Dark side riding has been a lot more accessible recently and so have been on the road bike.
After completing my first long ride (+60 miles for me) I got a sore neck and pins and needles for the following week in my arm. Never had this before. Every ride since has produced the same pain. Not changed my set up on the bike, 100m stem in +7mm and 30mm spacers under. Bike I think is a little on the small side but feel fairly stretched still in this position.
Any ideas what to try to fix?
Sounds like too much weight on the arms / hands and the corresponding need to tip your head back quite a lot to see where you're going.
Could try any combination / permutation of:
lower saddle (you obviously still need to have correct leg extension)
higher bars
shorter stem
rolling the bars back in the stem to put the lever hoods closer / higher to you
riding on the hoods, not the drops
Might not directly solve your issue, but I have to do far more stretching exercises and warming up before hitting the road, a good 30mins. Lots of core stuff, I have a neck injury from a car accident years ago so I like to do a lot with that before I head out. Seems to make life easier when I return, also a bit of a leg stretching for a warm down. Simple things like getting out the saddle more and stretching on climbs or on longish flats can ease stiffness.
For ref I'm 49 this year and the paper round was tough.
To be honest you will struggle to fix it by listening to peoples opinions on here. You need to see a bike fit specialist. Pins and needles for a whole week is pretty bad.
Check saddle angle, nose tipped down a bit rotates you body forward often putting more weight on your bars and causes your shoulders to stiffen and your neck to get sore. Proper bike fit a good idea but may not be accessible currently.
Do you have a peak on your lid? If so, take it off (if you're more arse up head down on the road than on the MTB, it makes you tip your head further back to see up the road).
If there's nothing obviously wrong with the setup then consider just building up slowly.
Reading between the lines of your post, doesn't sound like you've been a regular road rider until recently? In which case you might just need to build up slowly, lots of shorter rides to begin with etc whilst your body gets used to the position.
I had an enforced six month absence and coming back it took a few weeks of shorter rides before I started to feel comfortable with my old setup again.
If you do nothing during the week and then bash out 60 miles at the weekend then you're always going to feel it in my experience.
Bars are too far away and too low. Neck pain is due to rotating your head back. Did you have a peak on your helmet? If so, remove it. Pain in the hands is due to too much weight on your arms.
Quick check. If you ride on the hoods, is there any bend in your elbows? There should be about 5-10 degrees as a minimum. The arms are not meant to be a brace. Often it’s due to the saddle being too far back.
You said the bike is a bit small. To fit properly, you must have the saddle on the right position over the BB such that weight is taken down the legs. Then you set reach with a longer or shorter stem. You don’t “fit” a bike by the saddle position.
You can always fit a road bike at least one size too small without issue. The pros all ride a size down and I’ve done the same. You just need a longer stem and better saddle position. You probably need a slightly raised one.
Quick check. If you ride on the hoods, is there any bend in your elbows? There should be about 5-10 degrees as a minimum. The arms are not meant to be a brace. Often it’s due to the saddle being too far back. Often it’s due to the saddle being too far back.
and/or poor core strength (I am guilty of this)
You think all those seventy year old 600km Audax riders do it on solid core strength? 😉
Position is everything. Start at the saddle. Level and not too far back. Height about 88% of inseam is a good start. As is knee roughly over pedal at 90 degrees. This gets most people in the ballpark of comfort. Too high and too far back are common faults. sliding the saddle back to make more room is another fault.
yeah, @crazy-legs hasn’t got a clue 🤦🏼♂️
I didn't say no-one would be right, but you will get lots of different suggestions and "this worked for me" type replies.
I'm just on week 6 of physio for exactly this. Was a pinched nerve in my neck caused by poor shoulder alignment. After long rides, turning my head to the left would cause a sharp pain down my shoulder and all down the arm. Dealt with by a lot of stretching exercises for the neck, and finally some strengthening and alignment of scapula and deltoids.
It's quite easy to treat. Also worth checking bike fit as above. Additionally stretching and strengthening to prevent recurrence.
yeah, @crazy-legs hasn’t got a clue 🤦🏼♂️
I suggested some options to think about, not a definitive "this is your problem".
But yes, as mentioned, if self-analysis doesn't fix it, it's going to be a bike-fit and/or physio job to sort it out.
You think all those seventy year old 600km Audax riders do it on solid core strength? 😉
Honestly; I don't think they could do it if they didn't have decent core strength. You're right, position is everything and the saddle is the starting point and should be set up like you say, but unless you're on a sit-up-and-beg shopper there will always be some 'forward' weight from the position of the upper body. That's going to be supported by a combination of a) the arms on the bars and b) through the core to the saddle. If the latter is weak, more will be supported by the former (the extreme being the straight-arm brace that you rightly mentioned).
I'd echo 13FM suspicion and front end too low, but yeah all of us are only guessing.
Would be a shame to pay for a bike fit if 13FM is right.
Crazy legs ‘might’ not have a clue, however, he has covered (virtually word for word) all the areas I’d be looking at.
Would be a hell of a coincidence if were both wrong in exactly the same way, wouldn’t it?
