First experience of road riding – Planet-X RT-58

After taking delivery of a Planet-X RT58 Alloy last week, I went out this weekend for my first ever road ride (on a road bike that is).

Typically time was tight due to other commitments, but I managed to sneak out for an hour and did a paltry 15 miles in 54 minutes. I’ve done the same route on an XC bike with road tyres on in 1hr 20.

I can genunely say that I really enjoyed it, the thing feels so fast, it’s very easy to maintain speed/momentum and climbed like a dream. My first stand up on the pedals and grind up a steep hill nearly resulted in a trip into the hedge though, those narrow bars and that steep head angle take a bit of getting used to after MTB’s.

Obviously, I have no experience of road bikes, so I’m sure that my £600 special would be eclipsed by something better, but for me and for what I want to achieve with it, it’s perfect.

Questions:

Is hand pain normal, I assume you get immune to it, and it’s just due to doing something different?

The bike doesn’t seem to like top gear very much, and seems to be trying to shift back a cog at the back, annoying on long descents. Also the drive train seems a little noisy, and seems to be rubbing the front derailleur in some gears, I was expecting it to be quiet but I am aware it’s Tiagra so not high end. I think I may need to contact Planet-X about this, but not sure how they’ll fix it from Yorkshire.

Hand pain’s not normal – fiddle with the saddle position and the angle of the bars

The other stuff just sounds like the cable tension / limit screws aren’t quite right – nothing a 5 minute fiddle won’t cure

The other stuff just sounds like the cable tension / limit screws aren’t quite right – nothing a 5 minute fiddle won’t cure

Agreed, but I would expect a brand new bike to not need fiddling with before the first ride, at least until the cables have stretched a little after a few hours of use?

I think the hand pain is just a result of very different hand position to what i’m used to and will stop after a couple more rides. I remember having wrist pain when I first started MTBing as I just wasn’t used to it.

Hand pain can be a few things, but often through placing too much weight through your hands so bars are too low compared to saddle height for your flexibility and core strength, or you are reaching too far to the bars, so need to shorten stem etc, or maybe that you just need gloves with padding round ulnar nerve.

Difficult to tell without seeing position on bike really (don’t Planet X do free/ reduced price bike fitting when you buy from them, may be worth looking into as on a road bike you spend a lot more time in one position so fit is more important).

i got a road bike (after 15 years with out one) last october. My first few rides resulted in pain in my hands, esp around thumb where they rest on hoods. I think like you say some of it is a result of different hand position and fact that hands are static for a lot longer. I was told to sit up and ride with hands on tops of bars every so often too.

i presume the front mech/shifter has a trim position and you:
a: know how to use it.
b: it has been set up properly.

…or you are reaching too far to the bars, so need to shorten stem etc,

and or, you are not reaching far enough, so may need a longer stem, etc.

the more time i spend on road bike, the less time i seem to spend on the hoods. them curly-wurly bars offer loads of positions, ‘on the hoods’ is only 1 of at least 5.

Agreed, but I would expect a brand new bike to not need fiddling with before the first ride, at least until the cables have stretched a little after a few hours of use?

You’d think that, but 9 times out of 10 mail order bikes aren’t set up properly.

Hand pain definitely not normal. sounds like you have too much weight on your hands.

Just on the point of hand pain, I get really bad pins and needles both on and off the bike. I tend to only get it off the bike when I’m in bed for some reason, not sure why. It’s not pain, but it is annoying and I’ve previously been told that it’s basically like tennis elbow (or it is tennis elbow).

I also used to get it on the mountain bike and it sees to be more a product of spending a lot of time riding, which I’ve done more of since I switched to 95% road.

If that’s what you’re getting then I was told the only way to fix it was to not ride, which is clearly never going to happen!

When I got my road bike, I wasn’t really sure how it should all be set-up and got quite bad hand pain, particularly the muscle at the base of my thumb.

I posted a pic in here and pretty much everyone said “rotate your bars back a bit, as the hoods weren’t level. I did this and the pain went. Might be something to check on.

Is hand pain normal, I assume you get immune to it

No. I ride hours a week with unpadded thin gloves. See above.

