Fit Experts, need advice...
 

So after our first couple of ten mile trips, my fiancee seems to be having a small issue with the fit of her bike. Everything is peachy except for her right elbow starts to hurt, which eventually causes her hand to start to numb up by the end of the ride. I'm wondering if she's maybe putting more pressure on the right arm over the left when she rides (She's on a Trek 7.2 FX). We have some bar ends, but haven't put them on yet.

Would putting on the bar ends help relieve this somewhat since it will give her more hand positions, or should we try to slide her saddle more forward so she's more upright? (She just told me she doesn't like being upright... maybe she's trying to tell me she wants a Madone or something :eek::innocent:). I'm also thinking her saddle may be cocked to the left a little, which may cause her to put more pressure on the right side over the left... I don't have the bike right here to check.

Any thoughts on how to remedy?

Are her arms locked when riding? Or is there some bend in the elbow? Does she have a death grip on the handlebar?

Need pics.

But, yeah, if the saddle is crooked, that could be the problem.

Keep in mind, moving the saddle forward/rearward is not the answer. That adjustment is for positioning of the knees in relation to the pedal/ankle structure. To move the hands forward or back, change stem size.

You could try 2 things: 1) make sure the saddle is not crooked, and 2) angle the saddle nose up a wee tiny bit more. This will get her to sit slightly more upright, relieving pressure on the hands. However, be careful with this as it puts more pressure "down there" and women are especially sensitive to this.

+1

Whenever someone tells me they get sore arms or hand riding I suggest looking at the saddle angle - it should be level or slightly nose up to prevent the rider's weight from sliding forward toward the bars. If the saddle is uncomfortable level or nose up then get a different saddle. Also check that the saddle is at the correct height - saddle height too high can make the saddle uncomfortable and can make the bar/saddle relationship wrong.

Please post pics of the bike. Also ones of your fiance on the bike for added info, preferably naked so we can judge her exact joint and muscle posisitons on the bike.

She does ride with her arms locked, she thinks... not something she ever really paid any attention to. We'll have to check that next time we go out. The saddle is as level as we can get it by eyeballing. I think we've got a level someplace that we could use to check it. As for pointing it up.. she's pretty adamant about not doing that. Same with the nudie pics... sorry guys. :P

When we get the bike back later on today, we'll check to see if the saddle is not crooked as well. As for the saddle forward/back thing, she's riding a 20" men's bike, so my line of thought was that since it's a larger overall bike, the top tube may be longer which is causing her to lean more forward and put more pressure on the hands than she would if it were a smaller bike (when we bought it, the only options were the 20" and the 17.5" which are the only two sizes in her range that Trek makes, the 17.5 felt much too small, so the 20" it was..)

We'll check all the suggestions later on and report back.. thanks everyone!