Just build up my new Solaris, most of the parts from the old one. 120mm fork. Have gone for a 35mm stem and 20mm rise / 800mm bar.
I'm on a medium, and am at the cross over point as to whether a medium or large would be better.
I am getting massive neck ache after every ride right now. I thought the front end may be too low, so have rotated the bar up. And have as many spacers as possible under the stem. No joy.
The saddle was slammed back on the rails too. So wondered if shunting it forward would help. No joy.
The only thing I can think of now is bar width, perhaps. I'm loathe to start sawing the joystick though....will perhaps try a 750mm I've got laying around first.
Is there anything obvious I have missed? I don't get this issue on any other bike - (I have measured the others too to see if there's anything vastly different between the set ups) just the Solaris!
Saddle tilt? I have had neck pain from arching my back, because the bike was too small... new frame?
I wouldn't think it is too small. It's way longer than the one it replaced which didn't cause any issues!
What size was the old frame (and which year)? What stem and bar did you have on that? Have you ever used such wide bars before? Do you have open ended lock on grips? Can you change the fork travel?
try the narrower bars. wider isn't always better for shoulders/neck.
I’ve found that with longer reach bikes I need the bars a lot higher - have 40mm risers on both MTBs and they’re already quite high in stack. I suspect I’m a similar height to you.
Old Frame was the Mk2 Medium (2016)
Old Stem - 50mm with 5 degree rise
Old Bar -740mm with 10 degree rise
New Frame is the Longshot 2019 (Medium)
35mm Stem (0 rise)
800mm Bar (20 degree rise)
Grips are not open ended, but I have tried (last night) to use the inner most part of the grips to simulate a narrower bar.
Fork is 120mm Yari...which can go to 140 with airshaft change (but I want 120 ideally!)
I was getting similar shoulder and neck pain until I raised my bars. After much experimentation I found 25mm of spacers and a 50mm rise 800mm bar was my sweet spot.
Bike makers have a thing for super short head tubes.
Put the old bars on, or better still get some 760mm bars with more rise, or cut yours. Some cheap open ended lock on grips will let you move everything inwards to test before buying or cutting bars. And consider raising the travel in the forks… that will both raise the bars, and, importantly, reduce the reach.
I'm 5'11" so, on paper, I'm similarly between medium and large on a current model SolarisMax. I demo-ed both sizes and found I struggled to load the front end properly on the large - might have adapted to it in time, but then again might not have, so I plumped for the medium which is built up with a 50mm stem (top end of intended range, but still within, and not excessively long), 760mm low rise (10mm?) Race Face bars and a set of Yari's set at 130mm. Some spacers, I wouldn't want to swear to this, but 15mm under the stem and a 5mm on top of the stem sounds about right - whatever, it's more than none but less than loads. I find it's a really comfortable all-day bike, including a couple of weekend-away loaded-up rides on it last year.
*edit* didn't think of this until submitted, but it strikes me as odd that you're running the shortest recommended stem when you're at the top end of the height range for a given frame size
Thanks everyone.
@hopkinsgm - I demoed a medium and a large with 35mm stem and they both felt great. The seat is further back on the rails on the medium but that too feels natural.
I ran a 740 bar and 50mm stem for a few weeks from the old bike. But felt it wasn’t quite as was intended for the bike. Hence buying a 35mm that I had demoed. The demo bike was 140mm mind you.
I’ve put an old 25mm rise bar with 750mm width just to see if the bar width is the issue. Will change one thing at a time to try and pinpoint it.
Or maybe I should just buy the large!
I had exactly this when I built up my Large a few weeks ago. I had 800mm bars and cut them down to 780mm and so far so good, quite a surprise as I didn’t think such a small tweak could really make a difference.
Are they straight bars? I ask as I suffered similar discomfort which disappeared when I tried some bars with some back sweep.Think they were Salsa Bend.
EDIT. Yep, 23 degree bend. Got them from here https://slam69.co.uk/salsa-bend-deluxe-bars-71465-p.asp
130mm 29er Revelation with a 35mm OneUp stem. The bike is set up 27.5”+.
Are they straight bars? I ask as I suffered similar discomfort which disappeared when I tried some bars with some back sweep.Think they were Salsa Bend.
