Fifty Plus (50+) - Perfect recreational bike fit

I am sure that I now have my bike fit perfect. I usually ride a 20 mile loop each day but decided that I would ride my old 35 mile loop over the weekend. I am riding along and after 20 miles things start to get uncomfortable. I start shifting my hands around, sliding back and forth on the saddle, moving my feet around on the platform pedals, standing and pedaling, standing and coasting and anything else that I can think of to get more comfortable. Then at about 30 miles I am totally miserable. MY hands are going numb, my rear is sore, my feet are numb with hot spots, my neck is aching, my back is aching and my legs are tired. So I know that my bike fit is perfect because everything is equally miserable. If only my hands were giving me trouble then something could be adjusted to help and if only one part of my body was in good shape then things could be adjusted so that pressure could be applied to the part of my body that was in good shape. I can now rest knowing that I no longer need to adjust anything on my bike.

:roflmao: :roflmao:

At least you have a sense of humor about your perfect fitting bike:D

:lol:

Always look on the bright side of life, tra la, tra la la la la la.........!

I know that my post seems like a joke but really if the bike fits correctly would not everything get uncomfortable at the same time. Now ideally there would be no discomfort at all but I just can't believe that this is the case for anyone. Some may have to ride 200+ miles for this to happen while I only have to ride 30 miles but at some point it only makes sense that the discomfort will overcome the desire to continue to ride. I also think that bike fit is a moving target which depends on how rested a person is and what aches and pains and injurys we are dealing with daily. Oh well what do I know, I can't even get my pillow fluffed up good enough to keep me comfortable for a full nights sleep.

Well, I can honestly say that my bike is not uncomfortable. When I ride, even a long way, my hands are not going numb, my rear is not sore (anymore since I figured out the saddle issue), my feet are not numb and I don't even know what hot spots are, my neck doesn't ache, neither does my back. But my legs do get tired! My left thumb gets tired too, but I'm gonna work on that one.

If bike fit was where it needed to be nothing other than the legs getting tired should be happening at 2o+ miles.

If bike fit was where it needed to be nothing other than the legs getting tired should be happening at 2o+ miles.

While I like flashy arguments and hyperbole this is mere exaggeration:
On hard rides I get tired all over, even my eyebrows.

Giving up on exaggeration: On a bike with flat bars I just have (left
shoulder) pain and can't ride hard. I know that our bodies aren't the
same but I always wonder what percentage of people who complain
about drop bars actually gave them a chance.

While I like flashy arguments and hyperbole this is mere exaggeration:
On hard rides I get tired all over, even my eyebrows.

Giving up on exaggeration: On a bike with flat bars I just have (left
shoulder) pain and can't ride hard. I know that our bodies aren't the
same but I always wonder what percentage of people who complain
about drop bars actually gave them a chance.
I used to wonder what all the hype was about drop bars. Then I got me one. :)

I must just be more sensitive than you tough guys and gals. It may be some of my medical problems causing the pain/discomfort. For instance about 20 years ago my sugar levels were over 300 and my nerves must have gotten inflamed or something. I can remember closing the car door and my finger slipping off the handle and it would be so painful that I would want to laydown on the ground and cry. I mentioned this to my doctor and he said it must be old age. I was a ripe old age of 34. I finally found out that my sugar levels were high and when I got them under control the pain went away. I wonder how this could happen.

I try riding 20 miles each day for my health and maybe after another year or two I will toughen up enough for the longer rides. I am going to try to do a 35 mile ride about twice a month and see how things go. Maybe longer times on the bike will help to toughen me up.

I do like drop bars especially when it is windy. I feel like it is much more efficient to ride in the drops at all times but to vary hand positions and to rest other parts of the body I often ride on the hoods and the top of the bar.

How long have you been riding?

I can remember the first year or so that the bike became uncomfortable around 20-30 miles simply because I wasn't used to riding these distances. I think my hybrid fit me correctly so I don't attribute the discomfort to a bad fitting bike.

When I bought the road bike last fall it became very uncomfortable around 25 miles. It took a few minor adjustments to the bike before I could ride these distances without discomfort.

If everything is becoming uncomfortable after 20+ miles it may just be physical conditioning. Hopefully things will continue to improve as you spend more time on the bike.

I must just be more sensitive than you tough guys and gals.

That's probably it.:D

I'm sorry... I didn't mean to be flip, I honestly thought you were trying to be funny. I should have known better, given my own experiences with pain on my bike.

