[John Rogers]

I noticed the original poster is in Colorado and there used to be dozens, if not more, very professional shops there? The bike needs to be adjusted correctly and the seat is generally the last item to pick. Here is how we used to do it "back in the day".

- Wear the shorts and shoes you'll be wearing.
- Set seat height initially with 3 or 4 inches out of the seat tube.
- Support the bike well and get on it and run pedal to the bottom of the stroke and there should be 10 degrees or so bend in the knee and the same with the foot pointing down about the same. If not then move the seat up or down.
- Adjust the seat front to back so a plumb line falls through the knee joint to the pedal axle when the pedal is at the front and horizontal.
- Now bend over and put your hands on the bottom of the bars and your back should be nearly flat and the elbows bent 25 to 30 degrees. This acts as a shock absorbing part for your body and keeps the hands from getting numb.
- Now sit up some and grasp the top of the bars and with elbows bent some you should be sitting fairly straight. This is what we used to use when climbing hills and I was TERRIBLE at it, I was a road race sprinter and track racer!
- If you can not be comfortable then try raising/lowering the stem/bars and you might have to switch the stem to one that is shorter or longer and has a different angle?

Back in 1983/1984 Penn State spent tons of $$$$$ checking all this stuff as a work up for the olympics and after a lot of time found these steps, which the Italians had been doing for many years were pretty much exact! I guess now there are computer programs that can calculate all these settings but when I was getting some mtn. bike tires last year the sales person in the shop still had a potential customer stand over the top tube to size the bike! Yikes!!!!