No- 20mm rise with a decent sweep as well.
Sounds like you need to stretch your neck frequently whilst you develop the strength for the new position.
200 miles doesn’t seem to have strengthened it! I’ll try to find a different position!
I went from 50mm stem to 35mm and found it really hard work. Couldn’t believe the difference it made tbh, found I started to have to concentrate instead of instinctively ride.
The stem feels natural enough in terms of how it responds.
Tried a narrower bar today.
Neck ache still. Wtf.
Neck ache sounds like you have too much of your weight on the front, so you are pitched forward and having to lift your head. Whats the total stack difference between both bikes?
I've owned loads of cotic and can say from my experience is that they are very long and low . I'm on a flare max (small) 5ft 8 and to stop any neck pain or back pain is to run much shorter bars to bring you up more . I'm running 720mm which is crazy unfashionable but once I got over it and used to it , it was spot on . Never going back to wide bars again when most of my riding I'm in the saddle more . You could buy some cheap narrow bars with a big rise to try out . Also my bars are 38mm high
38mm rise? Wow!
The odd thing is that I did a demo day. Spent all day on their own bike and had no issues. That was with 35mm stem and 780mm bar. 140 fork compared to my 120.
As I said… increasing fork travel both raises the bars AND decreases the reach. If the frame worked for you @ 140mm, consider going for that.
i get that...but then it becomes a 140mm HT which is a little much for all day duties.
“but then it becomes a 140mm HT which is a little much for all day duties.”
In your head, maybe. In reality there’s no difference in pedalling behaviour if you run the same psi in the fork, just higher bars, shorter reach, and slightly slacker angles.
Try it! Try it! Try it!
= :87)
I have 130mm on mine currently. 140mm going on soon…
The 140mm was fun Now you mention it. But the demo was in the Surrey hills which I get to once a quarter and the soutb downs twice a week! Which is def more xc. Wanted to do some marathon events on it which is why I switched from plus wheeled mk2 to the versatile longshot
Interestingly I saw a post by @Cy saying
It runs better as a 120mm - which made me stay with the shorter travel...
Yeah, Cy preferred 120mm on an XL frame… we’re all different shapes though.
An xl 120 sounds very uncomfortable for a 5’11” gent of average proportions.
I’m 5’11 on a medium, with 130mm forks, 760mm bars, 35mm stem, a LOT of spacer under the stem. Moving to 140mm forks and a removing some of the spacers next. Large felt super long to me. An XL with 120mm forks has huge reach… I’d need to be not just a lot taller to ride that, but a lot more flexible and mobile in my riding.
It all sounds as though the set up is too long for you OP. When I suffered from neck ache, it was wayyyy back when bars were silly narrow and stems were 150mm. Too much weight on my shoulders and neck and going back down to a shorter (at the time) stem cured it IIRC.
As you’re already on a short 35mm stem, as has been suggested above, raise the height of the front end and bring the bars back towards you. There are various ways to achieve this as above, try one at a time to see which makes the difference for you.
I’m 5’11 on a medium, with 130mm forks, 760mm bars, 35mm stem, a LOT of spacer under the stem. Moving to 140mm forks and a removing some of the spacers next. Large felt super long to me. An XL with 120mm forks has huge reach… I’d need to be not just a lot taller to ride that, but a lot more flexible and mobile in my riding.
I'm 5'11" as well adn went for the large with 35mm stem.
Fits perfectly.
Kelvin, what size bouncy bike do you ride? I'm contemplating a 29er hardtail to replace my old 275 Soul. I'd love a Solaris but don't want it to be similar to my large FlareMAX. Might need to demo a medium as I'm a similar height to you.
Sorry for the thread hijack, good luck sorting your issue mccraque.
I’m on a Large Rocket. Demo both sizes.
Hi @mccraque. I am the same height as you and ride a M Solaris Max. For info @fathomer, I also rode a M MK1 FlareMax even tho Cy always reckoned I should be on a large. Not sure the Geo on the new ones - only issue I had was getting a 150mm dropper in the M but managed it.
