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**The Monk** · 07-30-2016, 01:04 PM

Re: My first road bike - Cannondale CAAD8 (2013, with Tiagra and Sora Triple Crank)

I am glad that you are starting this thread 4 months after you bought the bike. You can now give more insightful information about the difference you experienced riding this compared to your MTB for brevets, commuting, training and all.

Looking forward for more posts from you about your bike

And you surely deserved a road bike man, what with the number of kilometres you were clocking up on tarmac!

Congrats

Are you using cleats?

**dnewguy** · 07-30-2016, 01:38 PM

Re: My first road bike - Cannondale CAAD8 (2013, with Tiagra and Sora Triple Crank)

Originally posted by sayi89 View Post

I'm updating this very late, four months after getting my bike.But it is better late than never.

Part-1 :

..........Posting his views about selecting a bike is my main intention in starting this thread.

Congrats on your road bike.
I don't possess much know-how when it comes to cycling.
But after reading about the difference in road bikes and mtb i realized why i was not able to ?out-peddle my friend on his bsa-slr back in college

Anyways what is LEL on MTB ?
Secondly is their some authority which gives out recognition for completing brevets like we have IBA with Saddle sores and Bun burners ?!
Thirdly by Cleats you mean the football shoes ?

Cheers.

**Kaushik Iyer** · 07-30-2016, 02:43 PM

Re: My first road bike - Cannondale CAAD8 (2013, with Tiagra and Sora Triple Crank)

Congrats Sayi on getting the Caad. Glad that the conversations we had helped you. I'm certain that once you dial your fit in you'll instantly realize what you were missing on a MTB in those endurance miles.

While I have my reservations about triple cranks (I did use them initially on my Surly too) but realized they did no good unless the climbs were more than 12%-15% for a very long time, instead I focused on getting better at climbing. Anyway that is something you'll figure out the more you ride and more you train on the road bike.

right now just enjoy what you have and try to pay attention to the minute nuances and difference of roadbike to the MBT.

**sayi89** · 08-01-2016, 03:24 PM

Re: My first road bike - Cannondale CAAD8 (2013, with Tiagra and Sora Triple Crank)

Originally posted by dnewguy View Post

Congrats on your road bike.
I don't possess much know-how when it comes to cycling.
But after reading about the difference in road bikes and mtb i realized why i was not able to ?out-peddle my friend on his bsa-slr back in college

Anyways what is LEL on MTB ?
Secondly is their some authority which gives out recognition for completing brevets like we have IBA with Saddle sores and Bun burners ?!
Thirdly by Cleats you mean the football shoes ?

Cheers.

Thank you

I really needed to answer these first to avoid further confusions to you .

Firstly, cleats are not foot ball shoes. They are cycling shoes locked to pedal for more efficient pedaling and hence faster riding. Shoes will have a attachment to lock with pedals.

LEL is London Edinburg London. It is a 1400 Km brevet that is going to happen next year. LEL on MTB is that I planned to ride LEL on my MTB.

Here in India there is AIR ( Audax India Randonnuers ) which looks after all randonnuering events. A look at AIR website will give you lot of idea about brevets.

Yeah, there are differences between those bikes. Due to light weight and thin tyres, usually road bikes are faster.But finally it all depends on the rider.

**sayi89** · 08-04-2016, 01:01 PM

Re: My first road bike - Cannondale CAAD8 (2013, with Tiagra and Sora Triple Crank)

Originally posted by The Monk View Post

Congrats

Are you using cleats?

Thank you Monk.

No, not on cleats yet. Didn't find any convincing reason to use them yet.Also couldn't afford add ons right now. Using strapped pedals now. Will discuss about them in later. Many a times they are giving me a good push in climbing.

Originally posted by Kaushik Iyer View Post

Congrats Sayi on getting the Caad. Glad that the conversations we had helped you. I'm certain that once you dial your fit in you'll instantly realize what you were missing on a MTB in those endurance miles.

While I have my reservations about triple cranks (I did use them initially on my Surly too) but realized they did no good unless the climbs were more than 12%-15% for a very long time, instead I focused on getting better at climbing. Anyway that is something you'll figure out the more you ride and more you train on the road bike.

right now just enjoy what you have and try to pay attention to the minute nuances and difference of roadbike to the MBT.

Yes, Kaushik. The information really helped a lot in understanding know how. But somehow, because of my anxiety to gett my butt on saddle of a road bike, couldn't experiment or learn more. As of now, I did not notice much change in the way I climb. I have to practice and learn a lot. Also yeah, now all my attention was on observing the differences and enjoying the speed sometimes.

Part-2 : Q & A ( The conversations):

I have been offereda cannondale Caad 8 , size 51 with Tiagra and triple chain ring and continentaltires.
I was told that itis barely used. I will get to see it on Monday.
My height is5'7". Endurance is my main purpose.
So my doubt is whatshould I check in a road bike to see if it fits me or not ? next how do Iverify if the components are in good condition.
Your suggestion willbe very helpful

Well traditionallyfor endurance people go with a size bigger than recommended for having anon-agressive fit. But many Roadbikes today are mostly designed for Sportives.For your height a regular 52 Size will have good fit & endurance or ultradistance 54 would be better. But it totally depends on the bikes' geometryalso. How are the head angles & seat angles.

