How to Ride a Road Bike

Video Transcript

"Even if you've worked long and hard to perfect the way your mountain bike fits, you're not going to be able to instantly get on a road bike and feel comfortable, or be able to set it up exactly the same. The reason you can't set up a road bike exactly the same, is because the way that you ride one is significantly different. Instead of just having a riser handlebar that has one fundamental hand position, we've got three or more positions on a road bike. This position, which is called riding on the hoods, which is pretty comfortable, because it puts you -- your wrists in a nice straight position very ergonomic, you can reach the brake levers and the shifters, which is pretty nice. You can ride on the hoods, which is a similar position to the mountain bike in that your hands are parallel. And you also have a couple positions you can ride here in the drops. Riding in the drops is nice because it's more aerodynamic, because it lowers your funnel area. You also get a little bit more leverage when you're sprinting or going down a hill it's a nice place to be because it's aerodynamic, you get good leverage, and you can still fully reach the brakes and shift lever. Saddle height distance from the center of your bottom bracket to the top of your seat is going to be approximately the same between a road bike and a mountain bike. There's going to be slight differences that you may want to take into effect, like a little bit lower seat height, or a little bit higher seat height on the mountain bike because you're going to be wearing different shoes or different shorts and stuff like that. But fundamentally it's going to be the same height. I know that my seat height on this is 73.5mm from the center of the bottom bracket to the top of the seat, measured along this line, which is pretty good. The reach that you -- I like to measure it consistently from the center of your handlebar to the tip of your seat, is about an inch and a half shorter on this bike than on the mountain bike, and that's because we have this added distance out here to the hoods. So you can't just take measurements off one bike and apply them to another. Also, because you've got this added hand position, which is down here, lower than the tops of the handlebar, you can, and want to, run less drop from the top your seat to the top of your handlebars than you would with a mountain bike. So, those are some of the differences in the fit of the bike, and a good bike shop or good cycling coach is going to be able to quickly and effectively fit you to a bike with moderate cash outlay. And it's really having somebody who's a professional, knows what they're doing, helping you out, really helps a lot."