pepperbelly

I rode 15 miles today. At about mile 12 my triceps started really getting sore. I moved from the hoods to the drops and back but it kept getting worse.
Could it be just that my bike isn’t setup for me correctly? I took a pic of it on another thread and someone mentioned my handlebars were rotated up. I rotated them forward some but I may need to go further.
My hands started tingling and wanting to cramp. I am guessing I am putting too much weight on them.
Is this something I can fix on my own or do I need to pay someone?

Kontact

How about posting that picture again? Better yet, a side view of you on the bike.

Lots of problems start with having the saddle too far forward, and then trying to keep your body from falling forward.

It is fixable.

pepperbelly

I will get my wife to take a pic of my riding position tomorrow.

Kontact

So you have a very high front end on your frame, the stem all the way up, then the bars turned up and the brake levers riding high on the bars. I imagine you are sitting straight up and your wrists are rotated toward you.

In many ways this position is so different from a standard road position I'm not even sure what's going to be causing your the most grief. Road bike position generally benefit from some forward lean to take weight off the saddle and support your upper body on your hamstrings.

So you might consider just trying a much lower position and rotate the hoods until they are horizontal - just to see how that feels. It may not be the right position, but it might tell you something about what works for you.

pepperbelly

The Roubaix is an endurance style bike with a more upright riding position and more relaxed geometry.
In the pic in my garage it is on a stand that raises the front wheel a little.

Kontact

I know what the Roubaix is, and I'm saying you have take the upright qualities built into the frame and added even more uprightness. Just because something is supposed to be a little of something that doesn't mean more of that is more better.

SpedFast

You are putting way to much weight on your arms and wrists. Contrary to what you might think, Kontact is giving you good advice. You need to put more of your weight to the rear, literally, and to do that, you need to move the seat back and lower the handle bars. When sitting comfortably on the seat (sit bones on the wide part) you should be able to slowly lower yourself forward and you hands should land perfectly on the hoods with your eyes closed. I'm assuming your seat is at the correct height and angle which is easy to figure out. Good luck, we're looking forward to the pic because that will say a thousand words.

pepperbelly

I’m not arguing. I bought this bike used.

pepperbelly

I’m not doubting or arguing with him. I just wanted to give as much info as I could. I really am pretty ignorant about bikes I guess. They are complicated to get dialed in.
It’s possible that I am not sitting on my saddle correctly.
Wouldn’t lowering the bar height force me forward and put more weight on my arms/hands?
I am working on losing weight and getting fit. I want riding 15 miles to feel pleasant, not a chore or workout.

Kontact

The idea is that you don't sit right above the pedals and fall forward on the handlebar, but that you are balanced on your feet like a downhill skier. Your butt is sticking back enough to counterbalance your upper body and the muscle tension that comes from pedalling runs up your hamstrings and into the lower back to help suspend your torso.

If your seat is too far forward or you don't lean much at all or the handlebars aren't a natural reach from your torso angle nothing will work right.


A bike trainer, a level, a full length mirror and plumb line can be used to find a decent position for free. It won't work for everyone, but does work for most.

Do a search for .883 saddle height and KOPS saddle setback. Then try to find a handlebar set up that allows your torso to lean forward about 45 degrees when you're lightly bent arms are on the hoods and your upper arm to torso angle is 90 degrees or less. That's a moderate road bike position, unless you have slightly different anatomic dimensions.

pepperbelly

All I have different anatomically is an aerobelly I am working to lose.

rsbob 

When you don’t need to come to a stop or stop suddenly, try keeping your hands on the top of the bars rather than the hoods. In this way you are sitting more upright and not putting so much pressure on your hands and wrists. Having pain is endemic of too much weight, whether on the hoods or the drops, so try moving your hands to the top of the bars - It cured my hand pain/numbness issues.

cyclezen

I remember when you were first considering this bike and riding. Also noted your progress and challenges since starting ride regularly. And your perseverance for staying with riding; which deserves big congrats.
some thoughts...
much of the 'road' riding position is best addressed by having adequate/good overall core strength and minimize excess mass/weight. Extra mass/weight is always fond in the torso and also proves a challenge to core strength. Not a judgement, just the way it is.
Given that core strength and reduction of excess weight is not a quick project (usually). There is a need to compensate for those issues. The most common compensations is to create and 'upright riding posture' AND using the arms to tripod/A frame on the bars, to create the needed support. Which causes wrist, arm, shoulder and neck issues.
A more upgright riding posture is an OK thing, IF you aren't locking your elbows and collapsing your wrists. Some bend in the elbows is very important (to a point, more then better). As straight as possible of a wrist line, from forearm to hand, is also desired.
A forward tilt to saddle will also cause a rider to constantly tend to 'slide' forward, and compensating for that usually results in locked elbows/straight arms... further exacerbating the wrist/arm problems.
so, just from cursory view of your bike. You might try leveling the saddle (the idea IS to carry a lot of your torso weight thru the sitzbones/saddle - not the arms). At the same time you might find you will need to lower the saddle a bit... Next, finding a better "saddle setback". While riding with good/strong, but NOT hard, pedal pressure, you should be able to ride with way with much lighter 'weight' on the hands, on the bars (prolly with hands on the hoods or back by the upper bar bends). Move the saddle BACK 4-5 mm if you can't ride with just fingertip pressure on the bars (this is the sought-after feel, but if you can't quite get there, get as close as possible.). Your saddle can prolly move back a whole cm without affecting your power much...
So, Combination of levelling saddle, possibly lowering saddle a bit, and moving saddle rearwards on rails...
When you do this , ride MODERATE gears for at least a week, slowly increasing your efforts over days - this allows the legs and body to slowly adapt to the position changes.
Lastly, 15 miles... it's really about saddle time... is that an hour of riding? or a little bit longer or shorter than 1 hr?
Is this a normal ride time for you? Or is it a bit longer?
Pushing past what your body is accustomed may come up with new challenges.
All us have had our own, so we cheer when you can deal with yours.
Ride On Yuri

79pmooney

I look at your first photo and see bars a touch lower than the saddle. Pretty high but not end of the world. Seat back a normal distance. But I also see brake hoods that are angled up a lot. I wonder if this twists your wrists up, pulling your pinkie up, pulling along the bottom of your forearm and pulling your triceps.