While CAAD 8 is apretty good bike I'd try to find Giant Defy Or a Bianchi or Fuji Altamira whichare better for Sportives & endurance. The issue with sizing is I'm used toa more traditional way of sizing i.e. Effective TT length Centre to centre. Butmany manufacturers since they use compact geometry refer to sizing differently.Hence I can't say if the label of 51 in Caad8 translates to what exactdimensions. hence I'd suggest you to ride a few different sized bikes.

Asto what to look for in fit on a Roadbike... couple of quick things is after yousetup the bike to your saddle height etc. when you ride in drops try to feel ifyour back is getting crouched & stomach is under pressure. - this means itsa very small bike ideally for racing. And again in drops if your back isreverse arching towards the ground & you're neck strains for lookingstraight ahead or if you're unable to look to the sky due while in drops meansthe bike is too big your back is fully extended.

A right fit is atrial n error find but to see if the bike is resonably in the range, means onceyou sit youre able to move the neck freely. have a slight crouch in the backallowing you to flex it at will, elbows are slightly bent & freely movable &the pelvis is free to rotate from a forwards position to backwards position.

Thanksfor a quick response and sharing ways to figure out fit.
I will consider youropinion on choosing a bigger frame. Also will ride and see this , at least toget on road bike saddle for first time.
Iwill share that experience. I'm still not sure, why I wanted to go for a roadbike, probably my mind is pissed off by roadies overtaking every time inbrevets .I haven't done any research before or never given a thought as budget is always aconstraint. Bit low pricing and triple chain ring got me tempted now. I tired to insert CAAD 8 geometry picture, but this message is notletting me do that. You can find it here

yeahroad bikes are far more efficient than hybrids or MTB for endurance riding.

Thegeometry looks good & pretty close between 51 & 54. Though the onlythings that would make a difference are the Heat-tube angle & the seat tubeangle & then finally trail. While you may think that a few degrees will notmake much of a difference it actually does a lot. The good thing is the Headangle is only slightly different But the seat angle will probably make this abit more harsher on the rear than a 54, coz that's one whole degree steeperthan the 54.

to be honest you cangive this a shot & probably offset the harsher ride with a Leather saddle(possibly) but then don't my word for it. I'm a bit old school on these things.You'll have try them and the perfect mix of a good ride will be a trial &error process.

I got a chance toride bike yesterday. After clocking too many miles on MTB, the road bike handlesuddenly appeared like a video game joy stick and very narrow.
Height wise it isalright. But with regards to hands , I had problem with reach initially.
First I went on toride with 110 mm stem. I had to bend a lot. Then they fitted 55mm stem. Itseemed absolutely fine I felt the bike suited me.
Will go for a longerride 50 or 100 km and will see if there is a problem when I ride longer.
There are noscratches on bike, except one small rectangular scratch on chainstay.
Wella 55mm stem is a very small stem.

oneof the best ways to check your reach quickly is after you adjusted the saddleas per preference; keep you elbow on the nose of the saddle & keeping yourarm straight, palm facing up & fingers extended ... try to see where theend of the Fingers reach on the stem.
Anideal reach is fingers reaching the steerer tube, though many endurance ridersprefer the reach at the middle of the stem.

Anideal stem length is the distance between the topmost part of your fingers tothe thumb when the thumb is extended outwards like making an "L"

Anideal seat height is leaning over the bike with your armpit on the saddle &your extended arm reaching to the bottom bracket.

These are old schoolmethods of bike fitting which is how I prefer it.

Yesterday, Mechanicmoved the saddle forward. So now when I kept elbow on nose and tried to reachstem, the fingers are going little beyond stem. Does this mean anything ?should I move the saddle back or extend the stem to 70 or 80 mm ?

Also when I keptarmpit on saddle and reached bracket bottom bracket , again fingers arecrossing BB. Does that mean saddle height also needs to be adjusted?

or overall the framedoesn't suit me ? The only thing that is confusing me is overall, in shortrides I'm not able to know anything, except feeling amazing on the bike !!

Hmm...see it's difficult to say.

Firstlywhy did the mechanic move the saddle? was it to shorten reach?

See..saddle fore-aft should purely be from the perception or pedaling OR measurementof Knee or Pedal. it should not be moved front or rear otherwise.

Reachshould be adjusted with changing stem length, it should never be done foradjusting reach other than a few mm.

fingers crossing bya small margin is fine - like the length of your nail. But if it's going to themiddle of you fingers then it's too short. Same thing for BB height. if itcrosses the BB by the length of nails then ok more means height is wrong.

Agood starting point for a bike fit Road/ or any is with saddle position - firstheight then Fore/Aft position. Once that is done then move to reach adjustment& stem height.

but keep in mindthat a right feel of the fit comes only after a good amount of riding on thatbike. it depends both on the rider & the geometry & the riderpreference, though it's important to start with a generally right bike size.

After the conversations I have taken the bike finally. In next post I will share my experiences, add on and experiments I did with the bike.

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My first road bike - Cannondale CAAD8 (2013, with Tiagra and Sora Triple Crank)

My first road bike - Cannondale CAAD8 (2013, with Tiagra and Sora Triple Crank)

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