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Now, I'm starting to think that the Pompino, with it's slack seat tube angle, just isn't right for someone - like me - with short arms?
Your arms are not something which should influence your saddle set back. Bike fitting starts by putting your arse in the right place relative to the bottom bracket, and then puts the bars where you can reach them. If you move your saddle forward to try to reach the bars, you just create new problems which are worse than the old ones.
There's nothing wrong with using short stems, we can adapt quickly to riding bikes with our hands anywhere from 8" in front of the steering axis to 8" behind it. It's only tradition which dictates that drop bars are mounted on a stem about 20% of the top tube length.
(with risers anyway)
Risers reduce your reach by about 4-6" compared with riding on the hoods on drops.
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gbj_tester
Having some trouble getting comfortable on a Large Pompino. I bought it to replace my Triban 3, which I always felt too stretched out on over its 580mm top tube. I thought the L pomp would be fine, with an effective tt of 565mm. But, when I ride it, the the hoods still feel too far away, resulting in lower back pain.
I've got compact drop bars with short reach and a 90mm stem flipped with the bars angled up to the point where they just look gross. I don't think a shorter stem will make much difference and in any case don't wanna go shorter than 90mm really.
Thing is, I'm 6ft 1 (about 186cm), so I can't imagine an M would work. Having measured my 'ape index', it's negative, so I'm a bit of T-Rex.
Now, I'm starting to think that the Pompino, with it's slack seat tube angle, just isn't right for someone - like me - with short arms? I need the saddle high coz I've got relatively long legs, but, with seat tube angle being slack, that pushes the saddle even further away from the bars.
I imagine a bike with a more vertical seat tube would suit me better? Hopefully someone more knowledgeable can comment. Incidentally, I recently acquired a size 55 Tokyo Fixed Dart v2, which should, by all accounts too short. Haven't ridden it properly yet as waiting on a fork, but, its effective tt of 553mm seemed great (with risers anyway).
Any help much appreciated, ta.