Back Pain and High Racer

In alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent on 2 Sep 2006 17:05:04 -0700

Gene said:

wheels. I love it and it's about 10 to 15% faster than the Burley.
Trouble is I now get some serious back pain and stiffness much lower
down. i.e. the sacro/illiac joint or region. Now my recovery time is

I wonder if this is a bike fit problem - leg length or seat/pedal
distance or even upper body position.

I've just had a cyclefit done by a bloke who deals with DF racers but
is quite happy to deal with bents.

He did a lot of measurements and checks and found that I needed to
shim one leg. Once I did that, a lot of niggling discomforts went
away.

If it's hip/back based then it might be more about how you are holding
yourself on the bike - might need particular attention paid to where
your hips and upper back are and how they are moving on the bike.

Zebee

Gene said:

I've been riding a Burley Taiko in SWB mode as well as MWB for over
8000 mi now. Occasionally I suffer a little bit of lower back pain but
nothing that a couple of vitamin I pills does not cure within 24 to 48
hours. Last year I started riding a Vision R64 (high racer with 650c
wheels. I love it and it's about 10 to 15% faster than the Burley.
Trouble is I now get some serious back pain and stiffness much lower
down. i.e. the sacro/illiac joint or region. Now my recovery time is
more like 4 days and most recently I've been in pain for 10 days. Is
there something peculiar about the riding position on this bike that
would lead to these problems or am I just wearing out ungracefully. Any
thoughts from any who have similar problems with this or similar bents
is appreciated.

Instead of relaxing in the seat are you leaning slightly forward to
help hold your head up (presumably the riding position is much more
reclined on a R64 than on the Burley)?

Pulling on the bars while riding on a recumbent may also cause back
pain in my experience - this could be another possible compensation for
the greater recline.

--
Tom Sherman - Behind the Cheddar Curtain

Quoted message said:

Instead of relaxing in the seat are you leaning slightly forward to
help hold your head up (presumably the riding position is much more
reclined on a R64 than on the Burley)?

Pulling on the bars while riding on a recumbent may also cause back
pain in my experience - this could be another possible compensation for
the greater recline.

--
Tom Sherman - Behind the Cheddar

Actually, the seat back angle is approximately the same, however the BB
on the Vision is significantly higher relative to the seat than on the
Burley. This provides for a much greater closed in feeling. I'm also
doing a lot more scraping the pavement action which the higher BB seems
to provoke which of course involves the hamstrings more. I'm totally
relaxed and do not pull on the bars.
Gene

Quoted post said:

Actually, the seat back angle is approximately the same, however the BB
on the Vision is significantly higher relative to the seat than on the
Burley. This provides for a much greater closed in feeling. I'm also
doing a lot more scraping the pavement action which the higher BB seems
to provoke which of course involves the hamstrings more. I'm totally
relaxed and do not pull on the bars.
Gene

Seat position, seat position, seat position. Including recline, but primarily on leg/pedal distance. Have a buddy who rides a Vision USS for miles and miles. He does not seem to have this problem. If the pain is equal on both sides you probably can eliminate needing to shim a shoe.

Experiment with moving the seat a bit closer, one or two millimeters at a time. You might start dropping the seat back too, the highracer is really designed to be laid back. I would not go too far at once. I worked back at a rate of one hole every 200 miles until I was as far back as the braces will allow. This allowed my neck to adjust over time.

Am not sure what you mean by scraping the pavement. Do you mean you are starting the bike by pushing along then picking your feet up? If so, do the foot action sitting straight up, then lower your body onto the seat while bringing your feet up. I do this sometimes on uphill starts. Otherwise, I have the bike in a very low gear to start, rapidly spinning up to a reasonable speed then clipping in.

Hull 697 said:

Am not sure what you mean by scraping the pavement. Do you mean you
are starting the bike by pushing along then picking your feet up? If
so, do the foot action sitting straight up, then lower your body onto
the seat while bringing your feet up. I do this sometimes on uphill
starts. Otherwise, I have the bike in a very low gear to start,
rapidly spinning up to a reasonable speed then clipping in.

--
Hull 697

Thanks for the advise. What I mean by "scraping the pavement" is a
mental exercise to get the proper spin and ankle movement. It
originated with the DF crowd and should probably be revised for Bent's
to "scraping the wall".
Gene

Gene said:

Hull 697 said:

Am not sure what you mean by scraping the pavement. Do you mean you
are starting the bike by pushing along then picking your feet up? If
so, do the foot action sitting straight up, then lower your body onto
the seat while bringing your feet up. I do this sometimes on uphill
starts. Otherwise, I have the bike in a very low gear to start,
rapidly spinning up to a reasonable speed then clipping in.

--
Hull 697

Thanks for the advise. What I mean by "scraping the pavement" is a
mental exercise to get the proper spin and ankle movement. It
originated with the DF crowd and should probably be revised for Bent's
to "scraping the wall".

I believe it was Greg LeMond [1] who popularized the "scraping mud off
the sole" description for this pedaling technique.

[1] Seen here in a recumbent context:
<http://www.penningerrecumbents.com/images/greg_lemond_on_bent.jpg> and
<http://www.wizwheelz.com/images/favorite_photos/LeMond.jpg>.

--
Tom Sherman - Behind the Cheddar Curtain