Guy_Fawkes wrote:
Im giving serious thought to the specialized, as for repairs I would be more than willing to teach myself, as well I know a few guys at work who should be able to give me a hand.
It's not hard for anybody mechanically inclined. The main thing to learn are how to adjust bearings. I do my own work, it just takes me longer than a bikeshop mech. OTOH, I don't produce some of the horror stories they do because they're usually young kids who don't give a damn, or are being pushed for speed by the owner.
Make sure the Specialized fits you.
1. Stand over the bike. Can you do so with at least an inch between the top bar and your nuts?
2. Adjust saddle height: while sitting on the bike put your
heel on the pedal at the furthest downstroke (6 o'clock) - you should be able to just reach the pedal with your leg straight and without straining. That means when you put your
toe on the pedal there will be a slight bend at the knee at the longest extension. Having the saddle too low can cause as much problem as too high - very bad for the knee. If the seat post has to be pulled up too high for a good fit, the bike is too small for you. Seat posts have a line on them to show they should not be pulled out of the seat tube further than that. (you can buy seatposts with longer extensions, but as I say that probably means the bike is too small for you).
This applies to riding on road and path. In difficult terrain you may want to drop the saddle a bit so you have more room to absorb bumps with your legs
3. Saddle fore and aft. Lots of discussion on this. The usual recomendation is KOPS - knee over pedal spindle. Ie when you have your foot on the pedal at it's most forward point in the rotation, the front of your knee should be over the middle of the pedal. But there's quite a bit of leeway here for what feels right for you. For road racing, the idea is that on short races you want to be on a higher saddle, further forward, on long races you want to be lower and further back. It's also an individual thing. Set it up like I suggested, then experiment in making very slight adjustments to see what feels better.
4. Saddle tilt. Start with saddle level (parallel to ground) and then consider tilting the nose up a degree or two. It can feel weird at first, but it does kind of lock you in place on the saddle so you don't slide forward. Takes pressure off your arms and shoulders.
5. Now look at the reach to the handle bars. You should be able to maintain a slight bend at your elbows. If your arms are straight or even worse your shoulders rounded as you stretch to reach the bars, you will really suffer on any longer ride. If the reach is too short, your arms and legs will probably interfere with each other. You can buy a different stem (part that connects bike to handlebar) for 30 bucks. You could go about an inch in either direction with a new stem. If it takes more than that for a good fit, the bike is not the right size for you.
6. Bar height. Newer bikes don't have much adjustment for bar height. You can flip over the stem or take out some spacers to lower the stem a bit. Raising it from current position is usually not feasible. But stems come in different rises - ie how much the angle up - so you can buy one with a different rise if you need to come up a bit. You can also buy steerer tube extensions to raise the whole deal. But if you have to go that route the bike is probably too small for you. As you raise the handle bars, you would usually also reduce the reach (length) of the stem, since your back would be straighter and further away from the bars.
Hope that helps.
That's some helpful stuff. Thanks, Andy!
CKA Uber 
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