I bought a budget rigid bike (pinnacle ramin one) a few months back for xc duties.

It’s awesome fun but it’s been giving me problems with my back if I ride anything reasonably rough on it – best described as a jarring sensation in my spine, not very pleasant! It left me unable to ride off road for about a month after a race a couple of months back.

I’ve never had problems with my back before when riding, though most of my riding is DH so not really comparable.

I’m loving the simplicity of the rigid so I don’t really want to go down the route of suspension if I can help it. Is there anything I should be trying out with setup on the rigid to help? I’ve tried various bar & stem combos but that’s it so far.

You haven’t got the saddle being set ridiculously high, as per “real XC-style”, have you?

bigger tyres.

Ti post

some frames seem to be worse than others, ime.

Obvious ones:
Bigger tyres, run tubeless at lower pressures.
Ti seatpost.

Higher front end (ended up with a 29er rigid).
Also non O/S (25.4mm) carbon bars & thicker grips.
Probably negligible improvements, but was enough for me.
Biggest improvement was 29+ front wheel/tyre.

Big tyres at low pressures.
Stand up………a lot.

Check seat post height, I recently built up a rigid and found my nuts we’re going numb on long climbs. Checked my other bike and found that I’d set the rigid up about a cm and a half higher. Lowered it to match and that sorted the issue. There are formulas on the web for correct saddle height but at the end of it all you need it comfortable. That and comfy tyres help, let out a few psi.

Is your core strong? Bet it isnt….

My boss rides a Kona Honzo on my recommendation. Lovely big bike (he is 6’4″).
While on holiday last year he did a lot of riding with his lad who was on full sus.
My boss came back with a kidney infection that may, according to his GP, have been extenuated by his arse and balls getting a beating from his saddle all week. He was certainly in pain in that region. He is a fit man otherwise, 3rd Dan in Tae Kwon Do and teaches regularly. I have recommended that he gets himself a dropper seat post before he shells out for a full sus frame.

I found that raising the bars helped lots on my rigid, & took the weight off my wrists too. It could also be worth trying some Mary bars or similar, to change your hand & arm positions

Stand up more, unweight more, but I expect you already do that if you ride DH.

Is there anything I should be trying out with setup on the rigid to help? I’ve tried various bar & stem combos but that’s it so far.

Maybe check the saddle height to be sure the drop to the bars isn’t greater than it needs to be. 0.883 x your actual inside leg – the only fit formula that I’ve found of any use long-term. From there maybe drop it 5mm or so for off-road. It may not give the right answer but it’s worth checking, suprising how high some people have their saddles, after a certain height there’s no benefits.
There’s a lot you can do to soften a rigid bike but it may not solve that level of back pain, that’s more about position and the direct link between wheel and your backside. Ease into it, core strength etc.

Cheers for the thoughts people.

Seatpost is a KS LEV, it gets dropped a lot and I stand up/unweight as necessary, but I get pain even when stood up on the faster/rougher sections 🙁

Have experimented with various saddle heights ‘on-the-fly’ too.

Big tyres is a thought, though clearance is pretty stingy on the back so I’ll need to see what I can squeeze in. Bar and stem are aluminium handmedown DH jobs so probably pretty stiff.

choose better lines, manual, jump and pop over everything rough you can. use your knees and hips more.
you’ll need a strong back to do this for prolonged periods, but if you ride a lot of DH you already should have. no?

Only seen, never used, but a thudbuster could help.

I would go down the route of trying to identify roughly what is wrong with your back and trying to strengthen it if possible (Pilates maybe?). I have back issues and ride rigid/hardtails, and sometimes the odd ride can really cause a bit of a tweak for me, other times it’s fine.

Saddle angle be something to play with as well. Too far back and you’ll be curving your spine more, too far forward could accentuate the natural lordosis. Not sure either are good for prolonged amounts of time.

Essentially I think there’s a few possible hypothesis:
1) The bumps from riding a hardtail/rigid rear are causing impact in your spine
2) The posture/ride position you have adopted on this bike is causing back pain (or rather your body is not used to or flexible enough for this position, or you have a back condition that is preventing this position being comfortable for you), as such it’s not related to it being a rigid rear end per se.

Your body is trying to tell you something is wrong – listen to it!
It could be as simple as bad posture, weak core, etc, but then it could also be something more serious. Worth getting it checked out IMHO. A visit to a Physio who deals with cyclists and does bike fittings would be a good place to start.
I had back pain building up over a period of months and chose to ignore it. Woke up one day and couldn’t get out of bed – I’d slipped a disc 🙁

Nothing to do with lifting that safari roof on ye landy.

i had real back issues when i reverted to rigid just over 3 years ago. got pretty beat up.

fine now though

I got use to it (I’m reading the trails better now)
wide rims and low tyre pressure (I’m embarrassed how stupid i was previously – sky high psi)
layback seat post
foam grips (and wider bars)
a bit more flexiable/core strength from swimming etc (and relaxing more on the bike)

I went back to a rigid bike a few years ago and was expecting it to be as uncomfortable as my Rockhopper from 1987. However I was very pleasantly surprised and I reckon the biggest differences are wider tyres and carbon forks. If I look down at the Pace RC31’s it can be quite unnerving! They’ve lasted 9 years though without snapping. I should point out I’m only around 55kg.

Sounds to me like perfect justification for a new full suspension bike, keep going, if you carry on at this rate she will suggest the idea without you even mentioning it 😆

27.2 mm carbon seatpost, shimmed if necessary. Will give you about 0.74 cm of fore and aft movement to smooth out the jarring.

Biggest improvement was 29+ front wheel/tyre.

+1

ha ha.. if in doubt buy moar shit 😉

that’s new rims, new tyres, new seatposts, new bars, new grips, a new bike and a course of physio so far. good work guys 😆

🙄

Suspension seat post.
I recently rode a bike without one on the road and I nearly died.