maartendc

Hello everyone,

I've got a problem with my road bike: Whenever I go on a shorter ride, around 1 hour, or during the first hour of longer rides (4-5 hours), I get lower back pain on the climbs, as if my lower back feels "cramped" or "compressed" and wants to stretch out more. Interestingly, the pain goes away after a couple of hours in the saddle.

I think the pain might be due to a number of possible reasons:

- My position on the road bike is more "aggressive" than on my commuter bike (an old road bike) that I ride every day, so my body gets used to the other position and needs time to adapt? Mostly higher saddle position on the road bike due to clipless vs flat pedals, and slightly shorter reach.
- Not enough reach, which is why my back feels "cramped" or "compressed"?
- Wrong saddle height? My back feels better with lower saddle height, but that height doesn't work for my legs and knees.
- Just lack of training (haven't been cycling much the past few months)?
- Lack of core strength?

I am hesitant to increase the reach on the handlebars, because I have been suffering from shoulder pain, which I believe was due to excessive reach.

Any recommendations would be appreciated!

I'm thinking it might be time for a professional bike fit... even though I wanted to avoid spending that kind of money on it.

Thanks!

fietsbob

Ibuprofen?

have you had jobs that required you to lift things repeatedly. ??

it may not be the bike.. do warm-up exercises before starting?

maartendc

Thanks for the reply!

No, I sit at a desk for 8 hours a day, probably with bad posture, which does not help. I do not have any back pain normally, so it really must be something about the bike or fit.

Warm up exercises are a good idea. I am also starting some core strength exercises to see if that helps at all.

If nothing else helps, I might go get a professional fit done.

Brian25

I have had back problems in the past. I would highly recommend some back specific exercises. I am not saying it because of your issues while cycling, but because as with time and your back becomes weaker there is a good chance you will start to have problems outside of cycling as well.

Carbonfiberboy 

Can't tell anything without photos.

Bmach

woodcraft

I get something like that on one route that has a nasty little climb after 1 mile.

Sometimes my lower back muscles will spasm going down the back side- not enough warm up.

smashndash

I think we could help much more if you could ask someone to take a picture of you in a couple positions from the side. One on the hoods, on in the drops. Bend your elbows as much as you do normally in each of those positions. Feel free to blur your face if you need to.

Also, do you know generally where you stand in terms of strength? For example, if you have a history in weight lifting and can deadlift 300lbs as you stand it'd be far fetched to say you have too weak of a back to ride a bike.

Phamilton

8 hours a day seated behind a desk is awful for cycling bodies, especially with bad posture. No pic required. It's not the just the lower back, the hamstrings and glutes and core muscles suffer, too, they're all connected and intertwined down there. Learning and using good posture, getting up every 20 minutes to stretch, option of a standing desk, daily stretching and squats works for me. It's a big list, but it's mine and it's been casually over the last year or so. Yoga works well, too, and helps with breathing (which I also understand to be important for cycling lol).

Colnago Mixte

Having the typical office worker's gut does you no favors on a bike. When I have had it in the past, it seemed to keep my back from staying straight while bent over on the bike. Pedaling for miles with a curved back is really asking for trouble. But assuming that's not the problem, I would try some yoga routines for the back.

Something I do after a long ride is do some dumbbell curls, with a focus on getting transitioned out of my hunched-over bike riding posture (which I can get locked into after many hours in the saddle) to a healthy "head balanced directly over my feet" posture. I have to work on this because riding a bike tends to hunch me over.

On a practical note, maybe the stem and / or the bike are too small, and you just need more reach. Difficult to say much more than that given the limited info.

Clem von Jones

For the price of a professional fit you could buy half a dozen stems, saddles, and figure it out yourself. Then you would know. In my view people tend to have too-large frames, too-long a reach, too-short stems, and too-high a stack.