Raising handlebars

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Moderator: robbosmans

highdraw

by highdraw

cyclenutnz wrote:This is almost definitely a case of having the saddle too far forward. I'm picking that she rides with her pelvis rotated back a lot, with a lot of curvature in lower back.
Whether the bike is an "endurance" geometry or not is irrelevant unless the Master prevents her from getting into a decent position.
Raising the bars may slightly alleviate the pain but will not fix the issue that she is resting on her hands too much.
Unfortunately there aren't that many fitters that focus on rider balance, so you'll probably have to work on this yourself.

If she is on one of the smaller sizes - they have steep STA and you will likely need to hunt out a post with a lot of setback, then maybe shorten stem by a couple of cm to avoid over reaching.

Depending on your torso to leg length ratio, a Master frame geometry will make it harder for her to take weight off her hands so lets clear that up. As an extreme example, if a handlebar is one foot above the saddle, saddle setback behind the BB becomes less of an issue relative to hand pressure. An endurance geometry will put less pressure on the hands because the handlebar will be higher. Many weaker riders shouldn't be riding a race geometry.

But saddle setback is big no question when it comes to hand pressure. And some may even know why this matters and KOPS is largely a myth in its veracity.
Its because a rider pushes off on the pedals. The stronger the rider, the higher the pedal forces which naturally unweight the hands with less saddle setback...why good riders frequently ride in front of KOPS to open their hip angle and ride more aero. And of course pushing the saddle back closes the hip angle which makes it harder to get a flatter back in the drops but this does take pressure off the hands which helps to compensate for lower pedal forces of a weaker rider. The late great Sheldon Brown even addresses this and has stated that a weaker rider generally prefers more behind KOPS due to lower pedal forces and again this more closed hip position makes it harder to run more drop and ride with a lower torso position for improved aerodynamics.

by Weenie


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