UKC

I bought a second hand Cube bike, 47cm, but I always feel too stretched out on it, even with the saddle as far forward as it goes. Have experimented with saddle height too and can't seem to feel comfortable on it. Can post a pic in a bit to show how it fits. Maybe I should get a smaller bike. Or maybe more compact handlbars. The stem is already quite small so hard to get an even smaller one and it might make the stearing twitchy. Thanks for any advice. 

This can be a tough issue because you've probably made the issue worse by slamming the saddle forward. It would help if you would explain what it is your feeling. If its pressure on your hands then see the next paragraph, if you feel like you are extending your shoulders and have straight arms when on the bike then it's likely reach, if you neck hurts because of excessive neck extension it could be due to too small a stack.

Saddle fore/aft is not used to reduce or increase reach, it's used to control how much weight is over the bottom bracket. I would recommend putting the saddle back into the middle of its rails, this should help alleviate pressure on your hands. You may find that you have to move it further back if there is still a lot of pressure on your hands.

Now, you need to solve the reach. Personally i find changing the width of the hadlebar to be more important to handling feel than the stem. If you need to go for a shorter stem, and then maybe try a shorter reach handlebar (specialized has a 65mm reach handlebar, compared to the normal 75 mm reach handlebar such as Deda RM1). You can rotate the handlebars (and the hoods) to further reduce reach.

Try changing the stack of the bike to help reduce reach marginally, this can be done by adding spacers under the stem.

I always thought I had bought a too-big bike, but I went to get a proper bike fit and we found a position which works perfectly for me. What we did was raise the saddle almost an inch, and drop the stem as low as it could go, under all the headset spacers. This made me lean forward a lot more, and then coupled with a 10mm shorter stem, it made everything slot into place, I didn't even need an inline seatpost.

I'm not saying you should try doing the same, but it shows that experimenting with different setups can work.

I have this issue with my old road bike, which is a bit reachy for me, despite having had a bike fit when I bought it - I always feel as if I'm sliding off the front of the saddle. I think it's also quite a low stack height and I've got long legs, which doesn't help.

I've put a shorter stem on it and pushed the saddle forwards a bit - I know that's not what I should be doing, but seems to work ok for me.

I've got no room on the steerer to put any more spacers under the stem and I just can't bring myself to flip the stem to raise it!

Thanks all, there are 2 or 3 spacers so maybe that's too many under the handlebars. This is a pic with the saddle in the middle in terms of fore and aft as suggested. Sorry, bad pic, small flat and an iphone 5c ha. 

 

Basic bike fitting tips, if not the ultimate fit then a very good start for comfort and efficiency:

Sliding the saddle back and forth so that when your pedals are at the quarter past nine position a plumb-line held on the front of your kneecap should drop through the ball of your foot on the pedal.  For saddle height you should be able to place the heel of your foot on the pedal with an ever so slight bend in your knee, try this on both sides (one after the other) so you are not tempted to cheat by rocking from side to side.  Once the saddle is sorted sit on the bike with hands resting on top of the brake hoods.  You shouldn't be able to see the wheel hub because the handlebars are  obscuring it.  If you see the hub in front of or behind the bars then you need a longer or shorter stem.  If you can't manage this with a shorter stem after correcting the saddle then unfortunately your bike is too big for you.  If the bike still feels "too stretched out" after passing these tests then raising the height of the bars may help, with an angled/riser stem if necessary.  From what I can see of the picture the bike doesn't LOOK too big

There’s no way that’s too big for you. You need your feet on the pedals so that a line between the ball of your foot and the widest part of the outside sits over the pedal axle. The saddle needs to be positioned so that your knee is over the pedal axle when the pedal crank is horizontal (roughly). The saddle needs to be positioned so that you can both drive down strongly and pull the pedal back at the bottom of the stroke. You should be able to deliver a strong circular motion. The saddle should be flat or ever so slightly nose-down.  Bars should positioned to give a comfortable position on flats, hoods and drops. A lot of this will depend on your riding style. Bobbling along not the same as nose down, arse up. Then adjust things in eighth of an inch increments. Adjust, ride for a while to see if better or worse. All adjustments are linked to another…. When you think you’ve got it sorted, ride up hill. If you’re sitting a bit forward of the back rail, move a saddle a touch forward. If you’re sitting on the back rail, move it back a touch. Mark everything with a dab of tipped. You have to have a reference points or you’ll go round in circles forever

It doesn't look too big.  Hard to tell how you lower half is position wise with wrong foot placement and obscured thigh but you top half seems reasonable...

