Road Cycling - new to sport

Hi everyone

Im new to road cycling after mountain biking for a few years.
I have brought a cheap road bike after using a mountain bike for a while on the road.
However after riding for about 40 min I start to develop pains.
I get a sore back, biceps and neck which becomes worse and worse throughout the ride. I have tried altering stem and saddle heights but do not know really what to adjust them to.
Is the stem to long or short or are the handlebars not high enough. Your input as to what I could do would be much appreciated as it seems to impact on an otherwise enjoyable ride.
Thanks

Hi Windy,

Here are my opinions...I am sure others will comment, as well! First, get the saddle height adjusted. To get the raw adjustment, raise the saddle untill with your heel on the pedal, and the pedal all the way at the bottom of the stroke, your knee is straight. Then, when your foot is in it's normal position for riding, your knee will be just slightly bent. This will allow you to generate the maximum energy with minimum wear and tear on your joints. Try this for a while, then you can make small adjustments up or down to suit your needs. The fore and aft coarse adjustment of the saddle should put the bump on the bone just below the knee directly over the center of the pedal when the cranks are parallel to the ground. Personally, I like my saddle just a little farther back than that, but do what feels good for you. The saddle should also be parallel to the ground, or very close to it.

Most road bikes come with the top of the handlebars up to four inches below the top of the saddle. This is fine for a racer, who strives to get his back as close to flat as they can to reduce wind resistance. However, for many road bike riders, this is too low to give a comfortable ride. In my humble opinion, the top of the bars should be level with the top of the saddle. This gives me a much more pleasurable ride, with few aches and pains. And, it also gives me 4 different postitions to ride in: on the tops, in the drops, on the brake hoods, or on the aerobars. Being able to change hand positions really helps reduce the problem of my hands getting numb.

Hope this helps. It has worked for me! Enjoy your road bike!:D

Peter White has a fitting article worth reading at:
http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/fitting.htm

Some of the other guides are too race oriented, and suppose the rider want to be low and aerodynamic.

Its quite possible to set your road bike to give the same position as your MTB. Take a measure to it, and compare the two positions. I find that the bottom braket is the best place to measure from. Imagine it is the (0,0) origin point of a graph.

The MTB handlebar position should be equivelent to riding on top of the brake hoods.

I'm a newbie to the sport myself.

One easy way to start off is to take your bike back to the LBS where you purchased it from. Depending on the store, many bike shops will be happy to fit you to your bike, adjusting your seat and bars, etc as necessary and at no cost.

From there, you can continue to adjust saddle position by small increments until you find the position which is best for you.

Good luck!