My new road bike, after spesh and Tredz replaced the fractured fork within 1 week! My god it feels buttery smooth but climbs like a beauty – not sure on the stem height ATM – think I might need another 10mm – sorry for the bad pic quality.

BTW Ribble have been fantastic at replacing my cracked Ribble Sportive – I still have not had any issues with Ribble in the last 3 years 8)

I am now cowling away at the replies from the STW moosive 😕

Edit – its an 09′ Frameset I got for 1/2 the price of the 2011 SL3 🙂

No argument from me. I only wish I had enough money to add a roadbike to my collection!

Turn that stem the right way up. If you wanted a shopping bike why not get a Roubaix?

Serious quesstion, asked in a demeaning fashion.

I can flip it for racing or the other way for sportives 😉 I got the team version which has a shorter tube – the price was too good so wanted to add 20mm to the stack without the need to too many collars – that’s the only reason 🙂

I haven’t sorted the geom yet – the saddle needs a little tilting down and needs a little fore/aft positioning as do the STI’s a bit – oh it also needs re-cabling.

I don’t think I am in the same league as you Njee so I am ridiculed regardless of my bike/setup 😉

Bars, stem and STIs are launching for the moon..! Please rearrange soonest.

Otherwise v nice. 🙂

Really nice – like that a lot.

Definitely not turning into a roadie with bars and stem at that height! 😉

I presume it should be like this?

Is it better to have more spacers than have the stem at an angle?

not sure on the stem height ATM – think I might need to loose another 10mm

FTFY 🙄

Is it better to have more spacers than have the stem at an angle?

less spacers and the stem the right way up 🙂

Just thinking of my back 😉 – TBH I am not used to full race position yet – but give it time 🙂

No, its simply better to have your valves aligned. Duh! 😀

This is STW – form over function around here 🙂

It does look horribly set up though (assuming it has been ‘set up’). Saddle, stem, collars, shifters and bars.

Bikes should always be photographed with the drive side crank arm forward and horizontal to the ground.

OK. In turn:

1. Saddle – horizontal would be a good start, then adjust fore/aft.
2. Stem – flipped will be better, but will have the effect of *slightly* lengthening reach.
3. Bars. Rotate them forward, so there is a horiz(ish) line from bar across the flat part of the hood. Levers should be vertical.
4. Adjust the height of the bars using the spacers to get something comfortable. 2 or 3 inches drop from the saddle will do you fine for all riding (not sure why racing and sportives need different set-ups).

Best still, take it to a decent LBS and ask them to help set you up on it. Don’t be afraid of it feeling quite different from an MTB.

I have some text someone sent to me about good positioning and have read it but not followed it yet – I am not a novice on road bikes (have had several) but this is the nicest I have had – BTW I did built this myself – but yes it does still need a lot of tinkering with the geom and perhaps I should sort it out to look like a pro 😉

Cheers for the wake up comments though 🙂

Should it have more logos? Definitely could do with more logos… The outside edge of the fork blades are bereft of logos, as are the handlebars.

Logos, I tell thee lad, logos…

LOL – The Spesh Logos are “quite” prominent arn’t they (not the reason for purchase I might add!) – one of my mates said – “is it made by Specialized” 😉

So, which was your ’embarrassed to mention purchase’ from your thread a while back; the frame or the wheels!! Looks nice. Getting my new roadie end of next week; when I do eventually get down to Dartmoor I’ll have to make a weekend of it and bring MTB & road bike!

The bars look massive – is it a small frame?

If you wanted a shopping bike why not get a Roubaix?

Come here and say that (he types, checking that his profile contains no clues as to where here is….)

Yes Martin – This is my embarrassing purchase 😳 – The frame – the wheels I had last year for Xmas from many peoples contributions 🙂 Yes we need to go for a good ride at my pace not yours Mr Iron man/Triathlon man who did very well in his race I hear?

@ Boxelder – It’s a Large frame – The bars are STD EA70’s Ergos but they have bar phat tape and gel pads so prob look a bit bigger and that and the sl longer reach they do look a bit big – the picture is on a bit of a wonk as well 😳

Nice 🙂 I’m starting to really enjoy road riding now. Not a patch on downhilling but it’s a completely different thing!

Me too – I still like the buzz of MTB but I seem to zone out doing a few hours on the road and starting to enjoy the pain now 😳

Nice bike but as others have said, sort those bars out asap they are rotated way to way backwards. Personally I don’t mind pointy-up stems (at least to the degree yours is which isn’t too bad), if the bars were right you wouldn’t notice it so much.

Thanks – it was only 2mile/10mile/2mile through a lot of mud; nothing too major!

Nah I haven’t got the geom sorted yet – nearly but as everyone had said needs still some tweaks 🙂 Oh an re-cabling – I’ll have to partly re-tape anyway 🙂

Better than mine.
Are you racing BC or in a league?

Nah – just done sportives so far but maybe getting into it a bit more 🙂 I’m not that good 🙂 ATGNI 😉

No offence OP but looking at your bike (nice bike btw), it hasn’t happened yet. But it will, and enough people have already given you the clues you need.

MTB and road riding are completely different, but very complimentary sports. Think ‘both and’ rather than ‘either or’.

For example, roady threads on this forum are about kit and tyres and camelbaks. Roady threads on roady forums are never about that. They are about ‘unknown rider just won a race is he on drugs?’ ‘why I hate Lance?”what are your predictions for the Top 37 riders in LBL?’ ‘Pat McQuaid – what a cock*’ ‘does cycling racing exist outside of Belgium?’.

When you start thinking about that shit, then you are a roady.

LOL Winterfold – point taken – I do think both and deep down I am an MTB’r at heart and I think always will be – but no I don’t think white overshoes are cool yet! And no I do not plan to shave my legs 😉

Pat McQuaid – what a cock*’

To be fair that one transcends all cycling forums

You need to sort out you tires as well, the logo should always be over the valve hole, looks right, and also helps if trying to locate a hole if punctured.

sorry jim but I like to be alternative 🙂

Check out the Road forums on Bikeforums.net, but be prepard to only show photos of your bike against a white garage door, with the cranks horizontal.

Nice Spesh anyway, it will probably take a few rides to find out what position every thing should be in, it’s got to be comfortable to you, not conform to what everybody else thinks it should be

foxyrider

not shaving your legs doesnt necessarily mean you aren’t a roady.

Elite veterans have been known to ride ‘unclean’ to hustle younger riders. And because they cant be arsed with it anymore.

Swedish Chef – good point well made. EDIT Actually looking back I see i put an asterisk there – that must be why 😀

Anyway, my view is both have their attractions and benefits and thinking in a ‘roady or mtb’ way is not good for yer kharma. Left or Right? Black or White? Front Door or Back Door? these are not questions of right or wrong…

well, it’s a start, but i don’t think it’s got quite enough branding on it.

you’re not a proper roadie until you’ve got matching jim-jams, bed linen, and under-crackers, and we can see the logo’s from space.

Last couple of winters I’ve been riding/racing cyclocross,then I bought a ‘proper’ winter road bike (got a 20 year old ss hack)and have pretty much only ridden that for the last four months (5-600k’s a month).I had been giving serious consideration to sacking off the mtb all together,buying a plastic one signing up for some sportives and crits and chasing after my road racing licenses.
Then I got out on the ss today round gwydyr for 5 hours and all the reasons I love riding bikes came flooding back.I will continue to ride on the road and I’ve got a sportive on sunday.I might even do a crit but I am offroad at the core (still shaving my legs tho).
I’ll get my competitive kicks racing bmx…at 37!