Becoming more aero, and faster

Sorry if I missed it, what is the brand of bike? It looks teeny weeny for a 60cm frame.

I think part of the issue is his height should really be on a 62 and makes the bike look small

I don’t disagree, but I’m 6’4" on a 58 (2004 Giant) and the picture of your mate shows a larger looking bike too.

2019 Breezer Inversion Team. Designed by MTB builder Joe Breeze.

Joe created the compact frame with the goal of having as small of frame possible while using longer-length parts like seatposts and stems to allow the bikes to properly fit riders. The benefit was both to save weight and increase stiffness for pedaling by having shorter frame tubes.

Right, so it’s designed to be quite small. Interesting design choice by Joe. Guess it’s as per and they should have spec’d you with a super long stem off the bat.

Be wary of the effect of the long stem on steering depending where you take the gravel too.

Given your budget constraints and current fit, it looks like your best near term option is to get your hands further away and higher.

You can get a longer stem and angle it up. You can also get a handlebar that gives you more reach and stack.

For shits and giggles, my current MTB vs road vs cross bike fit. Just built up the MTB so it’s running stock stem and stack/reach. Cross bike is a 61cm Trek Crockett running a 120mm stem. Lays me out a bit more than my road bike.



image

MTB looks a lot better to my uneducated eye.

Depending on your intentions (XC racing) I’m picking the bars being lower, or slightly further away (flipped stem same height on steerer, or longer stem) will improve your position and have you looking comfortable and we’ll balanced.

Fwiw, I just added 20mm of reach by moving my seat all the way aft… I thought I had done this, but apparently there was a bit more room on the seat rails.

Yep, I want to drop the stem, as i just naturally feel too upright. I also think I could go with a 110-120mm stem. It’s came w/100mm.

Also see if you can find a seat post with more offset…I generally don’t like to suggest moving the saddle back for increased reach (saddle position should be fixed relative to the BB), but you need to do whatever you can to increase your reach.

Agree. Cross bike looks good.

Out of curiosity @anthonylane what’s your saddle height (bb-top) and distance from saddle tip to BB (horizontal)?

Saddle height (road): 84.5cm
Saddle tip to BB center (road): 10cm

Saddle height (cx): 84.5cm
Saddle tip to BB center (cx): 11cm

Saddle tip to bar tops is 62.5cm on both bikes.

Stick some fast road tyres on the cross bike and see if that’s faster than the road bike?

I wonder if you have a long torso?

I can’t quite work out what the difference is. My bike has the same saddle height and similar saddle to bars. My seat is further forward and I don’t feel as cramped as you look.

I am only 193cm though which according to a Google is 6 feet 3.9 inches.

Sorry I can’t help further. I think your cross and mountain bike fits look pretty reasonable though so if you can achieve that with a longer stem on the Gravel bike that should help.

Holy cow, you’re practically a barn door :grin:

It’s kinda hard to tell from these photos, but…

My initial takeaway, don’t bother spending money on aero stuff for your current road bike. It simply doesn’t fit you. It’s dramatically too small. It’s amazing you can even move forward, God forbid you had any kind of headwind. You’d go backwards.

Save your cash. Wait till you can simply buy a new frame that actually allows you to get into your ideal road position.

As others have said, you can add longer stems etc etc. They’re all a compromise. The money is better pooled into a single dramatic change.

You’re a very tall rider, your ideal road bike will have a huge saddle to bar drop. Something us short riders only dream of…

You’d probably be quicker on your cross bike with a set of deep aero wheels and race tires for the time being.

Hell, you’d be faster if you attached your wheels to an actual barn door :joy:

This post irked me [edit: the one above, looks like I didn’t hit the right button] so much that I finally made a TR forum account rather than just lurk for a year+.
Over the top rude, with no constructive feedback for the OP.

OP, looking at the pics and the bike measurements, and assuming the road pic is before the seat fore aft change, I think you just need a few cm more reach and your bike isn’t “WAY TOO SMALL” as some others have suggested. Whether you put on a 130 or 140mm stem or look for longer reach bars, there is 4cm worth of reach able to be added. Comparing to the gravel bike I don’t think you would even need that much extra reach.
Not sure if it’s the camera angle or if they actually are, But your arms seem very long and specifically your forearms. So with this and your self proclaimed good flexibility (which may be overstated by your long arms) I think you can handle and be more comfortable with slamming your stem completely. You would be best to work on your flexibility and do some lower back foundation training, so that you can properly hinge at the hips. Doing this imo will be worth much more than buying any gains and will make you both stronger and faster (twice), especially if you have recently squeezed your splurging budget.

You clearly didn’t read the entire thread. I did provide my detailed feedback.

The above post was obviously humor.

I’m sorry it offended you. I disagree with you, a longer stem is not the fix. That’s just a band-aid. The bike is too small for an ideal aero position. IMHO.

Yes, you are correct. I clearly went through with making an account after reading through loads of the forum, just to comment and make myself look stupid by not reading the thread.
You did give a very good detailed response. But once seeing his position, which arguably is much more important feedback, your answer was not quite as helpful and imo (which doesn’t make it right) wrong.
The bike is not too small for him. A 130mm or 140mm is not impractical (maybe 140 is for someone who isn’t experienced) and neither are long reach bars. You cant honestly tell me that he needs more than 4cm more reach on his gravel rig, and he measuress them to have the same reach. With more reach (And enough to be adequate) and more drop (which he has plenty to work with), I’m not sure what else is required for an optimal racing position?

Edit: I have definitely over dramatised this, but I still believe the reply was both not helpful and wrong.

Your fit on the Crockett looks better, which is strange to me because from a stack/reach perspective it is almost identical to your Breezer - only 2mm more reach and 12mm less stack.
If you aren’t going to pay for an actual qualified person to fit you, I’d recommend buying a 150mm stem and just trying it. From pure internet eyeballing, you have plenty of room to come forward without closing off your hip angle to where it should impair power.
If that feels kinda stretched out to you - good. Start doing a plank every day and bending forward more until it doesn’t feel so stretched out. If it doesn’t feel stretched out… you might consider an even longer stem, but that’s going to be a bit harder to find (and could make the handling rather funky).

None of that will be ideal, and, again, might make it handle odd, but if you can’t afford a fit and new frame, that should at least help in the meantime.