Spare me any I Told You So's with Halfords but? I'm in pain

Rulebritania

I think the stem is the answer as I ordered one at the start of this post, I am anticipating not paying for it owing to if I had been fitted in the first place then the stem would have been put on the bike so it fit me. (we'll see)

cyberknight

Rulebritania wrote:

Monty Dog wrote:

Whilst you're probably borderline in terms of sizing, flipping and maybe running a shorter stem will help, I also expect it's also down to a process of rider adaptation in particular needing time for the neck muscles to become accustomed to holding your head at a more horizontal angle and certainly expect it to take a few weeks to get used to it.

I started riding in August and so far 19 rides between 1-3hrs covering 194miles I would think I'd have adapted the neck muscles by now. Personally I think it's down to no being fitted to the bike in the first place. A large chain not interested in that part of a service by employing staff who aren't trained to fit as my experience indicates he stood me next the the saddle to if it was "about" hip level.

Although the basic fit of the bike might have been wrong to start with it does take a long time to adapt to a riding position.
When i started riding again i used a virtuoso with a shortened, flipped stem that gradually moved from 2 inches above saddle height to level and then around 2" below with the original stem as my body got used to riding .I now use a boardman comp for leisure riding and even after thousands of miles of riding my body is still adapting , i fitted a longer stem as i thought i felt cramped but that lead to an aching neck that only showed itself on rides of 60 + miles .Ended up with the original stem dropped down 2 spacers that gave me longer reach on the arms but not stretched to far forwardto strain the neck.
This site i found has been a great help ..
http://www.jimlangley.net/crank/bikefit.html
http://www.jimlangley.net/crank/bikefitchart.html

Mikey23

@apreading... thanks for illustrating the stem flipping thingy. ive heard the phrase many a time but never been quite sure what it meant. just had a look and my bike can do the same ...

apreading

Mikey23 wrote:

@apreading... thanks for illustrating the stem flipping thingy. ive heard the phrase many a time but never been quite sure what it meant. just had a look and my bike can do the same ...

No problem. Some of the Specialized stems are even better, with a clever shim mechanism that allows 2 or 3 different angles, so 4/6 positions when you include flipping!

Captainlip

best customer ive had so far is, "ive seen this bike on ebay and wonder if you can take your time to measure me to see if it fits"..................err no!