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

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Paul Davis
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-

Quoted message said:

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-

Quoted message said:

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

You have to be smarter than a robot to reply.