I built a M SolarisMax v1 for my daughter who is 5ft9. Fitted her perfectly. I also rode it quite a lot and it felt a bit small Definitely short. So for the v2 I looked at the numbers and decided the longer reach on the medium would do the job.
Ridden mine about 1300km now I think. Done quote a few long 6 hour+ days on it. Not struggled with neck ache at all. I have Spank Vibrocore bars with a 10mm rise cut down to 780mm, a 50mm stem, a 140mm fork and couple of 10mm spacers under the stem.
I haven’t ridden a L one to compare but I can’t see any reason I’d want a bigger/longer one. Not sure if that helps...
Thanks guys, will get a demo sorted at some point.
Probably the best plan @fathomer. I rode the medium at the demo and the large and much preferred the medium.
Not many pics of me riding my SolarisMax but here’s one to show size.
As ^^ above, I’d be trying bars/stem/spacers. Oh and 140mm is fab. No downsides I can see.
When referencing bike fit vs height, remember that what really matters is your hip to shoulder distance - if you’ve got long legs for your height then you’ll normally prefer a shorter reach but higher stack frame and vice versa. I’m ~5’11” with ~33” legs and 455mm reach with fairly high stack and 40mm riser bars puts me in a good place.
I’m the other way round. 31in leg which suggests a longer reach. We all rode ‘short’ bikes for years tho and I don’t remember getting neck ache!
It's a little odd. I got the tape measure out at the weekend and measured everything against my On-One HT, which I never have any issues with and have ridden 200 miles in one sitting, with no neck ache.
To my surprise, the measurements are not too different at all. Half a cm here and there, but nothing that would be obviously noticeable. I looked at bar height, stem height, seat height, frame stack, seat to grips distance.
I'll have another ride with it with the current set up just to see if I was still carrying the neck ache from Wednesday into Friday's ride (so even with the last set of adjustments, I was aching already without realising)
I'm 5'11 with 32"legs! Properly average proportions...
@mccraque Sorry to hear you're having trouble. From reading all this I can't think of any red flags in terms of what you're doing and how you're setting up the bike. Definitely try more height at the front though. Longer bikes can allow you to use a much higher bar that you might be used to on a shorter bike, because you don't need the low bar to drag your weight onto the front on a properly proportioned bike. Maybe ask around your mates to see if someone has an older pair of high rise bars? Even if they're narrower they'll give you an idea. We used to sell 740 bars with 38mm rise when we did 26" bikes, and it was a popular size/shape for quite a while. For reference, despite preferring 120mm forks on the Solaris, I do run 38mm rise bars with 10mm spacer under the stem, whereas I run 25mm Cotic bars with 5mm spacer under the stem on my RocketMAX. I post my perferences on here sometimes to give some guidance, but ultimately they are just preferences, and they suit my shape. One of the main things I like about having my Solaris setup with 120mm forks is because I have the fortunate situation of having a RocketMAX too, so that does the high speed rock smashing thing, and I like my Solaris to be a little different. It's an absolute hoot with 140 forks, and if having longer forks help you get a better position, I guarantee you'll not notice the extra travel for longer rides once you have them setup properly.
If its any consolation I have suffered from this as well. Upper back and neck pain 24hrs or so after a harder ride which often triggers a headache as well.
What has helped me is reducing the width of my bar, I used this guide https://www.pinkbike.com/news/finding-your-sweet-spot-handlebar-width.html I am puzzled by the use of wide bars without any consideration to your body proportions, which seems a bit like saying everyone ride a Large frame regardless of your height - in fact I went as far as to get his book 'Dialed' and set my bike up based on his advice. This seems to go against current "trends" but for me it has made the bake ride much better and reduced the neck pain.
The other things that have helped (though I am not sure if its anything in particular or in combination) are: Increased the fork spring rate, use less travel but seem much better for the shoulders (Tip from Darren Murphy at PUSH in this Podcast www.buzzsprout.com/78237/1452781 ) , Started going to a Osteopath reasonably often , Do Daily exercises for the neck and shoulders.
And currently things are a lot better for me.
Thanks @cy @petercook80 - I’ll get fiddling
I’ve got the stem as high and the bars S high as possible now. I’ll get the forks upped...