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So I've just got one of Jeff's Diamond frames, been curious about the ride of these for years.
Only had it two weeks. Enjoying it; steers beautifully, loving the handlebars, manuals and wheelies like no other bike I've ever had, but I'm struggling to get it to fit correctly.
I'm pretty confident in how I set my bikes up normally: inline posts w/ 74 deg seat angles and low bars. I'm a lean 6ft with long arms and a short torso you see.
I'm trying to follow the jones philosophy of taking weight off the arms by rotating the position back a few degrees from usual, but I just can't seem to get any power output seated and the bars feel too high while standing climbing to get any leverage through them.
Do I just need to persevere and get used to this new position? Alter technique?
or alternatively: how did you set up yours in comparison to other bikes?
Sounds like you're going from one near-extreme to the other, it'll take time to get used to it and get the best from it. It did for me, still does feel pretty different after riding a more conventional mtb for a while. But climbing ability (I ride it ss a lot) and comfort is overall as good as it gets imo. I tend to climb stood up a lot more on the Jones and like it. Seem to ride hips forward more, more like a deadlift position when hauling on the bars and climbing than a hunched roadie position.
To start with I had the bars fairly low for a Jones but have raised them, from 5mm to 20mm spacers and now prefer it like that. Zero rise 90mm stem and saddle to suit me at a bit over 6', so bars are just a bit lower than saddle, maybe level at the front of the h bar.
Try angling the rear of the bars so they point to roughly in line with the rear axle.
Gives them more of a "3D" shape and easier to pull against.
There's a school of thought that loop bars work best when set a good bit higher than where you'd normally set a flat bar. What ssstu says about angling them is also spot-on (in my experience).
Thanks all,
Will persevere and play with fit a bit more.
Similar here - bring them up, then tilt them a bit. Can't fault the bars, they are great in everyway.
Fit on the bikes, it just takes time to adapt as it is so different to anything else out there.
Perhaps not the best photo, but I like my bars less angled than recommended above - roughly in line with angle of the stem. I've tried them more angled which is nice for cruising around, but I didn't like it when hauling on the bars out of the saddle. Maybe worth experimenting with the BB too. I ran my bars 'wrong' for ages, before adjusting them when it just clicked...
(My saddle is a bit low here)
Ideally I'd have more spacers under the stem too, but the frameset was second hand, an ideal excuse for buying some Ti truss forks 😉
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An update:
The bars weren't too high, they were too far away from the BB for standing climbing, a shorter stem to reduce the BB-handlebar distance has helped a huge amount.
Lack of power was actually a super draggy fat front and low pressure rear. Now running more normal 29er wheels.