Thurnau

My wrist is really bothering me. I am not blaming it on biking although my wrists do fatigue a little after an hour ride. I ride arms locked position but I am not at all comfortable with bent elbows. I read that the seat should be as high as the handlebars and my seat is much higher than my handlebars. I am about 6'4" and I can not raise my handlebars on my mountainbike. I tape and fold a lot of boxes in the packaging department so I use my wrists there a lot too. I do not do any heavy lifting.

Tom Stormcrowe

You have a bike fit issue. You need to raise that stem up to level with the saddle with a different angle stem, if nothing else. What kind of Mountain bike are you riding? What size, etc. As of now, you're putting too much pressure on your hands/wrists.

Thurnau

It is a 21" Trek 3700 MTB.The stem can have an angle straight up and handlebar still wont be level with the seat.

If I knew then what I know now, I would still not know what I should have bought lol. I read a lot from sheldon brown as to raising the seat all the way so that my legs can fully extend without me bobbing left to right with each pedal. But when I dismount there is not to much crotch clearance. I am not hitting, but there isn't a lot of space left. My LBS originally sold me a 19.5" and I exchanged it for a larger 21" bike after showing them Trek's general sizing guide.

late

It's too small.

Alathea

Ive always wondered what was up with seat height. I see a lot of MTBs around town with the kids/person either way down in the saddle and legs bent while peddling, or at the U dairy store today I saw a parked one with the seat post something like 3-4 inches above the neck of the front flat bars. Is that a 'they got the wrong size' issue or are there people that find that comfortable? Some MTB pics ive seen in magazines look set up that way too....im curious, I guess.

Wogster

Sizing on MTB's is kinda weird, and I think a lot of people have too small bikes, the other issue, is that while it's easy to change the saddle height, with threadless headsets it's almost impossible to raise the bars. You can replace the fork, or you can get an extender, but neither of these resolves the basic design flaw in threadless headsets. Of course dealers who spent many years dealing with road-racing bikes that had saddles considerably higher then the bars, simply cut the steerer as short as possible on MTB's, resulting in this situation you noticed.

Thurnau

I think my saddle is 6" higher than the handlebars. Could be more.

Would a trek FX 7.3 solve the problem? Or does any bike manufacturer have models similar to the trek 7.3? A lot of people here really like specialized. I have to ride somewhat upright due to acid reflux/hiatel hernia. Multiple hand positions would be really nice, but not at the expense acid reflux.

I am wearing a weight lifting glove with wrist support on my right hand right now, I think I am going to the doctor this week. My problem hasn't got any better since friday, and today is sunday. I don't think it is the bike alone, but my wrists to hurt a little by the time I get back.

Thanks for your attention clydes and athenas.

Wogster

First you need to determine what kind of stem you have, there are two kinds, the threaded and threadless.

On a threaded stem, there is a single piece that comes out of the top of the head tube that the bars attach to, this is an older style. Threadless have a shaft coming out the top, and the stem clamps around this, with 2 bolts. A threadless stem looks like this:




What you may need is a stem extender, which looks like this:



You can get the extender at Nashbar, for $20 plus shipping, some bike shops may have them.... You need to make sure you get some spacers as well, to fill up the space.

If you have a threaded stem which looks different, then see your bike shop about getting a longer one,

Extending a threadless stem, or raising the bars on a threaded stem, may require that some of the cables be replaced with longer ones, so keep that in mind.

Thurnau

It is a threadless as most new MTB bikes are. I will look into either extender, or another bike.

deraltekluge

That very well could be the source of your problem. You have a riding posture similar to a road biker using the drops, but with your wrists turned differently and without the option of different positions. Mountain bikes generally have seat and bar heights approximately the same. You said you're 6' 4"...what inseam pants do you wear...and what bike size are you riding? It sounds like the bike may be way too small for you. By the way, how did you get that long a seat post?

Thurnau

I have at least on to two inches before I made it to that line on the seat post. It is a stock seatpost on my 21" trek 3700 MTB. The problem is the threadless headset. It is low. I am 6'3"-6'-4" without shoes. I wear a 34" inseam. My bike is at the LBS for fixing a wheel problem, so I am only guessing here about 6" over the handlebars. It does look goofy though.

deraltekluge

OK, those numbers sound reasonable. Perhaps you just misremember the seat vs. bar height. With the sloping top tube, the seat of a mountain bike does tend to look awfully high when it's adjusted correctly.

wrk101

If your seat is 6 inches higher than the bars, it sure seems like you need a larger frame bike. I think standover is over-rated. I have a very short inseam (30 inch) for someone 5-11. So if I get a bike with "adequate standover", it ends up being very small. There is more to size than just stand-over for sure.

21 inch sounds small for someone with 34 inch inseam and 6-4.

deraltekluge

Perhaps, but not 6" too small. According to the Trek website, the bike has a 31.8" stand-over. The next size up (22.5", the largest size offered for that model) has a 33" stand-over. He's 9" taller than I am, with a 5" longer inseam. His bike is 5" bigger than mine...and the seat and bars of mine are at about equal heights.

Thurnau

I went to the doctor today. I have wrist tendinitis.
For the bike my seat was only a couple of inches over the handlebar. From the other angle it look like the seat is much higher. I had the LBS install an adjustable stem, they did not have an extender which raised it up about an inch. I also had them install end bars for an extra position or two. Now I might have to wait weeks to ride again