings used to set the bars where I want them.
I know they're going to ask me to measure myself twenty different ways, and I know that at least
some builders have a strong notion of what a proper fit and riding posture is....but I've got
about 5k miles of FS riding and the last 3k have been in my preferred position and frankly I'm not
about to change it for anybody. To me, the only issue is how to wind up with a frame that supports
this position.
SO: What's the right way to communicate this to a frame builder? "Setback" by itself seems
meaningless - it would depend on the amount of seatpost extension.
-----------------------
PeteCresswell
because of me and my big mouth sounding like I knew something when trying to specify a frame that
would fit me.
So, now I've got a $1,400 utility bike (too twitchy to really ride, seat about three inches behind
KOPS, fork shoulders hit down tube if wheel turned too far).....and I'm ready to try to try to do it
right. "No pain, no gain"...right?
I'd throw myself on the mercy of Habenero and expect a good outcome except that one of my
requirements is S&S couplings and Hab doesn't do them.
So, it's steel again for this one and I'm thinking Sycip's "Diesel" (
http://www.sycip.com/Pages/diesel.html ) but sized for my somewhat-strange bod.
I've got an FS that, IMHO, is a perfect fit for me except that my weight is so far back that the
front wheel is really, really light. A mixed blessing. Really easy on the front wheel and shocks,
but it tends to come unglued too easily when climbing. Just once in my life, I'd like to try riding
a bike that actually, officially, fits.
I've dropped a plumb line next to the center of the BB spindle and measured the distance back to the
center of the saddle clip and I'm told that this measurement is called "setback". To get my butt on
the saddle at KOPS, I've had to increase the setback by exactly two inches (via a HellBent set back
seatpost and moving the saddle all the way back in the clip).
I'd like the custom bike to put the saddle where I want it without resorting to a set back seatpost
and give me a little room to play with by allowing the saddle clip to hold the saddle in the center
of the rails instead of all the way forward.
The only other oddball dimension that I want is a 180mm head tube. (i.e. about 7"). I want this just
to reduce the number of spacing rings used to set the bars where I want them.
I know they're going to ask me to measure myself twenty different ways, and I know that at least
some builders have a strong notion of what a proper fit and riding posture is....but I've got
about 5k miles of FS riding and the last 3k have been in my preferred position and frankly I'm not
about to change it for anybody. To me, the only issue is how to wind up with a frame that supports
this position.
SO: What's the right way to communicate this to a frame builder? "Setback" by itself seems
meaningless - it would depend on the amount of seatpost extension.
-----------------------
PeteCresswell