Yet another lower back pain question

badhorsy
badhorsy Posts: 107
edited May 2011 in Road beginners
Hi all,
looking for some advice.

I've been playing around with my bike fit for a while in an attempt to get rid of the lower back pain that I start experiencing on rides of 15 miles +.
I'm 6'1 on a 58cm Specialized Secteur.

I've set up the saddle so that my knee is correctly over the pedal axle, and my seat height has been set so that my leg is mostly locked when my heel is on the pedal, and with a slight angle when I'm clipped in. My reach, I originally thought was a little much, since I could see the front hub behind the stem. I've since shortened the stem (from 110mm to 90mm) and the front hub is now occluded. I've also played around with flipping the stem up, to provide a more upright riding position (even though I actually find the racier downward stem position more comfortable).
The bike feels perfectly comfortable and seems well fit, but I still get terrible back pain.

I went through a phase thinking that it might just be my core strength. I'm just back from Majorca though, where I rented a carbon "Centurion Gigadrive" - they took my measurements and gave me a 56cm one. I did almost 80 miles a day, with no back pain whatsoever.

Any advice on what I could look at changing next? Or should I just save my pennies for a London based bike fit....


Thanks

Comments

  • rc856
    rc856 Posts: 1,144
    I think a bike fit is the way to go or can you find a cycling based physio?
    I had a bike fit a year or so ago but when I was getting knee pain recently, I found a physio who used to race and has/does physio for cycling teams.
    On the first appointment he did a bike assessment which was just the same as the bike fit.

Categories