Matt Hinkle

After long rides...triceps burn and back of neck aches...what should I adjust?

Iride01 

Do some upper body exercises.

Long rides of even just 3 hours will put you through a lot of abuse from the bumps on the road you encounter. Stronger upper body muscles will help. Otherwise, the only muscles being worked on your bike are your leg muscles and heart muscle. Everything else is just along for the ride.

For your neck, try adjusting your helmet so you don't have to crane your neck up so far to see down the road in front of you. Might need a new helmet that doesn't come so low on your brow, or that does not have a visor.

For triceps, maybe your arms are too straight even though you think your elbows are unlocked. Or maybe narrower bars might help. Narrower bars helped me with a similar annoyance above my elbow and likely in my triceps.

Others will have suggestions about fit. So I'm not going to get into that here.

Welcome to BF!

spelger

a lot of out of saddle riding can do this. at least for me.

back of neck aching implies down low in the drops or maybe riding aero bars with a visor on your helmet. that was my case, lose teh visor and the aero bars are no issue wiht neck.

ThermionicScott 

Your muscles. They're not strong enough yet.

Rolla

I've found that tricep soreness is often from having too much weight on my hands and using my arms to support my weight. A shorter stem can help, as can adjusting your saddle's fore-aft position. Experiment with making small changes to each.

delbiker1 

I have chronic spinal issues, including fusion at C5-C6. Along with shoulder issues. Changing positions frequently, especially hand placement, and stopping occasionally for just a minute or two, really helps the entire torso. It also helps with me with less numbing in the hands, and less pain in my arms and shoulders. If I feel I need it, I will do some light stretching while stopped.

Ironfish653

There's a lot of things that can be attributed to that. The big two would be Conditioning and Bike Fit.
We don't know what kind of bike the OP rides, or what size it is. All we can offer is anecdotal advice at best.

I'm going to lean heavily on conditioning, with a side of bike fit; Sore neck from craning up to compensate for a hunched back; Develop the core (back and abs) to help support the torso
Also, the sore triceps indicate having to hold yourself up off the bars (since the trikes are what extends the arm)
Bike fit is probably bars too low, and or too far out (too big frame, too aggressive for current conditioning level) That would give an arm-dependent, too-low posture

Elvo

Dips, rope pull downs, and bench press should help

wolfchild

You're just weak that's all...you need to strengthen your body.

Polaris OBark

I keep misreading the title.

Rolla

fify

PeteHski

I would start with a more upright bike fit, which potentially means shorter stem and higher bars. Also possibly a lower saddle height.

Trakhak

Let me guess - you rode the same bike for the same distances in the latter part of last season, and the bike was fine after the first few weeks of riding.

Many of us tend to increase our mileage dramatically as the weather warms. It just takes a bit of time for various muscles to reacclimate, which they will do with or without strength workouts. If you had gradually increased your mileage for a few weeks instead, you'd have avoided the discomfort you mentioned.

couldwheels

THat's a cute triceps.

If triceps is sore, that could mean a change in bike fit is in order. Usually the change needed in terms of fit is moving the saddle backwards, reducing stem length (reduce reach), increase handlebar height (stack), and lastly, setting saddle to level or very slightly nose up. If setting saddle to level or slightly nose up gives you lower back pains, you can nose it down a little.

Sore neck - a lightweight helmet would help and of course, riding a lot more to get used to it.

ThermionicScott 

I can't believe all the posters recommending every fit change under the sun. OP is just out of shape, people!

KerryIrons

Yup. And besides the good advice here on strengthening the neck/upper back there are things you can do while riding. Examples include rolling your head as if you were trying to touch your ear to your shoulder, neck stretches, pulling your arm over your head, and so on.

Rolla

Keep in mind that I don't know what kind of shape he's in, like you pretend to, but the OP specifically asked what he should adjust. Common adjustments for tricep and neck pain are a shorter and/or taller stem, so it seemed reasonable to suggest it.

ThermionicScott 

Muscle soreness is very common early in the season. I experience what the OP describes every spring as I work up to longer rides. If I swapped stems, moved my handlebars up, and lowered my saddle (!) in a misguided attempt to make those feelings go away, I would just have to reverse all those adjustments after a couple months once I was back in shape.

If the OP is experiencing serious pain or numbness, that would be a different situation, and changing the fit might be prudent. He'll have to elaborate if that's the case.

Rolla

You don't know if it's early in the OP's season. He might, like me, ride year 'round. Moreover, he specifically asked for recommendations for adjustments. You're not only taking on the role of his personal trainer without knowing a damn thing about him, his riding, or his level of fitness, you're criticizing those who answered the question he asked.

ThermionicScott 

We're all guessing here, and sometimes the right answer to a question isn't the one you're fishing for. Relax, dude.

Iride01 

Yea the procedure is we suggest various things. The OP picks one or several suggestions that they think makes the most sense to them and tries them out. Then if it doesn't work for the OP, they comeback and let us know.

No reason to bicker about who's advice is better or how they phrased their advice since text doesn't give a reliable sense of the authors emotion unless the writer has the skills of a poet.

So essentially unless others have more suggestions all we can do is wait for the OP to give feed back or more detailed info about what they meant.

Rolla

So knowing nothing whatsoever about the guy, you twice proclaim that he's out of shape. Then I call you on your bullshˇt, and suddenly...

Pretty pathetic, dude.

wolfchild

That's if he'll ever come back...especially after all the hostility from one particular poster who sounds like they know it all and they're trying to establish their dominance over the topic.

ThermionicScott 

ISTM that a year-round fit rider would probably not find sore triceps and a neck ache to be something novel enough to start a thread. But you're right, perhaps not really a strong basis for an argument, so I'll bow out. Good luck to the OP.

Rolla

You mean this guy? ⬇