Arthritis!

denis06

I have today bought a Carrara hybrid bike. One my first ride my weight was forward causing my wrists to complain due to arthritis. I need to be sat more upright but I am told that the handle bars can't be raised.
Has anyone got any suggestions or suggest a different bike?

paulbox

You should be able to change your stem and/or bars to raise them up a bit.

All stems have a lengh (mm) and rise (degrees from flat). I would suggest taking the bike back to where you bought it and asking them to help you out by fitting a few different ones to see what difference they make. As it's a hybrid (and I assume that you're not going to be blasting down black runs!) you might be able to get away with an adjustable stem such as this: http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/ritc ... -prod39262
Though it is designed for use on the road so take some advice on suitability for the kind of riding that you are going to be doing. I'm sure that I have seen similar for mtb's, but the only one I can find at the moment is £126.

Bars also come with different amounts of rise, worth trawling through the web sites to find a bargain with more of a rise thn you have now.

peter413

Also worth trying some better grips. Standard grips are never usually that great I find. Might be worth considering some Ergon grips or similar. My Dad used to get really bad wrists on the bike (there's something wrong with them, forgotten the name but it isn't arthritis, similar result though) and the Ergon grips really helped him.

It's worth playing with the angle of the bars and brake levers as well, even I can get bad wrists if they are at a horrible angle and mine are fine, even Fort William doesn't make them sore, my arms and fingers on the other hand...