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Welcome to my world.
Doesn't matter what I've tried with mine (Same era bike, hence very similar and slack geometry with a huge spacer stack for me) and nothing has really made the bike comfortable. The moment I hit that 70 mile mark, I'll have to get off the bike with every 10 miles to stretch out so I don't kill my tendons/spine.
I noticed that any sort of incline puts a lot of strain on the lower part of my legs, and feet like I'm overusing my calves due to the seat being so behind the BB. Always puts me out of commission for so long..I have no idea what to do. Trying riser bars one last time, then probably moving to something more appropriate.
Chak
So I’m looking for some advice with my touring build which I will be taking to Istanbul this Summer. My last ride got stolen so, short of money, I decided to build something using spares I had laying around and an old chromoly Raleigh MTB frame I found on eBay.
Photos here:
https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B02JtdOXmy9eLc
(current build thread: https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/251594)
The Raleigh frame came with some late 80s Rockshox which had a tiny amount of travel compared to modern sus forks (about 5cm) - so I was concerned that conventional rigid fork replacements would be too long and send the original geometry out of whack.
After talking to Thorn though, they dug around in their warehouse and found me a pair of out-of-production Raven touring forks, which we hoped would be neither too long or too short. Initially the ride was fine, but my reach was stretched out (think I may have cut the forks too short), so I put on a much smaller 70mm high-rise stem.
2 months ago I then took it for a short tour through Wessex, Somerset and then Snowdonia, and began getting achilles tendon pain early on. I rode through this, until I got to Snowdonia and did my first mountain where it became unbearable. I was then out of action for a few weeks and have been taking it easy since.
The obvious cause of this was having my saddle very high up, which causes you to stretch out your tendons and paddle / tiptoe as you ride. But I’m also worried that the geometry of the bike might be contributing too (it’s one thing to lower the saddle, but to have this happen again in the middle of Romania would be a disaster).
Currently my head tube angle sits at 61 degrees and my seat tube angle at 65 - which as far as I know is very slack, and would cause the bottom bracket to be much further forward from my saddle. It generally feels comfortable, but also I find climbing a little harder than on other rides.
Could the position of bottom bracket to saddle be exacerbating forces on my achilles tendons? Also will it make climbing harder? And what kind of geometry have I created here (ie. is it a monster)?
Any help much appreciated!