I wonder if you would be better off with the brake levers/hoods slide down to closer to level to relax the underside of your arm. A quick and dirty test would be to simply rotate your handlebars down and go for a ride. I would consider: first - lay a yardstick along the bottom of your handlebars and put a piece of tape where it hits the seatstay. (So you can return the rotation to the "before" later.) Loosen the bolts clamping the handlebars, rotate them and re-tighten. (Important - this must be done correctly! Research "torque", get the wrench and do it right or have a shop do it.)

Now, ride. Triceps better? If yes, measure the angle of the brake hoods with a level or protractor or marking a wall. Return the bars to their previous rotation. Un-tape the handlebar tape to below the brake hoods. Using the correct tool (perhaps a 5mm allen wrench but brake levers vary) loosen the clamp and slide the hoods down to that angle you documented. (You may need to install longer brake cables to properly reach the calipers. I'd cheat and let them poke out of the handlebar tape early until you've ridden and know this is an improvement.)

Or, do as I do. Remove all the tape. Use just enough electrical tape to get the cable housings to behave. Ride the bare handlebars carrying all the wrenches to rotate the bars, move brake hoods, maybe even move headset spacers. Make changes. Observe how you like the changes as you ride and how you feel after. Don't tape the bars until you feel comfortable.

Edit: Weight on hands is considered bad by many but isn't always. What is important is that our hand position is anatomically right when we have that weight on them. (I'm a skinny and long guy with lots of wind resistance and not a whole lot of muscle. Getting long and low is a must for me. That means either too tight a tuck at my waist for good breathing and comfort or a lot of weight on my hands. I go for the weight. But I also have to get that position right. And if I do, my hands can go further than my legs can push me. Ie, good enough!)

Mtracer

I recommend getting a pro bike fit. There's a lot you can do on your own, if you want to read up a lot on bike fitting. But a good fitter will get you there a lot faster. Though even then, they're not perfect.

I agree that your bars are rotated back and your levers up much more than normal. It's very unlikely that this sort of extreme setup is appropriate.

I've struggled at times with excessive weight on my hands and some hand numbness as a result. This got much better when I lost some weight. Short of a very upright and non-road bike setup, being overweight is going to result in more weight on your hands. It's just physics. Also, the more effort you put into pedaling, the more you'll take weight off your hands.

In my case, I tend to a slightly nose up saddle (somewhat unusual), but this helps support my pelvis and helps me hold weight off my hands. I don't get any discomfort in the saddle area as a result. So, this works for me.

While counter intuitive, it's not uncommon to get more comfort the more you drop the front end. Up to a point, of course. So, don't assume more upright is inherently going to be more comfortable.

Even with a perfect fit, body parts can hurt if related areas are not strong enough to support them properly. So, some off-the-bike exercises may be called for. Especially strengthening your core.

Carbonfiberboy 

First thing is always the Numb Hands post. Notice how far forward these riders are reaching.
then Bar Positioning -make your bars look like that.
Then try moving your saddle all the way back. See how that feels. Your hands should be light on the bars and your elbows well bent, elbows right behind your hands, not sticking out the to the side. With these adjustments, your hands should be light on the bars, the heel of your hand resting on the bar tops and taking the hand pressure. Looking in a mirror while you are on the bike leaning against something, your upper arms should be making about a right angle with your torso. You may need a longer stem - stems are cheap. I suggest getting rid of the shims and putting on a -17° stem that's long enough to establish that 90° upper arm/torso angle. If you can't get that angle with say a 110mm stem and the saddle all the way back, the bike is too small.

pepperbelly

I will get pics of my current riding posture before adjusting anything.
I did notice an improvement in how my legs felt when I sat further back on the seat but I kept moving slightly forward. The seat is also putting eventually putting pressure on the base of the bottom of my penis. I want to slightly tip the nose of my saddle down. It’s a Cobb Randee if that makes any difference.

Kai Winters

Do you stretch...if so how often and for how long
Do you do any exercise to strengthen your body, core, etc...if so what are you doing, how often and how long

pepperbelly

Not enough on both.

pepperbelly

It puzzles me that I was fine for 10-12 miles.

Carbonfiberboy 

Iride01 

My previous bike I kept for about 3 years and my new bike I replaced it with had 42cm wide bars on them. Along with some other things, I was getting a little nuisance pain in my triceps of my right arm that I can only describe as like a shin splint. Even though I'm not really sure what a shin splint is supposed to feel like.

I swapped the 42cm bars to 38 cm bars and the pain went away. All my older bikes all had 38cm or narrower bars. 42cm is about the width across my acromion process that some say to base your bar width on. But it apparently wasn't the width I needed.

Carbonfiberboy 

Try a saddle which has a slot all the way back. The Selle Italia MAN saddle is like that. I have one on our tandem and I see quite a few of them on other people's bikes, which augurs well.

70sSanO

Saddle tilt.

Raise the nose of the saddle.

John

pepperbelly

I am getting pressure against my penis that is uncomfortable after about 5 miles.
I may be too far forward on the saddle.