Cycling UK Forum

Not "too" concerned about DIY, although cable faff and derailleur adustment makes my heart sink. Stem raiser, short stem, flat bars are my thoughts, but that adds even more dismay wrt likely faff of levers and shifters etc. A friend of mine has an mtb he can donate, I'm thinking that would be better tbh.

(not said mtb, merely an illustration of possibilities)

So the results of my experiment are that I need to move the hoods contact point as shown here. Obviously it doesn't have to be a hood if the bar style changed (pondering on a porteur stylee as I prefer my wrists in that position.

This book is nuts (although gets a bit samey after a while) but that riding position looks pretty relaxed.

pwa wrote: ↑6 Aug 2024, 7:14am If you can prop your bike up safely on a stand or against a wall, try putting a 4 inch section of timber across the width of the bars and rest your hands on top whilst seated, and see if it feels like an easier position for you. If it does, get your tape measure out and work out what you need to do to replicate that with a new handlebar arrangement. That's how I eliminated neck pain from my cycling.

This is indeed a sensible suggestion. And having faffed about I've found I need to raise the bars 10-11cm with a 0cm stem (or, obviously, something swept back).

pwa wrote: ↑5 Aug 2024, 9:03pm But my problems were created by my previous bike position and not related to anything else, which doesn't sound like it is the case with you.

Nearly 4 years of lockdown-enforced working from home with rubbish desk, rubbish chair, rubbish monitor, and rubbish postural discipline is the culprit. Are the culprits, wtvr.

I don't *think* I have a bad riding position at all. I also don't believe that a change of stem is going to miraculously take discomfort away as it's at a fairly forgiving height and reach currently. At some point a fitter is going to have to say "that's as good as it's going to get", so the question is whether it's followed by "on a road bike" or "on any bike".

Would love a recumbent. If I had the space/money/nerve/etc.

I'm having serious problems with my neck, exacerbated by riding my bike, and in fact haven't ridden for a year as a consequence.

I've had both osteos and physios suggest avoiding drop bars, and considering beach cruisers .

Investigating things online, lots of places say "get a bike fit" as a pain reducing strategy.

However my experience of bike fitting is that it's mainly for road bikes, and tweaking contact points to remain on a road bike. So my question is, would any proper bike fitter ever say "don't ride a road bike, get a Pashley/recumbent/low rider" or is that anathema or completely off the radar and register as an option?

[Last time I spoke to a fitter he looked at me blankly when I said my bike had 650b wheels. With gravel tyres. Didn't think it would fit on his rig.]

531colin wrote: ↑22 Jun 2023, 5:13pm Bear with me, I’m trying to do this on the phone.
There is a board called”non-technical too good to lose”
A thread called “fingers either numb or tingly” which will give you a very good start. For example, which fingers are involved tells you if it’s the radial or ulnar nerve getting irritated

Aha, found it viewtopic.php?t=35438. Thanks!

I can ride dropped handlebars for hours without a problem, but straight mountain bike bars make my fingers go numb. I don't whether this is simply a question of wrist angle, lack of alternative hand positions, geometry differences between bikes, or what... but I need to consider whether a very high riser bar, just bar ends, or porteur bars would help.

(Edit - might these really wide mtb bars make things worse re weight distribution?)

What do you think?

Stradageek wrote: ↑1 Jun 2023, 12:51pm As may have become apparent from some of my postings I am a big fan of recumbent bikes. However convincing others of their manifest advantages in terms of safety, speed and comfort is a daunting uphill battle, especially in terms of safety.

My latest attempt to get a friend to try the 'dark side' is being thwarted by all his acquaintances telling him he mustn't ride them because they are so dangerous...

If I may return to the original post (just because that's how I found this thread a minute ago).

I am exactly one of the people being talked about. Well, nearly (it's the wife telling me I mustn't ride one, who's a bit more than a acquaintance <insert comedy remark here>).

I *really* want to ride a recumbent, am 100% convinced it will be a good experience physically and significantly better for my neck (the osteo recommends a low rider, but that's another thread altogether).

Why we are worried re safety, and I imply the word MIGHT here as I haven't been out on one to test:
- I won't be able to see as far ahead as on an upright
- roads are narrow and twisty round here with high hedges, and tbh I'm unnerved enough on my road bike at times wrt cars whipping round corners
- I can't imagine you can pull away as quickly at a junction
- being lower than other vehicles would make me feel vulnerable

But here's the thing. Fear has nothing to do with rationality, it's a personal and emotional reaction to things. Just because an aeroplane I've been on has never fallen out of the sky, and I'm not scared of flying, doesn't mean I'm not a tiny bit bothered on take-off. Same goes for many things... walking across Striding Edge or Crib Goch, theme park rides and so on. You can't remove fear through argument.

As far as I can see the only way to overcome these fears is through borrowing one for a reasonable amount of time*, for a decent length ride or two, say for a weekend. And then - as has been pointed out a few times earlier in this thread - you'd have to try different sorts to see how they feel. So that's borrowing others for other weekends. So this would require dealers giving you £3k bikes/trikes to faff about with over the course of a month or something like that. And then you might hand them back and say "nah" and they need to be happy about it. And even then that's assuming you can find dealers within striking distance at all.

* plus 2-wheelers have a bit of a learning curve I believe?

Where does that leave us? One needs to have a reasonable number of recumbent evangelists, within a 10 mile radius let's say, who are evangelical enough to lend you their pride-and-joys. I don't mean any of that in a pejorative sense.

Andrew.

P.S. I too am conscious of people thinking you're an eccentric clown. Same is true of said low rider, or Pashley Roadster stylee, which I also need to consider for dodgy neck purposes. (Roadster in lycra with clipless pedals of course.) Note that I favour the recumbent because one could actually have a Big Day Out, which I doubt the others offer.

P.P.S. I live in the Chilterns and you can't avoid 9% climbs, on which I would imagine grinding to a halt. Hard enough attempting in the saddle on a mountain bike with a light front end.

We're off to the Black Forest to eat loads of gateaux next month and am looking for some nice places to take the kids on their bikes. The Voies Verts (sp) system in France is superb in terms of routes, signage and online mappage, and I am hoping to find for something similar for Germany. We'll be vaguely near Freiburg.

Any ideas?

...that I can borrow for 5 seconds?