Gammy neck and bike fitting

[a.twiddler]

Everyone is different, and one size definitely doesn't fit all. In the days when my idea of a general purpose bike was a drop bar tourer (and the set up does make for a versatile bike) I bought a folding bike and was really surprised how comfortable the upright flat bar riding position was, even more so with the addition of bar ends. It was easy to see all round at junctions or to look behind, and to get on and off due to the low stepover. I was a bit more flexible in those days and the design had some compromises but I did manage a few longer rides on it. As I got older and stiffer, particularly in the neck department, I dabbled with a hardtail mountain bike and tried Jones loop style bars. However the tourer was more useful, despite the need for gradually increasing handlebar height. I even contemplated going for a bike with a mixte frame to make getting on and off easier, still staying with the idea of a conventional bike.

Since I discovered recumbents, the tourer has seen little use. I still have a folder, which has now become a Brompton. I amazed myself by managing a 65 mile ride on that and still felt OK the next day. However the recumbents are what I generally use for non folding trips now.

The general view of recumbents is that they are expensive but although I've had several over the last four years, I would agree with Stradageek that they don't have to be. I still have my first one, the Linear, which was a bargain, and one other, and none of the ones that I've had cost over £400, mostly a lot less. All pre loved, of course. The secondhand Brompton cost much more than any of my recumbents.

The hardest part is finding one to try, and one that suits, as every single one of them is different. You have to decide what you want in a bike, sporty, general purpose, even mild off road, and apply it to the field of recumbents. As pjclinch says, it's not so easy to categorise them compared with upright bikes. Perhaps start with comfortable, and work outwards from there. I can certainly ride further on a recumbent type of bike than on anything else, with far less aches and pains than I would otherwise have.

[Cugel]

Anyway... this is my current set up20230902_090544.jpg

That saddle! Is it made from some part of a goblin, hunted and murdered simply to get that, that, that .... organ!? One suspects that sitting on that perch for significant time will result in a nether-deformation of the worst kind. The goblin's revenge.

I have an olde-fashioned MTB that's not suspended front or back, except by its fat tyres. It came with a straight bar about 8ft wide, so that was cut down. It still gave me hand & wrist aches of many kinds so I put on nice bar-ends with a slight bend in them and double-wrapped the whole lot with squishy bar tape. My wrists still ached after 10 miles, even with the additional two hand positions.

So I prefer* drop bars, which can be configured then gripped in all sorts of comfortable ways.

* Please note that this is not a euphemism for the hyperbolic "hate" notion being put about by the binary-thought folk. There are many shades of emotion atween a fan-like adoration and a swivel-eyed hatred despite what those of various Certainty Cults believe.

[cycle tramp]

Anyway... this is my current set up20230902_090544.jpg

That saddle! Is it made from some part of a goblin, hunted and murdered simply to get that, that, that .... organ!? One suspects that sitting on that perch for significant time will result in a nether-deformation of the worst kind. The goblin's revenge.

It's a trk smp selle saddle.... and whilst it might look like a goblins kidney.. it actually works really rather well, without nether-deformations..... quite the opposite infact...

[cycle tramp]

I have an olde-fashioned MTB that's not suspended front or back, except by its fat tyres. It came with a straight bar about 8ft wide, so that was cut down. It still gave me hand & wrist aches of many kinds so I put on nice bar-ends with a slight bend in them and double-wrapped the whole lot with squishy bar tape. My wrists still ached after 10 miles, even with the additional two hand positions.

So I prefer* drop bars, which can be configured then gripped in all sorts of comfortable ways.

* Please note that this is not a euphemism for the hyperbolic "hate" notion being put about by the binary-thought folk. There are many shades of emotion atween a fan-like adoration and a swivel-eyed hatred despite what those of various Certainty Cults believe.

I actually like drop handlebars.... again going back to the books I read from the 1950s and 1960s.. many of them suggested setting up dropped 'bars so that the top was actually 1 or 2 inches higher than your saddle..

Thus you had a 'bar which gave you 4 positions - on the hooks for a head wind, behind the curves for down hill (which caused you to bend your elbows, to reduce any sudden road shock) on the hoods, and on the tops, which as suggested by several authors, allowed you to rest any aching part of you, to enjoying the scenery and to allow a straighter back when riding with a tail wind in order to conserve your energy... which sounds ideal for long distance touring..

