mohamilton

I'm currently training for a 200 mile gravel ride. Whenever I get to around 60-70 miles my upper back starts to kill.

Curious if I might be better on a 54 or 56 frame? I'm currently riding a Niner RLT Steel in a 56.

I'm 70inches tall and have an actual inseam of about 33.5. I always thought I should be on a 56 being 5' 10" however most fit calculators are suggesting a 52 or 54. All of my pervious bikes have had short 90mm stems too.

I'll be getting a bike fit as soon as things clear with Covid however I thought i'd post here in the meantime.

Thanks!

Iride01 

Have you played with the fore and aft on your seat? That can make a big difference. I like my seat a little forward more so than others. Seems like I get more power into the cranks then. Others want to balance their CG on the saddle, I like to balance my CG on the crank. It does take some playing with bar height and even stem length to get it feeling right, but it works for me. KOP's is a ridiculous thing to me so if that is your fit religion then just ignore me.

Straight back when you ride? Or hunchback of Notre Dame? Stiff arms all the time? Or a bend at the elbows?

philbob57

My initial thought was that you're either too cramped or too stretched out, or you're holding yourself too tightly. But my inseam is 30.5", and the recos I get are 52-55 CM (competitive-Eddy-French fit) on Competitive Cyclist's tool. What calculators are you using.

mohamilton

Maybe I feel a little stretched? I've found putting my saddle back with zero tilt helps so it doesn't hunch by back forward. I don't hold the bars tightly at all - something I learned from endurance running is to never clench your hands.

Using the competitive cycling calculator. Sounds like a lot of people say it's close and some say it's a total bodge.

nomadmax 

Bend your elbows and unhunch your shoulders.

mohamilton

I try to do some back stretches on rides too, it seems to help

Carbonfiberboy 

Have a look at this: https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycl...discovery.html

I've found this stuff is more about fitness than fit. Get a pair of 10 and 15 lb. dumbbells and do, in order: side raises, front raises, rear raises, presses, supersetting those 4 exercises, 3 sets of 10-12 reps. Youtube if you don't know the exercises. Lat pull-downs and seated rows are very good too, but you have to have a gym or home equipment for those.

mohamilton

Thanks! This is helpful. I picked up a foam roller recently, that in combination with laying on a tennis ball to hit trigger pointer on traps has helped a lot as well.

Chris(NJ)

Hows the drop between saddle>bars? Maybe need to raise the seat if it's too low or lower the bars to help engage the core?

ridethecliche

I wouldn't adjust saddle height or fore-aft to help with the back issue since that can compound issues. Saddle tilt is worth playing with.

How are your bars sized?

What wheels and tires are you running? What width and pressure?

Also what do you mean by upper back ? Your neck? Between your shoulder blades?

Carbonfiberboy 

I captain our tandem at least a couple thousand miles/year. That also takes a lot of upper body strength/endurance, maybe a little like gravel riding. Another thing you can do is pushups and plank to exhaustion. That helps. I do that every other morning after my stretches. 1000 pushups in a month would be a good goal.

drewguy

It may just be the reach to the handlebars is a little too much. Moving the seat will mess up your pedal stroke, so look into raising the bars or a shorter stem to reduce reach.

mohamilton

I raised the seat post and that definitely helped. Im going to try lowering the bars slightly and shorten the reach next

mohamilton

Im running 42cm bars and the reach on them is really far, I may swap out to a short reach bar. Getting sharp pain in my upper left trap near my neck/spine.

40mm tires at 60psi

mohamilton

Thats a good call, gravel can definitely take much more of a beating than road riding. I think my core strength is good overall though - I can hold planks over 7 minutes and can hit over 25 pulls ups

Carbonfiberboy 

Have you seen this? https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycl...discovery.html

mohamilton

Yes! This is awesome, thanks for sharing. Rotating my pelvis forward has been a revelation, feels like you can get a lot more power out too. Starting to notice less pain now. I think I stained my left trap so it'll probably take a little while to recover fully but things are getting better.

Fiery

Pain in the traps frequently comes from too much reach. I would try going shorter and possibly lower with the handlebar if your current torso angle feels comfortable and powerful.

ridethecliche

Re: rotating pelvis forward

SMP saddles are amazing for this. I honestly can't overstate how awesome they are. Finally settled on them in college after a period of having issues with like 5-6 well regarded saddles and haven't looked back. Took a break from riding for almost 10 years and when I got back on the bike I got used to the saddle again real quick!