Riding with neck problems

simonp123

Well, 7 months after first having terrible arm, neck and shoulder pains, numbness etc I finally get to the bottom of it, 2 damaged vertebrae in my neck causing them to dig in to my spinal cord, and also squeezing the nerves to my left arm. Basically I have a reversal of the curvature in my neck, so from now on need to be very careful with posture and shocks according the Chiropractor. :roll: Still waiting to see the Orthopaedic Surgeon to see what he has to say.

Luckily most of the pain and all of the numbness went after about 3-4 months (Couldn't even change gear in the car for the first month!), so I have been able to ride the towpaths since then, but nothing “proper” offroad.

Wonder if anyone else had had similar issues and how this has affected your ability to ride offroad?
I am loath to give up having only got into it 2 years ago, but don't want to cause further damage or aggravate anything. Mind you I did sneak off for a proper offroad run at the local trail centre after I got bored waiting for my MRI results to come back!.

Currently I ride a hardtail and you do get quite a lot of shocks up through the spine, so am wondering if a full suspension bike would ease things a bit and take out some of the shocks but still allow me to ride? I've not ridden a full suspension bike, so not sure how much difference it makes.

.blitz

Not sure how much difference a FS would make to you. In the words of the car people there's less noise, vibration and harshness compared to a HT but there's still a lot of trail feedback.

Why not hire one? Most trail centres have FS bikes @ £30 or so for a few hours.

paulbox

Glad to hear things are on the mend. I also suffer from back/neck pains, not as seriously as you, but I find even canal paths (evening rides to the pub...) more comfortable on a full suspension bike.

When you get the ok from the medical people, just get a demo bike from your lbs and see how it feels to you.

ireland57

I have some neck issues as well and understand where you're at.
Mine is nerve damage caused by a rear-ender car crash, drag racing, work (installing ceiling sheets; holding tight up to battens using head as clamp [was common practice]).

The damage is permanent and I was advised by both doctor and physio to stop hard physical work for a living.

I still suffer problems with it but ride pretty much when and where I choose.
At worst I get neck/shoulder pain after a 3 hr off road ride or maybe after a quick and hard downhill.

Switching to a softtail (Trance X3) made a huge difference to my enjoyment of riding.
I've had to do a lot of work (still doing) with posture, stretching etc but the rides are getting longer and faster.

The Trance is more of a "sit-upright" position than say an Anthem; it's a comfy bike (so I'm told).

It still climbs hills brilliantly and does all I ask of it.

simonp123

.blitz wrote:

Not sure how much difference a FS would make to you. In the words of the car people there's less noise, vibration and harshness compared to a HT but there's still a lot of trail feedback.

Why not hire one? Most trail centres have FS bikes @ £30 or so for a few hours.

It's the bumps though the saddle that concern me the most, the front end stuff gets absorbed by my arms, but any bumps from the saddle whilst pedalling over bumps goes straight up through the spine into my neck. It doesn't actually cause pain, but it can't be good. I'm guessinf that FS would reduce the harsh impacts a fair bit.

simonp123

ireland57 wrote:

I have some neck issues as well and understand where you're at.
Mine is nerve damage caused by a rear-ender car crash, drag racing, work (installing ceiling sheets; holding tight up to battens using head as clamp [was common practice]).

The damage is permanent and I was advised by both doctor and physio to stop hard physical work for a living.

I still suffer problems with it but ride pretty much when and where I choose.
At worst I get neck/shoulder pain after a 3 hr off road ride or maybe after a quick and hard downhill.

Switching to a softtail (Trance X3) made a huge difference to my enjoyment of riding.
I've had to do a lot of work (still doing) with posture, stretching etc but the rides are getting longer and faster.

The Trance is more of a "sit-upright" position than say an Anthem; it's a comfy bike (so I'm told).

It still climbs hills brilliantly and does all I ask of it.

Cool, sounds like you have similar problems, they reckon mine looks like an old whiplash injury, but I'm not aware of having one. Also my job designing electronics doean't help. Lots of bending over soldering using probes, computer work etc.
If you found that full suss helped then it probably would with me.

I'm thinking of taking the bits off my Kona Blast that are good (upgraded a lot of stuff, fork, wheels etc) and buy a FS frame to fit it all on to.