Trying out the short stem riser

I received the short stem about 2 weeks ago and I immediately swapped the medium one with the new short one. As you can see on the pictures, it does make a difference ! While the cables certainly need adjusment, they never caused any problems. Since my wife had a week off from school, we spent some days on the seaside, so I took the Z Pro with me to try out this new combination.

the medium stem riser


the short stem riser

The lower position of the handlebars feels more natural to me. It's still not as aerodynamic as I would like it to be, but it's a start. I managed to do 3 rides with a total of 150 miles in the windy flat lands and I never got uncomfortable. However, I did found out that I'll never be as fast on a CF bike than I used to be on my regular road bike, mostly because of the position of the upper body. As soon as you have to ride against the wind, the body position of the CF bike slows you down, period. You can bend your upper body a bit forward, but it will not help much. To be honest, I tried all kinds of "aerodynamic" positions, only to find out that most of them create some discomfort and/or soreness in different body parts.
Personally, I do not think that anyone on a CF bike can be as fast as someone on a road bike, unless you ride in a pack. Does this bother me ? Not really, I've never been and never will be a speed freak and I prefer comfort over speed anytime.So when it comes to the Z Pro, I'm very happy to be able to ride this bike for over 3 hours and still not feel uncomfortable or sore afterwards !

Another thing I found out this week is that it is impossible for me to ride the bike standing up. Due to the shorter stem, my knees hit the handlebar when standing up. I don't know whether it really is necessary or not, but I can think of some conditions when you wanna ride your bike standing up. In order to do so, I need to try out something different, maybe go back to the medium riser or the curved riser and change the handlebar.

Miles and miles of open roads -and a lot of wind !

Riding time ....

Due to the bad weather these last weeks, I did not ride my Z Pro much lately. Not that I did not want to, but it rained a lot and the few days that it did not, the roads stayed wet with a lot of debris. I only managed to take a ride or three, that's all :-(
Last Sunday, I took my bike to a friend of mine, who rides a regular road bike and got a hernia from riding it. I told him about my "wonderbike" so I passed by his place to show it to him. He only took a short ride on it, but couldn't feel comfy because he wasn't used to it. Anyway, while riding to his place and back, I realized that I was sitting way too low. I checked the seat post, but could not find any signs that it had slipped. I noticed that it was extended 'till the 3" mark (it is marked by inches, right ?), but that still did not mean anything because I never payed any attention to it before. Anyway, I extended the seat tube a little bit, rode a few miles, extended it some more, rode another few miles, etc. The seat tube is now stuck at the 7" mark, where my riding position feels comfortable. The only change I feel now is that I have to adjust the seat pan angle, for I tend to get a kind of recumbent butt after more than an hour on the saddle.
I still do not feel aerodynamic enough with the medium handle bar riser, so I ordered the short 3" riser to try a more bent forward position. Might not work out as I hope for, just as it did with the 7" curved riser, but I'm willing to try it out anyway. To be continued ....