It can take a lot of messing about to get a bike working sometimes, and sometimes, as happened to me, as you get fitter and stronger, the bike doesn't fit anymore. Don't be scared to change components (my Trek is going to wind up as a Trek frame the way I'm going).

Sore rear end? At that distance, padded cycling pants are the go, so if you aren't wearing them, get some first. If you are, and it's just general bottom soreness, you probably need to try a different saddle, or lots of different saddles - I've got a touring mate who went through 50 of the things before he found one to suit, but he's just hard to get on with. I personally wind up very sore between the legs. Having just started riding my old Europa again, I don't get sore. The Europa has the traditional, deep sided saddle, the Trek has the modern platform - it turns out, the edge of the platform seat is chafing my legs, hence the pain, so I'll be buying a new saddle soon (Brooks B17 as it happens).

Arm and hand pain.
How much weight is on your arms? If you have any weight at all, which you will with most bikes, first check that you are riding with bent arms. If your arms are dead straight, you will get a sore neck, shoulders, arms and hands. Bent arms absorb the road shock, but it takes time to build up the muscles in them so don't be surprised if an immediate change to bent arms doesn't seem to work or is hard to sustain.
If you're already riding with bent arms, look at your gloves. Again, if you're not wearing them, get some. If you are wearing them, are they too tight, too loose or just a funny shape for your hands? Equally, what's your bar tape like - changing to thicker bar tape or putting gel inserts under it can help in a big way. On the other hand though, too much padding or gel can cause hand pain too (cycling is full of paradoxes).
Then there's the angle of your bars - the bars should support your weight. If the V of your thumb and fore finger is being pushed into the brifter, you will get very sore hands very quickly, so you want to rotate your bars until the palm of your hand is supported on the bars. The bars themselves can make a difference too. I've just taken one of the modern anotomical bars off my bike and fitted a Nitto Noodle - the difference in the angles is subtle but I'm instantly more comfortable.
That's assuming you are using drop bars. If you're using flat bars, you have my sympathy - they equal wrist and hand pain for me, and I've got two bikes with flat bars, both with bar extensions.
Regardless, you will have to change your hand position around anyway, just to change where the pressure is acting on your hands.

Foot pain. Are you doing your shoes up too tight? They need to be loose when your feet are cold. I found this out when I went to clipless shoes and couldn't ride more than a few kilometres - my feet were burning with agony. The lbs talked me through tying them loosely and the change was instant. Similarly, too thick socks can have a similar affect.

Pain for any reason in one or more of the three contact points between you and the bike will make you uncomfortable on the bike, will lead to you moving to all sorts of odd positions to ease it which will lead to pain across your body as muscles are asked to do things they aren't supposed to be doing. So address one at a time and you may just find that one change fixes all. There's no reason for you to be in pain on your bike, but by cripes it can be hard to track the causes down sometimes, as I'm finding with my Black Beast.

Richard

Terrierman is probably got the best answer. After all I am a poodle man but he is an old gripy and mean poodle if that counts for anything.

Since some of you are really trying to help me with my problems, I will give you some of the information that you requested. Please note that I am not disgusted with my fit or my riding ability. I pretty much just try to deal with what is at hand and try to keep things in perspective. I have been riding for the last two years. I am 6 feet tall and now have lost about 15 pounds down to a weight of 170 lb. In the last two months I have just completed a total of 1000 miles (2 years ago when I started I could only ride 100 yds before I would have to get off the bike with chest pain). My riding cloths consist of padded shorts, one pair of streachy type cloth gloves with another pair of non steachy cotton gloves over them, and my shoes are sneakers with common socks. On the flats I can maintain 18 mph but my course has enough hills that my fastest average speed over 20 miles is 14 mph. The bike has drop bars with fairly soft tape. I don't know what type of saddle is on the bike but it seems to fit my sitbones fairly well. I have noticed that if I lace my shoes to tightly that I will have numbness in the feet so unless I have brain fade I try to make sure that I don't do that. But sometimes I forget until I notice that I have the numbness then I loosen things up.

I really do think that the problem is me being too soft and that I just have to toughen up. I don't even like to sit in an easy chair for over an hour without squirming around to find a more comfortable position so 2 to 3 hours on my bike with comfort seems like it is asking a lot of the bike fit.

Thanks again for your support. Tomorrow I will be starting on my 500 miles for july. Grass cutting a chores are going to try to rob me of time so maybe a few of the 35 mile rides can bridge the gap.