The only thing I would add, is that especially on a road bike small changes can make a big difference.
So, change one thing at a time, document the changes too, so you can undo them.
I’d start with maxing the bar height, and/or a shorter stem.
And make sure any tingling is fully gone before attempting a long ride, it will be hard to determine if your adjustments have worked if you’re already nursing an injury.
Thanks all for your advice, I'm mid forties for reference.
Saddle is mid position on the rails but seatpost is slight playback so might try this first.
Current stem is 100mm, I have a 70mm stem somewhere that I might try also.
Failing that I'm going to a physio i reckon and when possilbe somewhere that can advise on set up in person (when available)
Road or MTB helmet? I find using an MTB helmet with a peak makes me crane my neck further when in the drops and that gives me a neck ache.
What is your work? I'm a desk worker and have to consciously avoid hunching over the keyboard. This aggravates the nerves/blood supply causing me pins & needles in the hands. It's harder at the moment using a makeshift desk while WFH. When out riding I have to be alert to keeping weight off the handlebars.
A slightly layback post is normal on a road bike, if you're in the middle of the rails and of 'normal' proportions, you're probably not far off saddle-wise.
Be wary of shorter stem if the bike is a little small anyway, that can actually put more weight on your hands. Try it, sure, but often, un-obviously, a longer stem helps.
The thing with bike fit is that (and I may get flamed for this) often if it looks right, it's not far off. Road frames, geometry and sizing have developed to be, basically, right, in the middle of all their adjustment ranges, and changing one thing often affects a number of other things. If you've got normal proportions, no particular physical ailments/injures that force a particular setup, and a frame that's about the right size, you should be tweaking from the middle of the ranges. If you find yourself pushing the saddle all the way back/forward, or fitting particularly long/short stems, or angling the levers particularly upwards or downwards, it's probably time to stop, putting everything back to 'normal' and start again.
A good position is very important as others have said. This can be achieved 'scientifically' through a bike fit but start with the advice given by TiRed and others to make sure you've got the basics right. Road riding is a lot different than mountain biking on the body, you might spend several hours on the bike without stopping so the tension can build up in your hands, wrists, arms and shoulders and lead to numbness and pain. When riding, take your hands off the bars (alternately!) every so often and shake them out. Sit up for a bit, and generally learn to stretch on the bike. Have a quick break every half hour or so to start with and loosen up a bit. Your body needs to get conditioned to the position and the constant effort. Pain and numbness doesn't necessarily mean you have a medical problem or need a physio, to some extent you may just need to break yourself in more gently and get used to it.
I used to get neck pain in longer road rides, and worst ever was actually off road, doing London to Brighton Offroad ride (but I'd tweaked the Solaris to get a more roady fit, with longer stem and inboard bar-ends)
Someone (probably on here) mentioned removing the peak from the helmet.
Voila! never been bothered by neck pain since. I was obviously craning my neck further than necessary to see ahead.
Saddle is mid position on the rails but seatpost is slight playback so might try this first
Means nothing. What's the seat tube angle? 72 degrees, 73, 73.5? A one degree difference is a cm on the saddle rails (same for the head angle and stem length). Drop a plumb line (measuring tape is fine) from the saddle nose down to the BB. You want a typical set back with the BB about 5cm in front of the line. As a rough rule of thumb, saddle too high and too far back gives problems, Too low is seldom an issue - I ride my TT bike 2cm lower than my road position. If it was 2cm higher, I'd really know.
How tall are you? are you average proportion (ape index arm span = height?). What model/size is the bike? Getting a rider to about right, even with this simple data is not hard. The increase in lockdown riding means I see so many riders in what can only be described as "interesting" positions. Normally too stretched out with locked elbows on the hoods.
One thing that helped me was to fit shallower drops - as a consequence I spend much more time on them rather than just on the hoods. Moving my hands helps reduced pins and needles.
It's worth considering getting a bike fitting; at the very least you'll get some pointers of whether the setup is right, or some immediate areas that may help (in-line post, shorter stem etc).
I did that, which helped but didn't solve my neck/ shoulder pain from longer rides. Tbh that has got better with time though, thinking more about hand position on the bars and posture.
One thing I find is that my neck feels better when I wear contacts rather than my glasses.
If I'm in the drops I end up looking over my glasses unless I strain my neck to look up.
Post a pic and let everyone critique.
As well as the helmet peak thing, do your sunglasses / riding glasses sit high enough up on your nose? I found I was having to crane my neck up as the top of the rim was slightly in the way with my usual MTB pair. Borrowing my wife's which grip better and sit a little higher has sorted that one.
edit - AC282 + 1
A road bike position throws your weight forward that therefore the considerable weight of your head is borne by your neck muscles. If you haven't gone through a process of adaptation, it's no surprise that you're got a stiff neck. Likewise, you're taking a lot more weight on your hands and have tingling as a consequence. Perhaps a shorter, angled-stem might help to help with your adaptation - getting the bars level with the saddle in particular. As you continue to rack up the miles and if the symptoms persist, then maybe a bike fit might help