Getting the right size frame is only the start. Taking weight off your arms is next. Is the saddle level? Fore and aft set properly? When saddle is in the right position, most of the weight is taken through the core and legs. I can ride in this position with just a forefinger resting on the ends of the drops. “Knee Over Pedal” will get you to within one cm of this position on the saddle rails.

Once saddle is correct, then select stem length and height for flexibility – I’m not that flexible but can happily manage a drop of 7cm for all day riding. Many people have the bars too far away and/or too low. The result is too much weight on their hands and never using the drops. There are FIVE hand positions, and you want to use them all.

Tiagra so not high end.

Tiagra shifts beautifully. Just fettle the cable adjusters and check the limit screws.

I got a planet X on Saturday (Pro Carbon) and I needed to fine tune the rear mech. half a turn on the barrel got it perfect, so don’t be surprised if it needs a little fettle…

Thanks for the input all.

I set the bars up dead centre on the marker scale on the front, but can easily turn them back a bit. Not sure by how much though, is there a good rule of thumb/starting point?

The bike does feel stretched out, but then I expected that after riding medium MTB’s with short stems.

I can feel a fair bit of weight on my hands, and after reading this think it is most definitely setup related, and me being clueless.

ah …. the joys of new bike tweaking … 🙂

It’ll take you a while to get it “just so” then you’ll be knocking out
the centuries every weekend !

My first few rides resulted in hand pain. I had no idea how to ride it though. After years of riding MTB and BMX, it was a very bizarre experience, very unnatural. I wasn’t sure if I liked it at first. You get used to it though. Still riding the same bike now (with a few tweaks) and finding it very comfortable. In fact it’s probably the best fitting bike I’ve had to date. And I’m pleased to say riding it feels normal now!

Oh, and I have Sora. Shifting like a dream still after 3000 miles or so. Tiagra is far from budget kit. It’s just not Pro kit. There’s a difference.

A road bike isn’t necessarily stretched out though. You’re just lower down. Torso holds much of your weight, and you shouldn’t be leaning over on to your hands. T’is more important to get the fit right than it is on a mountain bike, because you’re going to be spending a lot of time in that position, and it’s not always the most natural position. As you say though, some of it is just getting used to it, and even building the right muscles. But worth looking at some articles on bike fit.

On my old steel roadbike I got numb/hand pain in my lefthand.

Re- pins and needles in bed and on bike – have you fallen off your bike or trapped a nerve in your neck recently(ish)?

Re- pins and needles in bed and on bike – have you fallen off your bike

I have fallen off my bike? 🙂

Yes, once or twice.

or trapped a nerve in your neck recently(ish)?

Well I have compression fractures to four of my vertebrae, done over at least two significant stacks along with a humerus, both collar bones and a wrist, so I would say most likely. 😀

All of which is why I am now riding the road 95% of the time.

I set the bars up dead centre on the marker scale on the front, but can easily turn them back a bit. Not sure by how much though, is there a good rule of thumb/starting point?

I find that shifters and bars are seldom set at the correct angles on new bikes. I loosen the stem plate slightly, then rotate the bars until I am comfortable ON THE DROPS. This normall means that the drops are not parallel to the ground, more like 10 degrees upwards (to match my wrist angle). Then I lock the stem plate and loosen the shifters.

I might then move the shifters down the bars until they are absolutely horizontal – about 5mm. There are bolts down the sides that can be loosened. You can slide the shifters about 5 mm without needing to retape. Typically that will bring the brake lever vertical.

As an example, here’s my race bike side on, if that helps.

I’m not a fan of the sharpshooter position, whereby the bars are rotated backwards to bring the shifters nearer. It makes the drops unusable.

If you can’t achieve this set up easily, chances are your stem is too long.

About the hand pain, see if you can find a comfortable way of holding the hoods, then make sure that they’re angled so that when you’re on the bike and your hand is in the preferred position, your wrist is straight. You may have to move things around a bit to get there. Don’t just rotate the bars, you can move the levers up and down a little bit too. Undoing a few turns of bar tape isn’t such a faff.
Butcher is right too, in that you shouldn’t have much weight on your hands. If your fore/aft position on the saddle is good and you have decent core strength, you should be able to hold your torso up hands-free, even in quite a low position.