Sore shoulders

Iain Jones <[email hidden]> wrote in
:"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Hi folks,

Warning: before you read this, I'm a wannabe hypochondriac
(not just health but bike things too)!

...as per this week's "flu", felt like it, but ended
suddenly yesterday morning and felt fine today! I don't
understand me.

Iain Jones said:

Hi folks,

Warning: before you read this, I'm a wannabe hypochondriac
(not just health but bike things too)!

I've just been out and done 85 miles, fairly flat, the odd
few little hills. After a bit of adjusting I seem to have
things right at last - legs feel fine, no saddle sores, no
back ache. But there's one symptom which won't go away -
sore shoulders.

Throughout the ride I constantly seem to be shifting my
hands about but I can't relax my shoulders - it feels like
I've got too much weight on my arms. The saddle height and
position is comfortable for my legs, and I've done the
"hands on brake hoods, look down, can't front hub" test
and the handlebar stem is the right length. Is there are
common cause, and is it easy to fix, especially easy
enough to adjust something tonight and go out again
tomorrow?

Thanks, Iain

Iain,

I've had quite a bit of this too (not the flu, although who
knows... I was sniffing earlier!). I think it's one of the
prices we have to pay for riding good distances on drop-
bars. Others will doubtless disagree with this, but I just
don't think it's possible to ride a long way in the posture
that drop bars encourage without your shoulders getting
uncomfortable to some extent (of course, this will change to
some extent as your body gets used to it). Compare riding
drops to a very upright position (e.g., a Dutch city bike).
There's no way you'd get sore shoulders on that, because
you're so upright. It's the leaning forward all day.

Ian
--
Remove the nice brown paste in my signature if you
want to reply!

Iain Jones said:

Hi folks,

Warning: before you read this, I'm a wannabe hypochondriac
(not just health but bike things too)!

I've just been out and done 85 miles, fairly flat, the odd
few little hills. After a bit of adjusting I seem to have
things right at last - legs feel fine, no saddle sores, no
back ache. But there's one symptom which won't go away -
sore shoulders.

Throughout the ride I constantly seem to be shifting my
hands about but I can't relax my shoulders - it feels like
I've got too much weight on my arms. The saddle height and
position is comfortable for my legs, and I've done the
"hands on brake hoods, look down, can't front hub" test
and the handlebar stem is the right length.

Is that really a good test? I'm highly skeptical about tests
like that.

What about bar width (if you use hoods/drops a lot more than
tops)? Have you tried different widths? This can affect
shoulder comfort.

Other than that, I don't feel qualified to give advice to
someone who's just cycled 14 miles more than I've ever
done in one day! Well done. I personally wouldn't worry
about it too much if the first 60 miles were reasonably
comfortable :-)

~PB

"Pete Biggs" <[email hidden]> wrote in
:"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Iain Jones wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

my legs, and I've done the "hands on brake hoods, look
down, can't front hub" test and the handlebar stem is the
right length.

Is that really a good test? I'm highly skeptical about
tests like that.

Don't know - just one of many I've seen in books/heard from
people with more experience than me.

Quoted message said:

What about bar width (if you use hoods/drops a lot more
than tops)? Have you tried different widths? This can
affect shoulder comfort.

Again, the standard test - holding the bars up to my
shoulders, the two brake hoods line up with the centre of my
shoulders, like the books said. I tend to use the tops of
the bars and the hoods the most, using the drops on descents
or into a headwind. Thinking about it, I might give wider
bars a try. If I had the money :-)

Quoted message said:

Other than that, I don't feel qualified to give advice to
someone who's just cycled 14 miles more than I've ever
done in one day! Well done. I

My longest ride since before winter set in, been doing not
much more than 50 miles per ride for the past few months.
Longest on record was 110 miles in a day. On old cheapo
mountain bike. With wayyyy too much luggage (even for just a
youth hostel weekend). Boy did I suffer, and so did the
bike, so a month later I bought the new one.

Quoted message said:

personally wouldn't worry about it too much if the first
60 miles were reasonably comfortable :-)

It varies - I can go for a whole day without trouble,
sometimes it's uncomfortable on the 20-minute ride to
work. I suppose I could learn to (aka "bully myself into"😉
coping with it.

Thanks, Iain (heading for bed with the intention of putting
myself through pain again in about 10 hours)

Iain Jones said:

It varies - I can go for a whole day without trouble,
sometimes it's uncomfortable on the 20-minute ride to
work. I suppose I could learn to (aka "bully myself into"😉
coping with it.

I tend to get that, I think its because I dress fairly
lightly to get rid of the heat generated by cycling, but
then my sholders are under a static load, but don't generate
any heat as they are doing very little work. I find sitting
right up, no hands and moving my arms around occasionally
helps, as does taking some hills out of the saddle.

Taking care to keep the sholders warm without getting over
sweaty help as well.

--
Andy Morris

AndyAtJinkasDotFreeserve.Co.UK

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