Back ache?

On Tue, 03 Jan 2006 18:50:42 GMT, Cheryl <[email hidden]>
said in <[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

I thought my fitness had increased sufficiently to try cycling home
from work one day, around 14 miles on road, reasonable flat all the
way. I tried this morning but after around 5 miles my back was hurting
enough for me to get off and walk for a bit. I was on and off all the
way home from then.

<hiss>The Dark Side is calling! Give in to your back, wind resistance
is futile</hiss>

This has been a public service announcement on behalf of Recumbents
Anonymous :-)

Now the sensible answer: you are probably too stretched out. Women
specific bikes typically have shorter top-tubes to compensate for the
fact that most women have longer legs and shorter upper bodies, in
proportion, than men.

What's the bike?

Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

"To every complex problem there is a solution which is
simple, neat and wrong" - HL Mencken

Cheryl said:

I thought my fitness had increased sufficiently to try cycling home
from work one day, around 14 miles on road, reasonable flat all the
way. I tried this morning but after around 5 miles my back was hurting
enough for me to get off and walk for a bit. I was on and off all the
way home from then.

My question to the resident experts is do I need to adjust my riding
position for on road cycling (i.e. lift/lower the saddle etc.) or was
I just having a bad day?

I owuld suggest that you 1) do not have the bike set up for comfortable
road cycling and 2) are not used to it.

The main difference between MTB and road is that with MTB you are havng
to change your position quite frequently so individual muscls will get
a rest. With road, you hold one position for far longer so it can be
more strenuous in that respect. Having a non-optimal position would
also exacerbate any problem.

How does the position feel? Stretched/upright, saddle too low/too high?
Bars too high/too low?

Also, are you using hard gears slowly, or easy gears quickly?

...d

in message <[email hidden]>, Cheryl

(') said:

I've been cycling off road for the past 6 months trying to get my
fitness levels up from zero to something reasonable and have worked up
my mileage to around 10 to 12 miles offroad on each outing, a mixture
of 85% trails and 15% single track.

I thought my fitness had increased sufficiently to try cycling home
from work one day, around 14 miles on road, reasonable flat all the
way. I tried this morning but after around 5 miles my back was hurting
enough for me to get off and walk for a bit. I was on and off all the
way home from then.

My question to the resident experts is do I need to adjust my riding
position for on road cycling (i.e. lift/lower the saddle etc.) or was
I just having a bad day?

Mountain biking you're moving posture very slightly all the time. On the
road you can be pretty still, apart from your legs. So it might be that.
But adjustment of fit might also help (and, seeing it's only happened
the once it might be something else entirely and just coincidence).

I'd be inclined to try a few days off the bike to rest your back, and
then try it again. If you back hurts again, take your bike to a really
good bike shop sometime they are not busy, and get them to help set it
up for you. You might also seek advice about exercises you can do for
back stiffness while riding - it's amazing how much just a little
wriggling of the shoulders can help.

It might also be worth having a different bike for on road use - most of
us do, although the relationship between the saddle, bars and bottom
bracket of my good road bike is pretty much the same as my good mountain
bike so there isn't much fit difference.

Disclaimer: I'm presently recovering from my second broken back. I
sympathise with back pain!

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

See one nuclear war, you've seen them all.

On Tue, 03 Jan 2006 19:32:23 +0000, "Just zis Guy, you know?"
<[email hidden]> wrote:

<snip>

Quoted message said:

Now the sensible answer: you are probably too stretched out. Women
specific bikes typically have shorter top-tubes to compensate for the
fact that most women have longer legs and shorter upper bodies, in
proportion, than men.

What's the bike?

Guy

It's a very cheap steel frame 'womens' bike from (I'm embarrassed to
say) H*lf*rds (i know, I know)

I knew even less then than I do now and just wanted a cheap bike to
get out there and see if i'd keep it up or if the novelty would wear
off!

I have been looking at the scott contessa range and umming and ahhing
over whether to fork out the £335 for this new or try and get a
bargain on ebay 🙂

The stretching could be right though as I suppose I'm out of the
saddle more when off road hence no back pain on those rides.

Cheers

Cheryl

David Martin said:

I owuld suggest that you 1) do not have the bike set up for comfortable
road cycling and 2) are not used to it.

The main difference between MTB and road is that with MTB you are havng
to change your position quite frequently so individual muscls will get
a rest. With road, you hold one position for far longer so it can be
more strenuous in that respect. Having a non-optimal position would
also exacerbate any problem.

How does the position feel? Stretched/upright, saddle too low/too high?
Bars too high/too low?

Also, are you using hard gears slowly, or easy gears quickly?

Interesting point as I was using higher gears than usual for the same
speed in an attempt to gain some momentum on the road. That and, as
someone else said, being stretched and in the same riding position for
a while probably would have done it.

I think it looks like I'm off to buy a new bike ( or 2)!

Thanks

Cheryl

Simon Brooke said:

It might also be worth having a different bike for on road use - most of
us do, although the relationship between the saddle, bars and bottom
bracket of my good road bike is pretty much the same as my good mountain
bike so there isn't much fit difference.

I was thinking about this hence the fact I tried the ride on my
current bike to see if I could cope with the on road distance and (as
I work nights) cope with cycling that time of the morning!!!

This cycling bug certainly eats into the bank account doesn't it 🙂

<off to buy some bikes, windproof tights, etc etc>

Cheers

Cheryl

Cheryl said:

Quoted message said:

Also, are you using hard gears slowly, or easy gears quickly?

Interesting point as I was using higher gears than usual for the same
speed in an attempt to gain some momentum on the road.

The same laws of physics apply off road as on. Pick hgears that you can
turn comfortably. To go faster, turn the pedals faster, not harder.

Quoted message said:

That and, as
someone else said, being stretched and in the same riding position for
a while probably would have done it.

Sounds about right.

Quoted message said:

I think it looks like I'm off to buy a new bike ( or 2)!

Cheap first option may be to just invest in a new stem (15 quid up) to
reduce any overstretch. Best thing is to pop down to your local bike
shop and get them to look at your position on the bike. You should get
something nice new for a couple of hundred at entry level these days,
if you actually need a new bike right now.

...d