Lowered stem - Neck ache

Spooked

Possibly a daft question.....

I had 40mm of stem spacers on my road bike. Ive dropped the stem by one 20mm spacer and suffered a sore neck on a 20 mile ride.

Is it just that I need to get used to it and let the neck muscles strengthen. I realise its a bit difficult on a forum to say yes or no.

Just wondering if im likely to get used to it?

Cheers,

foggymike

It depends where you started from and what the scope for adjustment is (flexibility, position, head tube length etc), but no matter what 2cm in one go is a big change and if it hurts it's not right. I'd have dropped it 5mm first, got used to that and then looked at dropping more in small steps if needed.

BrandonA

You have 3 options:

1) Leave things as they are and see if things improve. Your body may get used to the lower condition and the pain will stop. If the pain is unbearable though this might not be an option.
2) Put things back to the original configuration and forget about making changes
3) Gradually lower the bars one spare at a time. You body may adapt to smaller changes in high without causing the main it has to one larger drop

I'm sure someone will tell you to get a bike fit )

drlodge

As above, try lowering by 5mm at a time and see how you go.

dabber

drlodge wrote:

As above, try lowering by 5mm at a time and see how you go.

That's what I've been gradually doing over the last few weeks. I started off (with new bike) with 5 x 5mm spacers below the stem and 1 x 5mm above.
I'm now down to 1 below and did a 75 miler last weekend with no problems.

I'm now going to cut the steerer to allow for 1 spacer below and 2 on top just to give me the flexibility to be able to raise the stem a bit later on if I feel I've been too cavalier in reducing the stem height.

Spooked

Cool. I will persist for a couple more rides and if it's still sore raise it up a bit. Didn't know if it was a case of mtfu.