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Hand, shoulder, neck pain

Old 07-18-20, 04:47 PM
  #1  
prwood
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Hand, shoulder, neck pain

Hi all. I'm a 41yo 275lb 6'1" male rider who is experiencing pain in the hands, shoulders, and neck after rides longer than 30 minutes. I had been biking a lot more a few years ago, but have been off the bike for a while and have just started to get back on over the past few months. If I had to rank the pain on a 1-10 scale where 10 was most painful, it's probably a 5 for the most part. Not excruciating, but annoying and uncomfortable enough to make longer rides less enjoyable and make we want to take some action to fix it. My cycling goals are to be able to ride longer durations and distances on roads and bike paths. For example, a 60 mile ride in 6 10-mile intervals at 10-14mph. I'm mostly riding with my family.

I feel like I am resting most of my (considerable) upper body weight on my hands, which doesn't seem right. I can get some relief if I take my hands off of the grips (just touching the bars with my fingertips) and sit more upright, which shifts my weight onto the seat, but that doesn't work long-term because it's tricky to control the bike that way. :-) I also can alternate taking one hand off the grip and letting the arm swing if it gets too sore. However I'd like to do what I can to fix this. It seems like losing some weight would likely help, since that would mean less weight pushing down on my hands. Beyond that, I'm wondering if there are other changes I could make to my posture, excercises or stretches I could do, or adjustments to the bike itself that would put me in a more comfortable position. I would include a photo to show my posture, but cannot since I am a new user and am restricted from including photos or links in my posts until I've posted 10 times or more.

My bike is a mountain bike with hybrid tires. The frame size is 18" measured from the bottom bracket to the top tube or 20" measured to the top of the seat tube which extends slightly above the top tube. Either way it seems pretty close to what I've seen for the recommended frame size for my height. Maybe a bit on the small size.

In terms of existing adjustments, I have my seat raised to a height so that my leg is straight at the bottom of the stroke. I've also raised the stem as high as I can without exceeding the minimum insertion depth in order to bring the handlebars higher. I added some Ergon GP-3 ergo grips as well. I used those for the first time today and it does seem to have eliminated a bit of the pain, but it was still considerable.

I am considering purchasing some higher-rise handlebars to bring the grips up higher which would allow me to sit more upright and shift my weight away from the grips. "Sunlite-Steel-Handlebars-25-4mm-Length" on Amazon (again, can't post links) seems to get very good reviews from people of my size who were experiencing pain. They have a 5" rise which would seem to put the grips at the right height for relief, based on some rough measurements I made while riding and trying different positions. My concern would be that some of my brake/shifter cables might be too short after the rise.

Anyone have any suggestions, or follow-up questions or comments? Thanks!
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Old 07-18-20, 05:27 PM
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Trakhak
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Straight leg with pedal at the bottom of the stroke sounds as if the saddle is too high. I've been active rider for 50-plus years, but even so, I was surprised to find that I had to drop my saddle height yesterday on a bike that I'd just finished building.

Here's how I check saddle height. On a level road with no traffic, I get up to speed and start back-pedaling (having first made sure that the gears are set so that the chainline is straight; otherwise, there can be "auto-shifting" that can screw up the derailleurs).

While back-pedaling, I pay attention to how whether my foot lifts a bit off the pedal at the bottom of the stroke. If it does, I get off the bike, adjust the saddle down a bit, and then try again. Yesterday, I had to adjust the saddle downward three times until I could finally feel the full weight of my foot on the pedal at the bottom of the stroke while back-pedaling. You, too, might find that the correct saddle height is considerably lower than you expected.

The other common saddle-related cause of hand and shoulder pain is a saddle whose nose is tilted down. Nose tilted down guarantees that you spend the whole ride pushing yourself back from the handlebars. Look at pictures or videos of bike racers and touring riders: they'll almost all have the saddle perfectly level or will have the nose tilted up a bit.

Assuming that you made no other adjustments to the bike since the time a few years ago when you were riding much more, the saddle adjustments should help. But also do less than 30 minutes per ride until your discomfort goes away, unless the saddle adjustments eliminate the discomfort, of course.
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Old 07-19-20, 11:14 AM
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I am 6' 3" and had the same issues on my hybrid when I started. I got a stem riser. I then got different handlebars with alternate hand positions. My current bars are Velo Orange Crazy Bars . They help me to get other hand positions during my rides. The 45 degree angle puts the the hands in a more natural position for me. Other bars to consider Surly Moloko bars , Jones Loop Bars, or to add bar ends to the inside of your grips.
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Old 07-19-20, 11:58 AM
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I'd try changing out the handlebars, as you are already looking at doing. You mention you're comfortable when just your fingertips are on the handlebars, so get a bar with a rise that's about that height (or a new stem, if possible). The brake/shifter cables might still work, try fitting them on before changing the cables. If even one brake cable fits you can at least do a test ride to make sure the rise is correct before changing anything more than the handlebar.

Also make sure you get a handlebar with the correct stem clamp size. Lots of variation in hydrid bicycles, so check if you have a 25.4mm or 31mm stem clamp (or something other than those two).
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Old 07-19-20, 05:00 PM
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I came back to riding in 2013 at 240 lbs, 5' 7". I had 1 issue that caused hand pain - carpal tunnel syndrome - and 1 issue that caused pain in my my hands, arms, and shoulders - weak core. CTS surgery solved the CTS.

Riding helped strengthen my core. Exercises are available, too, and I've found them helpful, but a PITA to do, so I don't do them religiously. There's a '5 minute plank' program that looks interesting, but I've got to wait a month before I can start it, per my doc.

Riding more upright will save your shoulders/arms/hands but stress your butt. Strengthening the core allows one to hold oneself up.
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