If I cycle for much more than about an hour I suffer pain in my neck and between my shoulder blades. I thought I might be overreaching so I have raised my handlebars as high as they go; my stem is already quite short. However, this has not helped.

I have booked in for a Retul bike fit in a couple of weeks but in the meantime I wondered if anyone else has experienced such a problem and overcome it?

I had a problem with my neck and couldn’t raise my head enough without pain in the neck and shoulders. Turns out I have Ankylosing Spondylitus which results in the spine stiffening up. A series of anti-inflammatories and exercise sorted me out so I can now see where I’m going.
I would suggest a check with your doctor and if there is no underlying problem the foam rollers seem to work loosening the spine up.

Me too mate. I get it on my Superduke too.

It vaires on the bicycle side of things, sometimes i’m good, sometimes not…

I used to get that on every ride. At its worst, it was almost cramp-like pains in between the shoulder blades.

Things that sorted it:

-Raising handlebars
-Raising saddle (the seatpost was a cm too short even at full extension, so I was pulling on the handlebars to compensate on steeper uphill sections)
-Regular stretching exercises pre/post ride
-Getting a better pillow (seriously! went from standard one to a basic down pillow with a removable memory foam layer and noticed far less neck tension/pain in daily life/biking/running)

Getting a bike fit is a great idea, though. I messed with stem lengths on my road bike, from 70mm to 130mm and everywhere inbetween, and had no joy. Post-fit I ended up on a 80mm with lots of rise, moved to compact bars, adjusted brake hoods and all the neck pain disappeared.

I’ve had this in the past,always around the 2 hr mark.Tried the usual different size stems,higher/lower bars etc,all had no effect.Then in desperation I cut half an inch of each end of an old set of h/bars,it worked.Now all my bikes have h/bars that length…

Position on your bike is wrong – next.

next.

How do we resolve this ?

I had similar. put off doing anything about it for 4 years then finally got fed up. The solution was one £25 sports massage to break down some muscle knots in my neck. I could feel them disappearing as the lady did her thing. I have been back a few times for a full sports massage since because i felt generally better all over after.
Maybe worth a try as my bikes all fit OK.
Andy

Any changes I’ve made to people’s bike set up when they’ve come to me with neck pain has been either saddle, or stem related. Try sliding your saddle forward on it’s rails a few mm se what effect that has. If that doesnt work try dropping your saddle a few mm. Both will reduce the kink you’re putting in your neck by reaching too far.

glupton1976 – Member
Any changes I’ve made to people’s bike set up when they’ve come to me with neck pain has been either saddle, or stem related. Try sliding your saddle forward on it’s rails a few mm se what effect that has. If that doesnt work try dropping your saddle a few mm. Both will reduce the kink you’re putting in your neck by reaching too far

Thank you 🙂

Where is ‘to me’ ?

“To me” is just whereever I happen to be when folk are complaining about injuries. I dont do bike fitting for a living or anything like that. I help people repair their injuries for a living.

Help me please 🙂

I’ve suffered from a sore neck and shoulder for a couple of years or so, cricks and cracks particularly whilst driving. I think a couple of twentyfour12 events were the original cause.

Got a physio to pummel me about a bit, a felt a bit broken and weak the following two days and then after that I was fine. After six weeks I was getting the odd bit of soreness so went back for a second go, that was two weeks ago and I feel fine now. My ‘favourite’ bit is where she puts me on my side, crosses my arms and then lands on me, and just about every vertebrae gives a satisfying crunch. The neck snap is the second favourite…

I’ve not ridden much this year, and probably had a couple of months at a time where I’ve not even sat on the bike, but the soreness remained. So its worth seeing a physio at the same time as you adjust the bike, as until the muscle tightness is worked out you may not notice the changes.

Thanks all. Definitely some advice here I will use to try to complement the bike fit.

As I’m hopeful I’ve cracked this problem now I thought it right that I share the measures I have taken so they may be of use to someone else in future. As I’ve taken several measures at the same time there’s no way to know definitively what’s been most useful but the order here is based on my gut feeling:

1. Position myself better on the bike. At the Bike Fit the fitter observed that my knuckles were white when riding. When I thought about this some more I realised I did hunch my shoulders and put a lot of weight through my hands. I have since concentrated on keeping my shoulders loose and distributing my weight better.

2. Perform neck stretches. I bought the book Treat Your Own Neck and used this as a basis for introducing some neck stretches. In particular I try to do these before I ride and then whilst I am stopped during a ride.

3. Use a shorter, angled stem. I replaced my stock stem with a 60mm Richey stem with a 35deg angle. I’ve found the altered position fine but my feeling is that this has been less useful than the other actions.