Trey

A freind of mine rides a full suspension Klein Adept Race. He often complains of pretty significant back pain when he rides. We have noticed a few trends. His pain happens more at this one trail we ride that has some pretty steep and continuous uphills. His pain is less on the Klein Palamino that he is demoing which leads us to seating position.

We have already gotten a new seat which improved but did not eliminate his pain. He most mentioned that the difference in the bikes is most notable is the Palamino feels as if he is pulled in a bit too much for comfort between the seat and the handlebars. We suspect from this that he might be leaned over too far on the adept and that combined with leaning over to climb long/steep hills is just working his back. Our thoughts were to get a shorter/higher rise stem or riser bars.

Are we barking up the right tree? Is there a different place or component of the bike we should focus on first?

Trey

Transparent

Sounds like you have the right idea to me...
make sure your friend is seated properly on the bike... so he isnt leaning too far fwd or too far back

a2psyklnut

The more forward and lower position, the more strain on the low back especially. A shorter stem and a more upright position (steeper stem or riser bars) will alieviate this somewhat. The trade off is climbing efficiency. The more upright you are, the more difficult it is to effectively keep the front wheel down while climbing and the increased tendency to "loop out".

Here's a tip that may or may not help and has NOTHING to do with the bike.

Many cyclists have very strong hamstrings (back of upper leg) as a result, this muscle puts a lot of strain and stress on the low back. Make sure your buddy (and everyone) stretches out their hamstrings well before everyride. I actually do a stretching routine every morning to keep my low back loose. If I miss a day, I'm sore the whole day! You'd be surprised how much stretching your "hamsters" or "hammies" helps!

Plus, it's cheaper!

L8R