My gf suffers from a sore lower back after riding the road bike for any length of time. She seems to have a lot of curvature in the lower back which I think is probably the cause. Rotating the hips forward straightens her back out, but is uncomfortable on the girly bits. Have tried rotating the saddle as well without much luck. POssibly lack of core strength makes it easier to slouch rather than have a straight back?

The bike is the right size, if anything a touch small, and has a very short stem to try and reduce the amount of leaning forward.

Are there any bike shops in the York/Leeds area which are good at fitting bikes? We’ve been to a couple of the larger chain stores and they’ve been utterly useless.

Cheers!

Sitting more upright by using a short stem might be making things worse rather than better. The most uncomfy I’ve been on a bike was in Amsterdam on a sit up and beg Dutch roadster.

I never normally recommend bike fitting; I think it’s a racket, but I suspect some advice from someone who knows about women on road bikes would be a good idea.

It’s a long way to travel, but why not ring Surosa Cycles in Oldham and ask if Mandy Bishop does that sort of thing. She was world champion a while ago under the name Mandy Jones, and she knows her stuff..

Wondering if this obscene looking thing might help

Try an inline post if she doesn’t already have one, or move the saddle fwd 10-12mm (= about 1 degree on the seat angle). It’ll reduce the back / hip angle. Also, and it is a generalisation, but women on average have a lower c of g and also often need to shuffle further fwd over the crank for a well balanced weight distribution compared to a man of the same proportions. There’s some ergonomic BS around WSD bikes imo, but more mass lower down than men is a fair average assumption (lower flexibility between hip and torso than men is also mentioned but I’m not sure if that’s generally true or not)

Raising the front often just puts more pressure on the saddle area – think of a skier in a tuck, as you reach fwd you need to stick your backside out more to balance, as you raise the front you tip backwards or stand up more, similar idea on the bike. Moving the seat fwd a bit and keeping the bar in the normal position often works out well for non-racer types.

fwiw I also found an inline post was the solution to my lower back pain on the road bike, let me keep a good front end / bar set up and eliminated all my back pain on long rides – related to short / tight hamstrings I think. And this was post ‘bike fitting’ session.

mrs stoner has had good results from bike-science. I think they have a team at planet x in rotherham which I gather is in the north like Leeds.

A friend of mine had a bike fitting at Boneshakers in Harrogate and (she) seemed pretty happy with the whole process and the results. Might be worth a call.

Firstly get a proper bike fit. I was riding with a curved back. In my case rolling the hips forward has made a big difference, less back pain and it has the effect of allowing a more stretched position ie longer stem. In my case I pushed the saddle back about an inch after the bike fit at bike science having used an in line post in the past. Much better for me but as everyone is different you need a bike fit to give the best position for the individual. I also splashed out on a selle smp dynamic which has sorted a numb nuts problem, although I do have to be stretched out to be comfortable on it.

Thanks for the replies, will try Planet x out, good excuse for a visit 🙂