How Many Bikes You Own

[handlebar]

With the drop handlebars, the Sagres riding position was already in a pretty low position. I never used it for sprinting, but the position was good for marathons and long distance. For causal rides I'd use the brake levers for a hand rest, which they were designed for and made it easy to use the brakes with your middle and ring fingers. It's an easy bike to cruise on at 20 to 25mph, and I personally know it was stable at 50mph going downhill, though hitting a bump or pothole at that speed probably would have been fatal.

I've found more than one article about bike fitting. You want the seat as high as possible without straightening your leg so far that you rock your pelvis forward. That's usually the height from which you can just reach the bottom pedal with your heel. Then you check the fore-and-aft position by assuming your riding position with the ball of your foot on the forward level pedal (3 or 9 o'clock, depending on how you view it). A plumb line should show that the end of your knee is above the spindle.

With a laser plumb line, that's exactly what I got with a layback seat on my Radrunner. The Evryjourney also gives me that position. I imagine that's true of your Sagres.

I was in first grade when I began putting in miles on a Jackson. Later, I rode a similar Huffy Sportsman what was also in the family. I was 14 by the time I had $20 to buy my own decrepit looking Jackson, which had cost $10 new. When I got home, my homicidal brother deliberately hit the back of my front wheel with a basketball. I was probably going 10 mph, in high gear. One might have expected the wheel to veer out from under me, and I would be thrown headlong. My riding position was so stable that the wheel didn't deviate noticeably. However, the decrepit fender crumpled, locking the wheel and causing the bike to go end over end. Because of my stable relationship to the bars, as they went down, I could somersault over them, landing neatly on my feet. I like a bike that handles that way!

I guess I leaned forward about 25 degrees, similar to the position on British and German motorcycles in those days. It didn't reduce air drag much. Nowadays there are flat bars with prongs out front so the rider can choose between stability-comfort and low drag.