First long cycle on road bike....few growing pains?

WilcoYHF

Hi all,

Went out on my new road bike yesterday I'm hoping to join a club in the next couple of weeks so I need to get up to speed. I planned on doing 75km but ended up doing 100km having left my keys in my parents on the way.

I have a few issues after the cycle that some of you may be able to help me with. My back was quite sore towards the end but as far as I can tell its at close to the right height (going by the slight bend in the knee when the pedal is at the lowest). Could this be anything else?

Also my neck was quite sore I'm putting this down to it being strained from looking up for three/four hour periods which its not used to and I need to strengthen the muscles up. Would I be right thinking this?

shaka

sounds like your shoulder problem might be from over stretching, saddle might need to moved little forward.
back might be saddle height, did you lbs fit you properly for your bike ?

thats a lot of cycling for a beginner , have you been doing much recently ? Most club spins shuld be winding down mileage wise this tim of year so say you will be more than fine. Are you planning sportive or racing ?

Lumen

Don't start farting around with bike fit after one long cycle. Build up slowly and see how it feels.

shaka

disagree, always have allen key with any new bike nothing wrong with tweeking

WilcoYHF

shaka wrote: »

sounds like your shoulder problem might be from over stretching, saddle might need to moved little forward.
back might be saddle height, did you lbs fit you properly for your bike ?

thats a lot of cycling for a beginner , have you been doing much recently ? Most club spins shuld be winding down mileage wise this tim of year so say you will be more than fine. Are you planning sportive or racing ?

Up until may I would have headed up the Wicklow mountains for a few hours on my old bike which was a rubbish hybrid from halfords. I had to stop because I lost all confidence that it would get me back!!

I wouldn't say my lbs fitted me properly, I'm not sure what a proper fitting is they did go through a few things like sitting me on the bike checking if I could see the hub of the front wheel. I think I'll lower it a small bit.

I definitely felt like I was over stretching when I had my hands on the hoods I was stretching as far as possible so I'll move the saddle forward. Thanks

It's not really the distance I'm worried about its the climbs the gearing on the bike is a lot higher than I'm used to, I suppose it will just take time getting used to. I wouldn't mind doing some racing but haven't a clue if I'll be good enough.

manwithaplan

Lumen wrote: »

Don't start farting around with bike fit after one long cycle. Build up slowly and see how it feels.

I agree with this. It takes a while to get used to the new position. Wait a while and maybe get a proper bike fit done when you have a better idea.

funnights74

You seem to be close as regards the right frame size but thats only the beginning, if possible get a total frame adjustment done.Tweeking the headset, saddle, pedals etc could vastly improve your performance. There are a few guys out there who do this and it can make the world of difference.

Lumen

WilcoYHF wrote: »

I definitely felt like I was over stretching when I had my hands on the hoods I was stretching as far as possible so I'll move the saddle forward

As your core muscles get tired you will naturally "shorten up". It's not necessarily a good idea to adapt your bike fit to how you feel at the end of a ride.

Also, bear in mind that if you move the saddle forward that will shorten your effective saddle height (distance to pedals), which will have knock-on effects for your knees. You can move the saddle up a bit to compensate, however, moving yourself forward increases loading on your arms and shoulders, and may make neck pain worse.

If you think about your balance on the bike around the saddle, your arse counterbalances your upper body. You can feel the effect of this by standing with your arms out - your arse will naturally move back to balance yourself. If you move your arse in you'll fall over.

The biggest cause of visits to physios is overuse, i.e. ramping up too quickly. This is why most problems referred to physios will resolve themselves after a few weeks of rest anyway.

feck sake lads

eddie merckx never left home without a spanner in his jersey pocket.;)

smacl

WilcoYHF wrote: »

Up until may I would have headed up the Wicklow mountains for a few hours on my old bike which was a rubbish hybrid from halfords. I had to stop because I lost all confidence that it would get me back!!

I moved from a hybrid to road bike this year, albeit with the road bike on a turbo over the winter. The change in position took a bit of getting used to, and while I did have shoulder a neck twinges starting out with a bit of tweaking and lots of KMs on the road, and some good advice on set-up, they've all disappeared. FWIW, the road bike is now much more comfy than the hybrid, and starting out I didn't think it would be. Personally, I use the drops more than the hoods, but that's possibly down to the bike being a bit small for me. Moving around between hoods, drops and tops also gives you a change of position which provides relief to muscles getting used to the new setup.

I terms of finding a good set-up, there's some great articles out there if you search, and I found the turbo to be a brilliant tool to help tweak position.

It's not really the distance I'm worried about its the climbs the gearing on the bike is a lot higher than I'm used to, I suppose it will just take time getting used to. I wouldn't mind doing some racing but haven't a clue if I'll be good enough.

I wimped out, and got plenty of low gears for the hills, which works fine for me. Maybe consider putting a bigger cassette in (e.g. 13-28 or even 12-30) for the hills. If you find you've more gears than you need, you can always swap back, and cassettes are cheap enough.

biomech

+1 on the seat position, just like yourself i started road biking recently with plenty mountain biking done. i put the initial neck and back discomfort down to "weakness" in the new position. i left all alone, and it improved as i got stronger but didnt go away. eventually i moved my saddle forward and bingo.... worked for me but i would say dont move too much at one time. 1 move then 2 or 3 rides later tweek again if you still have probs.

thebouldwhacker

You could also shorten your stem.