Handlebars?

CR_ email hidden said:

I just purchased a new bike.
It's a trek 5200.
When i ride more than 10 miles or so I develop wrist pain.

You have fitting problems, probably as a result of your handlebars
being set far too low with respect to your saddle. you're putting a
lot of weight on your hands in an awkward place.

The shop should have never let you out the door without having fitted
you properly to a new bike--ESPECIALLY considering the large sum you
had to hand over for the trek.

Take it back and kick up a fuss.

-Luigi

Thanks my wife says the same thing!

They are replacing the handlebars which they feel are the problem,
they have to order them from Trek.
I think I am going to have to pay for them:{
Do you think this is the problem
If not they are going to screw me again

"Luigi de Guzman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

CR_ email hidden said:

I just purchased a new bike.
It's a trek 5200.
When i ride more than 10 miles or so I develop wrist pain.

You have fitting problems, probably as a result of your handlebars
being set far too low with respect to your saddle. you're putting a
lot of weight on your hands in an awkward place.

The shop should have never let you out the door without having fitted
you properly to a new bike--ESPECIALLY considering the large sum you
had to hand over for the trek.

Take it back and kick up a fuss.

-Luigi

CR_ email hidden said:

Thanks my wife says the same thing!

They are replacing the handlebars which they feel are the problem,

How did they determine that this was the problem?

Quoted message said:

they have to order them from Trek.
I think I am going to have to pay for them:{
Do you think this is the problem
If not they are going to screw me again

That's outrageous. They fit you poorly for the bike, and they want
YOU to pay for the bars?

Name and Shame time. Who are these jokers, and where are they
located? Nobody should have to put up with this [censored].

-Luigi

I brought my other bike with me to a compare the two .
My other bike has wider bars.
They put my Trek on a trainer and had me ride it.
I got off the bike and they measured my shoulders and said i should try
wider bars.
Another guy suggested it could be the saddle/

All i want is the f**kin bike fixed at this point.
10 miles or more and I am hurting.

Also I forgot to mention
One of my cycling buddies also thought maybe the bars were to narrow.
But when I first mentioned that to the dealer on the phone they said it
surely wasn't that.
They said the stem probably needed to be raised.
Now they want to try wider bars instead

So to get back to my original question
Does anybody think wider bars will solve the problem .
I like to fix this once and for all especially if I am paying the tab .

As Lugi stated
This bike ain't cheap

"Luigi de Guzman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

CR_ email hidden said:

Thanks my wife says the same thing!

They are replacing the handlebars which they feel are the problem,

How did they determine that this was the problem?

Quoted message said:

they have to order them from Trek.
I think I am going to have to pay for them:{
Do you think this is the problem
If not they are going to screw me again

That's outrageous. They fit you poorly for the bike, and they want
YOU to pay for the bars?

Name and Shame time. Who are these jokers, and where are they
located? Nobody should have to put up with this [censored].

-Luigi

CR_ email hidden said:

I brought my other bike with me to a compare the two .
My other bike has wider bars.
They put my Trek on a trainer and had me ride it.
I got off the bike and they measured my shoulders and said i should try
wider bars.
Another guy suggested it could be the saddle/

Are your wrists splayed funny when you ride on the hoods? To get a
tingle in my wrists from having them too close together with
everything else aligned for riding on the hoods of an imaginary
handlebar, I have to have them nearly touching, my hands at right
angles, palms facing out.

I didn't see you on the trainer, so I don't know--but again, did they
try adjusting the height of the handlebars at all?

Quoted message said:

Also I forgot to mention
One of my cycling buddies also thought maybe the bars were to narrow.
But when I first mentioned that to the dealer on the phone they said it
surely wasn't that.
They said the stem probably needed to be raised.

That's my first reaction. Did you have them try that, first?

Quoted message said:

Now they want to try wider bars instead

Perhaps at your insistence?

Quoted message said:

So to get back to my original question
Does anybody think wider bars will solve the problem .
I like to fix this once and for all especially if I am paying the tab .

