Originally Posted by
base2
Ouch.
The problem, that is if you are intending anything other than short errands around Amsterdam...The problem is your core is doing nothing.
Your butt is sore in an hour or 90 minutes because it is taking an unfair portion of your weight.
Your wrists are sore because the bars are literally pushing you back. Your wrists, arms, neck & shoulders are doing the supporting that ought to be done by your core.
You may
feel powerful in this position because your quads are doing all the work. It's easy to think you're powerful when your favored muscles are compensating for musce groups that are not being engaged. It seems like it makes sense. "I feel this muscle working, it fatigues, I must be stronger" People who are sedentary in lifestyle & spend a significant amount of time sitting tend to have undeveloped, disengaged gluteal muscles. (Ref: Old-man shuffle.)
The solution to all of this is engage your core to actually support your body by setting your saddle height & set back to a reasonably appropriate place. Then take the weight off your hands/wrists/shoulders/neck by moving the handle bars away from your torso. Either down, across, or both. If done right, your core/torso is holding everything together & your limbs are sharing a proportional amount of duty. Doing so by enables the engagement of all your lower muscle groups....Making you actually more powerful.
When I was in Amsterdam the Opafiets I bought off a guy on the street had a very similar fit to what you have, OP. It was
ok for riding a couple of miles to restaurants/cafés, laundromats, etc...But the 40 miles to the beach & 60 miles to Gouda were really asking a lot out of a days travel. I ditched that bike with a bar tender in exchange for a good night of free drinkin' the night before I left. Good times.
My touring bike came with a similar fit as well. I couldn't get out of it fast enough. Though not "uncomfortable," the ease of getting saddle rawness/sores & being slow AF from all the disengaged muscle groups, sucked.
FWIW: I never took anything
Moisture said to be "advice;" only to show what he had done & his logic for doing so.
What you say is all good IMO except for the embolded section. One moves one's saddle to get correct balance, though even this assumes that one's upper body is somewhere near its final position. One takes their weight off their hands by moving their saddle, not their bars. One should be able to briefly take both hands off the bars, while pedaling normally, without sliding forward on the saddle. After one has that balance, one worries about reach. If one's position is way out of whack, there might be some back and forth adjusting to do, first one thing, then the other, then back to the first thing, etc.
Your points about what I call "helper muscles" is well taken. That's a good reason to move into any new exercise program gently so as not to get injured because the helper muscles aren't able to keep everything in alignment. Sometimes with a new exercise, the main movers are very strong, tempting one to work them hard, which can be a mistake. I was doing some intervals this week which made my obliques sore, case in point. One has to bring everything along evenly.