Ride Position

In article <[email hidden]>,

Paul Davis said:

I know that getting the correct ride position has a lot to do with personal
preferance and type of riding done but would like a bit of advice.

I ride manly on-road and lots of rough country roads and tracks and trails
with some light off-road. I've always liked a fairly stretched position and
ride a 20" On-One Inbred (mountain bike frame) which feels spot on for the
sort of riding I do. The On-One site recommends 80-105mm stems for 20"
Inbreds but I have a 110mm Easton EA50 stem with 10 degree rise fitted and
On-One XC riser bars. At 6' tall this is a little on the long side according
to On-One recommendations but feels right for the type of riding I do and
came about after riding with an adjustable stem for a while.

This gives a postion where my back is flat and roughly 40 degrees to
upright, arms roughly 90 degree to the torso and a slight bend in the elbows
with weight distributed (at a guess) roughly 60:40 saddle to bars. This
seems to fit in with most articles on bicycle fit that I have read.

When riding gently and looking at the scenery the position feels a tad
stretched but when head down and hammering

Keep your head up.

Quoted message said:

or pedaling out of the saddle it
sometimes feels like I could do with an extra bit of length in the stem.

Out of the saddle comfort also depends on getting bar height right,
not just reach.

Quoted message said:

I was wondering what people think, I have recently had a small amount of
neck pain (not bad at all) which seems to come from raising the head to look
forward (although it could just be the sudden increase in riding with the
hot weather) and a slight tingling in my fingers after long, rough rides.

What's the longest ride you've done in this position? If you get neck pain
regularly then you have over-shot the mark and need to get a shorter
stem. You didn't mention how you came up with your saddle position - you
need to be pretty confident in that before you really know where the
bars need to be. It sounds like your stem is too long. Try a shorter
one, and try it high and low.

All the manufacturer recommendations, magazine articles, and other
rules of thumb are worthless if your body vetoes the position.

--Paul

Paul Davis said:

I ride manly on-road and lots of rough country roads . . .

Dear Paul,

Some typos are just too good to ignore.

Carl Fogel

Paul Davis said:

I know that getting the correct ride position has a lot to do with
personal preferance and type of riding done but would like a bit
of advice.
I ride manly on-road and lots of rough country roads and tracks and
trails with some light off-road. I've always liked a fairly stretched
position and ride a 20" On-One Inbred (mountain bike frame) which feels
spot on for the sort of riding I do. The On-One site recommends 80-105mm
stems for 20" Inbreds but I have a 110mm Easton EA50 stem with 10 degree
rise fitted and On-One XC riser bars. At 6' tall this is a little on the
long side according to On-One recommendations but feels right for the
type of riding I do and came about after riding with an adjustable stem
for a while.
This gives a postion where my back is flat and roughly 40 degrees to
upright, arms roughly 90 degree to the torso and a slight bend in the
elbows with weight distributed (at a guess) roughly 60:40 saddle to
bars. This seems to fit in with most articles on bicycle fit that I
have read.
When riding gently and looking at the scenery the position feels a tad
stretched but when head down and hammering or pedaling out of the
saddle it sometimes feels like I could do with an extra bit of length
in the stem.
I was wondering what people think, I have recently had a small amount of
neck pain (not bad at all) which seems to come from raising the head to
look forward (although it could just be the sudden increase in riding
with the hot weather) and a slight tingling in my fingers after long,
rough rides.
I guess that no setup is optimum in all situation. What do people think?
Thanks, PJay

One of the addtional benefits of riser bars is that you can use them to
try a closer position by rolling the rise to you. Remember to adjust
your brake levers and properly tighten things down. What is the spacer
configuration on your fork. If you have any left above the stem you can
swap it/them to under the stem, again remembering to properly secure
things... and you might also find that your cables don't reach like they
should. The other posting from the other Paul had very good points and
some extremely important questions.

--

daveornee said:

One of the addtional benefits of riser bars is that you can use them to
try a closer position by rolling the rise to you.

I have a vision in my head of tall-rise bars (a la bmx) with an
adjustable threadless stem attached to a threaded->threadless
adapter. In addition to all sorts of normal height adjustment, you'd
have a major range of independent height and reach combinations in a
collapsible system...the whole thing would fold down or expand up,
rotate forward or back. Just loosen everything, hold the bars where
you want them, let adjustments fall as they may, and have somebody
tighten everything.
--
Rick Onanian

Paul Davis wrote in part:

<< I have recently had a small amount of
neck pain (not bad at all) which seems to come from raising the head to look
forward (although it could just be the sudden increase in riding with the
hot weather) and a slight tingling in my fingers after long, rough rides. >>

Sounds to me like your stem might be a tiny bit long or you could to raise the
bars just a bit. But since you sound fundamentally comfortable you might want
to just let it slide and get used to it. Do you wear a baseball cap when you
ride?

Robert

RE/

Quoted message said:

I have a vision in my head of tall-rise bars (a la bmx) with an
adjustable threadless stem attached to a threaded->threadless
adapter. In addition to all sorts of normal height adjustment, you'd
have a major range of independent height and reach combinations in a
collapsible system.

True, but the spontaneous reach adjustment that sometimes happens under hard
braking takes all the fun out of it. Been there....
--
PeteCresswell

Paul Davis said:

I was wondering what people think, I have recently had a small amount
of neck pain (not bad at all) which seems to come from raising the
head to look forward (although it could just be the sudden increase
in riding with the hot weather) and a slight tingling in my fingers
after long, rough rides.

I realized after a long time that I'd been raising my head in the wrong way
( for me at least) I kind of stretched my neck out as I tilted my head up.
Sort of having my head high above everything else. This was always
uncomfortable and I had a hard time looking over my shoulder, without
letting go with one hand.
Now I try to shorten my neck and just tilt my head up in front of me instead
of above me. This put a totally diffeent stress on my neck that so far does
not feel half as uncomfortable. When looking back I don't look over my
shoulder but more like beside my shoulder.
--
Perre

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