Old 10-05-13, 04:08 AM
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Pamtivek
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Originally Posted by ThermionicScott
The first thing that comes to mind is to marvel that you were able to ride around in a busy street for these pictures.

- It's hard to tell with the rain jacket, but it looks like you are rounding your lower back and keeping your arms fairly straight. Whenever I have lower back pain from riding, it's because I allowed my back to round rather than rolling my hips forward to allow a flatter back. The flatter back then allows you to look ahead without craning your neck as much.

- I've had wrist and shoulder pain in the past from locking my elbows with straight arms -- keeping my arms loose with a deliberate bend has helped a lot, but it took vigilance to break that habit.
Thanks Scott, I think this may be the main problem. I never thought about it, did some googling, Joe Friel described it vividly:

Take a close look at these two riders' positions. I like the posture of the rider on the left. His position on the bike has been fit quite well. But what I like the most is his hip position. He sits on the saddle with his hips rolled forward as if spilling water out of the front of a bowl made of his pelvis. In contrast, the rider on the right is sitting on his saddle as if it's a bar stool and he's leaning on the bar. His hips are not rolled forward. No water is being spilled from his 'bowl.' This results in a rounded back and unnatural neck and head position. The only way to see where he is going is to lift his head high and curve the neck thus making it more difficult to breathe. It also puts his legs in a position that reduces his potential for power and he has to reach more for the bars.
(link:http://www.trainingbible.com/joesblo...e-posture.html)

But, regarding the saddle to handlebar drop, I understand that brevet bikes usually don't have a lot of drop and that seems perfectly sensible to me on one hand, but then again, wouldn't it be easier to roll your hips forward with a lower bar? I'll measure how much drop I have today, it isn't much I think, I do have a bunch of spacers.

As for saddle height, I was raising it incrementaly a few mm at a time for the first couple of rides until it felt it wasn't low anymore. I guess I can still try a bit higher, maybe it isn't too low anymore, but could be higher...will try

Thanks everyone.
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