Neck Discomfort While Cycling

**Timbuk2**

Hi all

When I'm going on long cycles, the back of my neck often expierences discomfort. This is probably due to me having to raise my head to look ahead at the road - if I kept my neck in line with my body I would be looking somewhere near my front wheel!

How do I help this? It isn't painful, just discomfort - also it sometimes remains after I'm off the bike, but it eventually goes away

I'm guessing wearing a helmet doesn't help, but not wearing one isn't really an option.

Thanks for the help,
Tim

TinyExplosions

My guess is that your bars are too low in relation to your saddle. Quick remedy could be flipping the stem so it's pointing up instead of down (assuming it's going down atm), or by adding spacers under the stem (if your steerer tube is long enough)

uberwolf

varying your position will help here.

top, hoods and drops.

Do it consciously for a while and it'll kick in for you.

jautukas87

I felt same thing. But I think neck muscles are not used to the position. Now I almost don't feel anything. It's just getting used to it.

roadmanmad

i had this for years and can be annoying. I have since removed the visors from the helmets and the extra increase in visible range helps considerably. I also rotated neck and left arm every 20-30 minutes to stave off the very nagging pain. try it.

Lumen

I suffer also, a few random thoughts....

A quick test - make sure you are able to rotate your head up a bit (maybe 5-10 degrees) from your normal cycling position. If not, you are probably hyperextending your neck, and need to adapt your position.

A physio said to me something like "try and keep your head and neck in line, with chin tucked in i.e. like pinoccio being pulled up on a string".

Try and keep your shoulders neutral, i.e. not rounded forwards. Look with your eyeballs, not your head - look almost through your eyebrows if necessary. Hopefully this will not result in eyeball ache.

I don't suffer on group rides, probably because I'm looking around more.

irishmotorist

I get this also and have found that stretching the back of my neck by holding my chin to my chest before a cycle helps a bit. Also, remembering to do that from time to time and stretching from left to right while on the bike helps.

I saw one tip here last week for making climbing easier and I adopted it for this and I feel made a big difference to me on a long one last week. When climbing, I've kept much more of my concentration on straight down or on the short distance. This removing attention from mid/long distance is OK when climbing as I'm not going as fast. I'd guess that climbing is more stressful on the body so by keeping my neck extended during this time is more stressful on the neck than when just going along. Keeping the neck relaxed during this more-stressful part of a ride will help give a longer time before strain kicks in. This could be BS, but I felt it worked for me a bit.

rottenhat

I get this also and it's rotten. Dave Tansey (Joe Daly's) reckoned it might be to do with having the handlebars angled too far down, straining the arms to hold my hands in a weird position and leading to strain in the shoulders. Rotating the bars upwards has helped a bit but I couldn't say the problem has gone.

TinyExplosions

Lumen wrote: »

A quick test - make sure you are able to rotate your head up a bit (maybe 5-10 degrees) from your normal cycling position. If not, you are probably hyperextending your neck, and need to adapt your position.....

Try and keep your shoulders neutral, i.e. not rounded forwards. Look with your eyeballs, not your head - look almost through your eyebrows if necessary. Hopefully this will not result in eyeball ache....

I know what dvd you've been watching...