It might just be a flexibility thing that some stretching might help with.

By road bike standards that's a very upright looking body position which will certainly make the bars feel further away.

They look like deep-drop standard bars so you could very likely get a compact bar instead with shorter reach to the hoods.

However the bigger picture is if you've not ridden a road bike before, it might take some time to adapt and improve hip flexibility to rotate your upper body further forward and start dropping the bars down.  In the long term that will pay off with better aerodynamics and better power delivery through the pedals.

(The other thing thats harder to tell with the coat in the way, but is the saddle actually high enough? I suspect you might not be getting full extension at the bottom of the pedal stroke.)

That doesn't look very reachy. You are almost sitting upright... Maybe get some flat bars?

Yeah; dropped heel on centred pedals with that much bend in the leg looks a bit cramped.

The OP's height, inside leg & back length might help; 47cm is a fairly small bike, I think; Evan's road bike size guide says 47-48cm is XXS...

I ride a 47cm bike, and I am 152cm tall and my limbs are short for my height. While not impossible, it would be improbable for a man to be as small as me!

OP, I would say almost certainly it's too small. Road bikes do feel odd if you aren't used to them. I would get to a shop to try lots and get fitted properly. Or borrow some friends ones or different sizes to get a feel for them. 

With my saddle at the correct riding height, I can't even touch the ground with tippie toes when sitting on the saddle. 

You posted a pic with your big coat on covering the saddle and seatpost and the top of your legs. I'm dead....

E

Have you tried tilting the drop handle bars upwards so they they tilt backwards a bit? Thats how I ride mine.

There's a lot written and said about bike fit, and none of it is right.

Not universally, at least.

I think that a useful way to work through it is to hold onto the idea that a functional riding position uses the whole body as a curved sprund suspension system to distribute the stresses and strains that cause discomfort. Importantly, this should pretty much work at rest/low intensity.

If by 'too stretched out' you mean that you feel very long and flat, raise the saddle height. This allows a little curvature of the core and the spine to take some strain.

So long as you can bend your elbows while riding, you're fine in terms of maximum reach. Sometimes this just involves teaching yourself to dip the torso. Harder to do with a belly (don't ask me how I know!) but you can change your position to suit over time.

If you can, try to do bursts of cycling 'mindfully', e.g. really focussed on which parts of your body are swaying, whether your feet are neutral, working with, working against what your legs are doing, etc. This makes parsing information about fit from others much easier. You have some data to work with.

Steve Hogg's bike fitting blog is (in)famous. Some of his more, er, hypothetical statements veer towards woo. However, he has made himself a conceptual system to work within and test what he sees; I think the outcomes of his overall approach are pretty valid. I strongly recommend his guidance on saddle height, fore/aft position, reach. It reinforced/focussed my thoughts on where I was heading with a fit that works well and balances performance against practicality.

Finally, whatever information you feel is the best for you, pop a hex key in your pocket, ride up some long moderate hills, and accept that the purpose of this ride is to find a happy medium. If you use your chosen guidance to adjust on the fly during some actual riding, you'll be much quicker to find functional adjustments than if you make an idealised/component-driven change at home.

Suck it and see!

N.b., My opening comment was a general one. Nothing targeted towards the good members of this forum.

Sorry, was in a hurry before going for a skate with friends. Will post a better one!

Thanks all, yeah certainly seems like the bike's not too big. I'll take into account what everyone has said and make some adjustments.

