Neck pain
markpotts147
Posts: 100
Been riding about 4 months now and have recently been upping my mileage. Did my first 100 miler at weekend (127 to be precise) but from about 50 miles in my neck was killing. I have noticed it before but never been this bad. Had a bike fit done a month back and feel much more powerful in the saddle but I was hoping the neck thing would have been sorted as well. Is it something that will sort itself out over time?? It's getting a bit annoying now so much so that I nearly got off my bike and threw it in the bushes 
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It sounds to me like the frame is either to small or the stem/handlebars or seat height adjustment is wrong.
I had this with a previous bike where i had really bad neck ache on longer rides, it was on an older bike I had and when I upgraded to the next one I went up in frame size and the bike properly fitted and its like sitting in an armchair.
I am not saying this will be the case as I think it can depend on so many factors, but definalty worth looking at as a start.
Cheers0 -
I have also had bad neck pain since getting a bike fit - and this is after riding for over 15 years!
Mine starts fairly quickly after only an hour or so.
The only things I have found on the web talk about bike fit which I should have sorted!
Any exercises or stretching that can be recommended?0 -
markpotts147 wrote:Been riding about 4 months now and have recently been upping my mileage. Did my first 100 miler at weekend (127 to be precise) but from about 50 miles in my neck was killing. I have noticed it before but never been this bad. Had a bike fit done a month back and feel much more powerful in the saddle but I was hoping the neck thing would have been sorted as well. Is it something that will sort itself out over time?? It's getting a bit annoying now so much so that I nearly got off my bike and threw it in the bushes
First, I would remind you that all the weight on the bike goes through the 3 contact points of hands, backside and pedals
Second note that your neck started to hurt from 50 miles
At the start of a bike ride, after warming up, the legs are fresh and so pushing a bit harder
This means more weight on the pedals and therefore less on the other points
After a while your legs start to tire and more of the weight shifts to the hands and backside. As your problem starts later in the ride, I would guess that this is involved
The relationship between weight on the hands and backside is determined by the distance from the saddle to the bars and the relative height of the saddle and bars. The problem you are getting is with the neck. This means there is too much weight going to the bars, the front of the bike. Usually to fix this the bars are raised and/or the saddle lowered. Also shortening the distance from saddle to bars will help as there is less stretching
I would guess if your bike fit led to you feeling "feel much more powerful in the saddle" that the saddle has been raised slightly and you may be able to get away with a slight drop of it.
Unfortunately raising or dropping the saddle can lead to knee problems, it's not as simple as it seems
Raising the bars on a modern ahead bike is a difficult and expensive operation
If I was you ( I have recently fixed this problem on a new bike ) I'd get an adjustable stem that allows the angle to be altered and perhaps 1cm shorter than your current one0 -
To continue..I had to shoot off just now...
The other thing to do is to do core exercises
Look up exercises like the plank, supermans, bicycle twists, stuff that is like sit ups but actually does some good, that kind of thing
Most "cycle road racing for beginners" kind of books will cover these
Here is an article by Steve Hogg about how core strength is important for bike fit
http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/the ... e-position0 -
Neck pain normally comes from three sources in my experience
1. Position is too low over the front end of the bike, neck gets pain from tilting head upwards to look far enough down the road. Solution is usually to put spacers back under the stem or get upwards-tilting stem, rotating your weight backwards by lowering saddle and so on. Or take up yoga
2. Chill wind on exposed flesh, strong side wind can also force you to lean over which can be uncomfortable after a while
3. Hunched shoulders on the bike. Get in the habit of relaxing your shoulders and every now and again get out of the saddle and stretch a little0 -
Thanks for the advice guys. Ordered a new shorter stem and will fit this in conjunction with moving the seat forward - will see if that helps.0
