Seat post/ small bike?

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Permalink Reply by Moc Artsy on October 25, 2011 at 7:34pm

A lot of the Schwinn lightweights from the 1980's had very short seat posts that don't allow for a lot of adjustment. It's easy enough to replace the seat post with a newer, longer alloy post. The size of the post's diameter should be stamped into the base of the post (e.g. 26.6, which is likely to be the size of your post).

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Permalink Reply by Kevin C Dormant on October 25, 2011 at 8:58pm

I'm certainly not an expert on fit and sizing of upright bikes, but having seen you ride it, the seat already seems a bit high for you; i.e. your hips rock side to side when you pedal. A longer seat post will only make that worse. You might be able to move the saddle fore or aft to make it feel like your knees are in the right place at the top of the pedal stroke, but that's kind of the geometry of the bike.

 

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Permalink Reply by Liz on October 26, 2011 at 8:08am

You can also look into swapping the handlebar stem.  A longer stem, that you raise or lower to you liking may give you more room for your torso

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Permalink Reply by Ash L. on October 26, 2011 at 9:59am

And as though these suggestions haven't already led you to spend enough dough on a beat up old schwinn that doesn't properly fit you, a different set of crank arms in 170 or 175mm will surely do the trick.

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Permalink Reply by Melanie K on October 26, 2011 at 11:14am

I see Amber beat me to it- the current Schwinn Voyagers now are upright comfort bikes. 

Ash L. said:

And as though these suggestions haven't already led you to spend enough dough on a beat up old schwinn that doesn't properly fit you, a different set of crank arms in 170 or 175mm will surely do the trick.

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Permalink Reply by Ash L. on October 26, 2011 at 11:16am

whoa, that's a radical re-design from the 70s ones. moving your saddle back should help some.

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Permalink Reply by mark stetson on October 27, 2011 at 1:48pm

Set your seat height by the angle of your knee at the bottom of the pedal stroke.  Your leg should be close to being straight, but you should have a bit of angle left (knee joint not locked).  Check both legs, leg length discrepancy is fairly common.  As mentioned, if you're rocking side to side, it generally indicates that the saddle is too high.

 

If after setting the saddle height correctly and getting used to it you still feel that your knees are rising uncomfortably high, shorter crank arms are the best fix.   In general, shorter legs = shorter crank arms.  I would guess your bike came with 170s.  Check the back of the arm, it's generally stamped there somewhere (around pedal hole on most Shimano). 

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Permalink Reply by Philip Garofalo on October 28, 2011 at 11:29am

I have a bike that's one size (several inches) too small for me and I fixed it by getting a longer seat post and adding handle bar end extensions. It's fine now.

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