Then your stem is most likely too long

saddle height raised, can’t reach the pedals. Seriously this is not good advice. Adjust the saddle relative to the bottom bracket/pedals, as others have said, then KEEP IT THERE. Adjust for reach etc by changing the cockpit, NOT THE SADDLE.

Have a look at this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMmbXAWcgh4&list=PLL1_j_gcxtpxJ-b9ptUik...

It’s a set of bike fit videos on Cam Nichols channel he did with on OZ bike fitter and physio.  Similar to some of Steve Hogs stuff.  Basically you should be balanced and comfy and not using your postural muscles to hold yourself on the bike all the time.

Your bike is not too big.

Best of luck.

Cheers

Toby

Thanks, I've seen quite a few of his videos. I've just watched this one:

youtube.com/watch?v=4nGxc1iniuA&

Contrary to what you might think if the bars are too high that can lead to too much weight on the hands which is what I've experienced. Just taken some spacers out and lowered the bars. They're still a bit above the height of the saddle but lower than before. Will see how that feels when I go out for a ride in a bit. @Alun 's post got me thinking above. Thanks

Bike definitely isn't too big, will just take some experimenting based on bike fit advice. Again, thanks all.

And you rock from side to side. And over-extend the leg, leading to problems with the back of the knee.

I agree with setting saddle height to suit leg length; pedal at lowest point, heel on pedal, sitting stably on saddle, with hips level. That leg should be slightly bent. Too high, and you're soon uncomfortable. Too low saddle and you're not efficient, but better than too high.

there’s a good article on bike sizing here:

https://www.bikeradar.com/advice/sizing-and-fit/road-bike-sizing?fbclid=IwA...

I took out the spacers and put them above the stem. Also rotated the bars up a bit. A lot less pressure on the bars now but will have to go for a longer ride to truely test it. The bars are still a bit above the saddle but not by a lot. Any feedback is apprectiated. Thanks

Hmm, Hard to see, but your saddle looks a bit too far forward, which unless you're putting a lot of power down would put more weight on the hands than is normal. Can you get a picture with your cranks horizontal and left-forward / right back? A standard starting point is that the forward knee should be vertically above the pedal axle.

A 47cm frame sounds very small for a man. 

My female friend who’s 5ft exactly rides a 47cm frame (but should be on a 44cm frame). So is a 47cm frame Cube generally for between 5ft 1-5ft 3 ish? Cube will no doubt have frame sizing guides or calculating tools based on height and inner leg measurement on their website. 

Depending on how much you plan to ride and for what distances/lengths of time, a proper bike fit would be useful. 

Yeah, I think the bike may be too small to be honest. I'm 5ft 3 though. 

Just back from a ride and without the spacers it hurt my back so will put them back in I think

 

Yeah I will do but to be honest I think I'm going to get a professional bike fit. I'm pretty lost with it. Thanks all

If you have or can get hold of a turbo trainer for a bit you can film yourself riding and it's much easier to hop on and off while making adjustments to the fit, especially at this time of the year when you don't want to be stoping outside and fiddling with freezing cold parts and tools.

Also, when fitting the bike, make sure you wear whatever clothes you usually do when riding. No point setting a saddle height in flats if you then go out riding in spd shoes with a cleat and a riser under your foot. Wearing something more fitting will also let you see what's going on with your hips when pedaling as you don't want you hips rocking side to side as you pedal.

As a rough guide to saddle fore aft position, if I can't take both hands off the bars without falling forward off the saddle my saddle is too far forward. 

That seems like the best option - especially if you are new to road cycling, because then you won't be familiar with how a good fit should feel - which not amount of internet advice can help you with. Best of luck!

In our club we have a lot of discussion on set up/fit etc.....probably the most discussed issue!

We have also had a few requests over the years from local folk asking for some guidance..... they've always been welcomed and we've helped them out......maybe you could enquire with a local club to see if they would offer the same? Would be free rather than paying for a bike fit.....although if you do get a professional fit do some research/reviews first!

Good luck...getting comfy makes all the difference....