OK, I’ll admit it, I haven’t ridden much for a good while now, so it may be that I’m just out of shape, but today I rode about 25-30 miles on my On-One scandal 29er & my back is killing me, when I get up it takes a while for me to straighten up.
I’m 6′ (long in the leg if anything) & my bike is the original scandium frame in 19″ using a 105mm stem, could it be the reach causing the problem?
If not any bright ideas as to how I can sort this, I would like to get back on the bike more again as today was just so much fun I could of ridden all day (I think the weather helped!), but I know the back will be worse in the morning so it puts me off.

Cheers in advance.

Carbon post and to railed saddle will help remove some trail vibrations, fit wise it’s hard to say without seeing you on the bike. Bigger tyres and lower psi might help a bit as well.

Time off the bike =weak core muscles = back pain

Just one possibility obviously

Stretch your hamstrings – same is happening to me after a riding gap of a few months. I expect that mine and your back will sort themselves out in time though.

weak core muscles = back pain

This.

Thanks all, I use a suspension post, high volume tyres & a carbon bar, so I don’t think the bike is the problem, but maybe the fit is. I’ll try a shorter stem but I was hoping someone would come along & say a shorter stem cured their back pain woes.
Does anyone have a link to a site that relates to bike fit & associated pains & how to fix them?

Cheers.

It’s not fit though. If your core is weak, you can’t antsy fit to fix that though you might mitigate it a bit.

i have the same problem mate and i think its a combination of all three. hamstrings are chronically short, core is weak and 100mm stem are all factors. of course i started by changing the stem 🙂

ride more frequently but shorter distances whilst you get back into it – your small supporting muscles will need time to re build.

Ref. the bike, it does sound long for your height if your running long legs. I’m a long-legged 6ft (35inch) and an 18″ 26er with a 90mm stem is a long reach.

Cheers cp, I’m a 34″ inside leg, just measured the saddle to the bars on a couple of my bikes & the On-one is 2″ longer so I’m going to address that first & see how it goes.

Cheers all.

As been said.. Weak core

I used to have this, searched and googled lots.

I now stretch my hamstrings for 30secs and IT bands for 30secs in the morning, before and after a ride (and during when I still had some remaining pain), and before bed. I never get back pain now but I think riding regularly helps.

If you sit down all day you will be more susceptible to it. When I was doing a job that had me standing for hours I never had the pain.

I struggle with this too – it is weak core plus for me an old injury. It needs stretching and strengthening exercises pretty continuously. But the problem isn’t the bike. Riding will actually help with flexibility and strength as long as you arnt actually injured at the time. So, stretch, do Pilates (or similar) and don’t stop riding as and when you can-build slowly

I swear by Pilates to strengthen my core muscles and protect my back.