The problem is probably too-low handlebars caused by a steerer tube
being cut too short, and then fitting a stem with insufficient rise.
This might have been avoided if they had fitted you properly, then cut
the steerer tube to the appropriate height.

Is your saddle angled down? It may be that you're sliding down in the
saddle as you ride, and having to push back with your hands, causing
pain in your wrists.

Sheldon Brown has a whole website on bicycling pain:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/pain

-Luigi

The feeling I get in my wrists can best be described is as if someone was
pulling my fingers backward for a long period of time.

The wider bars was not my idea since they shot this down over the phone.

As far as raising the stem which they suggested over the phone.
They measured from the saddle to the bars and said it wasn't necessary.
The saddle is level.
It is as far back as it will go
I tried moving it around a bit on my last ride trying to help .

If they put wider bars on my bike are there any negatives in doing this?

Oh I forgot to mention
The bars are Bontanger and I believe they can't be raised very easily.
At least that is what I was told

"Luigi de Guzman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

CR_ email hidden said:

I brought my other bike with me to a compare the two .
My other bike has wider bars.
They put my Trek on a trainer and had me ride it.
I got off the bike and they measured my shoulders and said i should try
wider bars.
Another guy suggested it could be the saddle/

Are your wrists splayed funny when you ride on the hoods? To get a
tingle in my wrists from having them too close together with
everything else aligned for riding on the hoods of an imaginary
handlebar, I have to have them nearly touching, my hands at right
angles, palms facing out.

I didn't see you on the trainer, so I don't know--but again, did they
try adjusting the height of the handlebars at all?

Quoted message said:

Also I forgot to mention
One of my cycling buddies also thought maybe the bars were to narrow.
But when I first mentioned that to the dealer on the phone they said it
surely wasn't that.
They said the stem probably needed to be raised.

That's my first reaction. Did you have them try that, first?

Quoted message said:

Now they want to try wider bars instead

Perhaps at your insistence?

Quoted message said:

So to get back to my original question
Does anybody think wider bars will solve the problem .
I like to fix this once and for all especially if I am paying the tab .

The problem is probably too-low handlebars caused by a steerer tube
being cut too short, and then fitting a stem with insufficient rise.
This might have been avoided if they had fitted you properly, then cut
the steerer tube to the appropriate height.

Is your saddle angled down? It may be that you're sliding down in the
saddle as you ride, and having to push back with your hands, causing
pain in your wrists.

Sheldon Brown has a whole website on bicycling pain:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/pain

-Luigi

"CR_ [email hidden]" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<9klOc.6850$Mr3.1211@trndny08>...

Quoted message said:

The feeling I get in my wrists can best be described is as if someone was
pulling my fingers backward for a long period of time.

The wider bars was not my idea since they shot this down over the phone.

As far as raising the stem which they suggested over the phone.
They measured from the saddle to the bars and said it wasn't necessary.

Did the measure: a) floor to saddle, b) floor to bars, and c) take
the difference between the two?

Quoted message said:

The saddle is level.

Good.

Quoted message said:

It is as far back as it will go

But it may not be back far enough. Wrist pain is likely caused by too
much weight on the hands and is not by bars that are too narrow. Too
much weight on the hands is a question of balance; the weight is too
far forward. A proper fit would have most of the weight on your
butt, and that is a function of getting the seat far enough back. You
might need a different seatpost to get the seat back far enough, but
you may need to get the seat back further and the bars higher to get
some weight off your hands.

Quoted message said:

I tried moving it around a bit on my last ride trying to help .

If they put wider bars on my bike are there any negatives in doing this?

Only in some types of racing events ....

Quoted message said:

Oh I forgot to mention
The bars are Bontanger and I believe they can't be raised very easily.
At least that is what I was told

Manufacturer of the bars is irrelevant, and the bars have nothing to
do with the ability to raise/lower the height of them above ground.
The two relevant issues are length of the steerer, and the stem angle
and length. As someone else opined, it appears that the shop did a
poor job of fitting, probably to the point of cutting the steerer tube
too short. Now to fix what they likely 'broke' it will take maybe and
adapter and/or a sharply angled stem. The fix should be on their
nickel, not yours.

