forearm ache!

Revhound
Revhound Posts: 25
edited April 2014 in Health, fitness & training
Hi,
Since getting my new bike i have been getting an aching pain in my forearms after about 20 mins. Its the same pain i get on my motorcycle when stuck in traffic and driving slowly for a long time. I deduced a long time ago that because i ride a sports bike with rearsets my weight is pushing down on my arms causing this,obviously cured by speeding up :wink: . Now this is not possible on my mountain bike so what can i do to cure this. I have thought a shorter stem might help by bringing my reach in,making my stance more upright thus lowering forward weight on to my arms . Is this correct and if so is there anything else i can try?

Thanks!

Comments

  • kajjal
    kajjal Posts: 3,380
    It is easy enough to raise and bring the handlebars closer to you. You can buy a shorter, higher ride stem and also move all the spaces to the bottom in the headset.

    One thing to try first is flipping you stem to the upright position as this reduces reach and increases the height. If this seems to be moving in the right direction then you can always buy a more appropriate stem later. Just be aware of how this can affect the bikes handling but to be honest this is normally minimal and out weighed by the better fit of the bike.
  • Revhound
    Revhound Posts: 25
    Kajjal wrote:
    It is easy enough to raise and bring the handlebars closer to you. You can buy a shorter, higher ride stem and also move all the spaces to the bottom in the headset.

    One thing to try first is flipping you stem to the upright position as this reduces reach and increases the height. If this seems to be moving in the right direction then you can always buy a more appropriate stem later. Just be aware of how this can affect the bikes handling but to be honest this is normally minimal and out weighed by the better fit of the bike.

    Thanks i shall try that. And i suppose if it still is not enough i can try higher rise bars with a shorter length as well?
  • kajjal
    kajjal Posts: 3,380
    You can also get adjustable stems which allow you to change the position until it suits you and then buy a suitable normal stem afterwards. Unless your bike is a fair bit too small for you your bars should be fine, the stem is the cheaper easier fix.

    Sorry my previous post was a bit hard to read the spell checker got to it :)

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