..sadly most people seem to slam the bars down as low as they will ho, without considering anything else.,...

[Cugel]

..sadly most people seem to slam the bars down as low as they will ho, without considering anything else.,...

I know cyclists, especially the olde racy kind, who would recoil in horror at those pics of me bikes up-thread, showing the jacked-up and tilted-up handlebars waving up there in the stratosphere. After their shock-horror cries and yelps, they'd spend hours trying to tell me how I should lower those bars until, like theirs, they're a yard in front of the head tube and scraping the tyre of the front wheel.

"That's how Merckx had 'em so it must be reet". "What will the other cyclists (aka TdF-awed fashion victims) think"? Etcetera.

***************
That goblin kidney looks like it might suddenly curl up to grasp at your nether at an inopportune moment, such as when you're negotiating a large muddy puddle near an adamantine bollard. You haven't felt it trying to hang on to you as you attempt a dismount at the cafe, have you?

[ajoten]

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).

[ajoten]

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

[ANTONISH]

I have an olde-fashioned MTB that's not suspended front or back, except by its fat tyres. It came with a straight bar about 8ft wide, so that was cut down. It still gave me hand & wrist aches of many kinds so I put on nice bar-ends with a slight bend in them and double-wrapped the whole lot with squishy bar tape. My wrists still ached after 10 miles, even with the additional two hand positions.

So I prefer* drop bars, which can be configured then gripped in all sorts of comfortable ways.

* Please note that this is not a euphemism for the hyperbolic "hate" notion being put about by the binary-thought folk. There are many shades of emotion atween a fan-like adoration and a swivel-eyed hatred despite what those of various Certainty Cults believe.

I actually like drop handlebars.... again going back to the books I read from the 1950s and 1960s.. many of them suggested setting up dropped 'bars so that the top was actually 1 or 2 inches higher than your saddle..

Thus you had a 'bar which gave you 4 positions - on the hooks for a head wind, behind the curves for down hill (which caused you to bend your elbows, to reduce any sudden road shock) on the hoods, and on the tops, which as suggested by several authors, allowed you to rest any aching part of you, to enjoying the scenery and to allow a straighter back when riding with a tail wind in order to conserve your energy... which sounds ideal for long distance touring..

..sadly most people seem to slam the bars down as low as they will ho, without considering anything else.,...

The set up on my bikes hasn't changed much since the late fifties.
I usually have the top of the 'bars about 2" below saddle height (which I like level.
What change I have made is to fit shallower

drop 'bars - shallower than the Cinelli Giro's I used to have.

[ajoten]

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.

[Jdsk]

That looks achievable.

What are your current thoughts about keeping the existing bars and controls?

And will you DIY?

Jonathan

PS: I've recently made a similar change on one of our tandems. I used a cardboard template to get the dimensions for the new stem.

[ajoten]

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)

[531colin]

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.

bike1.png

I think moving the handgrips as much as that will alter the weight distribution, and on a "race" bike that might make the steering feel unacceptably light.
I would be thinking about doing a simple "lash-up" just so you can ride round the block (on quiet roads, obviously) and check the steering feel.....even if you simply rotate the existing bars until the "drop" bit of the bar is about where you want the handgrip....as long as you can operate the brake, you don't need to change gear for a short test.

[cycle tramp]

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)

WhatsApp Image 2024-08-05 at 08.32.21.jpeg

Cool! It's not the first time I've seen this set up. Certainly there is (or used to be) someone on this forum who toured on a red a cannonball with handle bars in a similar position...
..Certainly way back, ages ago I put a set of bmx bars and rode around my village on my mountain bike..
And here's another guy using the same set up on his bikes who regularly tours - check out his bikes and touring photos on this link https://bikepacking.com/bikes/chad-and- ... t-deaders/

[cycle tramp]

Found it! And what an excellent description of metamorphosis it is, too. Thanks for posting Zenit-b

https://zenit-b.blogspot.com/2016/11/ca ... g.html?m=1

[cycle tramp]

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.

bike1.png

I think moving the handgrips as much as that will alter the weight distribution, and on a "race" bike that might make the steering feel unacceptably light.

A light front end is God's way of telling you you need a basket on the front..
..and you need to fill it with cheese, good bread, sausages and something to drink .....preferably in glass bottles...