- rick

While wider bars will cause you to lean further forwards slightly
(placing more weight on your hands). it takes quite a bit of additional
width to achieve this.

Did they also check the distance between the seat and the handlebars?
this has a much more direct effect on weight dispersion than width (it's
a geometry and trig thing).

- -

"May you have the wind at your back.
And a really low gear for the hills!"

Chris Zacho ~ "Your Friendly Neighborhood Wheelman"

Chris'Z Corner
http://www.geocities.com/czcorner

Yes that is what they measured
Jesus that's just what i need ....."more weight on my hands"

"Chris Zacho "The Wheelman"" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

While wider bars will cause you to lean further forwards slightly
(placing more weight on your hands). it takes quite a bit of additional
width to achieve this.

Did they also check the distance between the seat and the handlebars?
this has a much more direct effect on weight dispersion than width (it's
a geometry and trig thing).

- -

"May you have the wind at your back.
And a really low gear for the hills!"

Chris Zacho ~ "Your Friendly Neighborhood Wheelman"

Chris'Z Corner
http://www.geocities.com/czcorner

CR_ email hidden said:

Yes that is what they measured
Jesus that's just what i need ....."more weight on my hands"

Wait--wrist pain is usually TOO MUCH weight on the hands.

If you're not putting any weight at all on your hands, then you're
sitting bolt-upright on your ass on a Raleigh roadster.

-Luigi

[email hidden] (Chris Zacho "The Wheelman"😉 wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

While wider bars will cause you to lean further forwards slightly
(placing more weight on your hands). it takes quite a bit of additional
width to achieve this.

Did they also check the distance between the seat and the handlebars?
this has a much more direct effect on weight dispersion than width (it's
a geometry and trig thing).

- -

"May you have the wind at your back.
And a really low gear for the hills!"

Chris Zacho ~ "Your Friendly Neighborhood Wheelman"

Chris'Z Corner
http://www.geocities.com/czcorner

Hi Chris, You might have very possibly hit on the culprit I think.
Although it's hard for all of us to tell, as no one here can actually
examine what's going on, there are other factors that have not been
explained fully by the original poster.

Age, frame size, height, and many other factors need to be perhaps
known to better help.

Seems to me, the modern philosophy now days, is to get a frame as
small as possible, and then have the seatpost jacked one foot into the
air to attain proper leg reach. In these configurations, this may
cause one to bend quite a bit over to grab the bars, and thus much
weight is now placed on the hands.
(It's like your almost falling off the front of the saddle to reach
the bars.)

I imagine, the original bars could be swapped, and tried out?Sell the
ones you don't like
Nope, a Trek 5200 is no cheap piece of equipment. The Bike shop
should recognize this hopefully, and if they claim they cannot make
good by the bar switch, then perhaps, they can compensate you in some
other way?

Stay scientific with the matter, and hopefully, both you, and the bike
shop can come to some correct sound solutions, both comfortwise, and
costwise for yourself.

I do hope you get this pain issue resolved one way, or another. Wish
you the best, Mark

"CR_ [email hidden]" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<CdfOc.4783$T76.2770@trndny09>...

Quoted message said:

I just purchased a new bike.
It's a trek 5200.
When i ride more than 10 miles or so I develop wrist pain.
I also have a cannondale and when i ride this bike I have no problems.
One thing I have noticed between the two is the cannondale has wider
handelbars than the Trek.
Could this be the problem?
I have very wide shoulders for my size.
I am thinking maybe it is putting more weight on my wrists or is this
nonsense or should I look for another cause.....the saddle perhaps?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
This bike is a [censored] to ride right now

Hi< You haven't posted any follow-up, or what the prognosis was with
your problem, and if the problem was solved, and how?

I myself am interested to hear how you made out with this problem?
Hope you've got it solved, Mark d.