Just surfin through seeing what other overs 50 are talkin about. Curious as a 64yo bent rider, to see if anyone talked about the possibility of riding fast and not having to look down at the pavement most of the time. With the option of some really sleek HighRacers these days you can truly have comfort, speed, and good riding visibility altogether. Being able to enjoy the scenery on rides such as yours is frosting on the cake.

This is how I ride. 90% of the time I ride on the hoods and move to the drops in wind, hard efforts (intervals, sprints, fast descents) and to stretch and release tired muscles.

Nothing but tailwinds in your world? No wind at all? How do you arrange that?

If my neck gets tired on long rides, I do wrestler's bridges when I go to the gym. When they get too easy, I grab a couple small dumbells and rest them on my chest.

You should be able to raise your eyes (look 'up') so you can look up the road while your head is mostly down. Helmet visors, glasses frames and even bushy eyebrows can block that vision. Those will require you to tip your head back farther, which tires out the neck faster.

Looking around at the scenery gives your neck a break from the straight ahead position. Even hard core racers like scenery.

When you ride a recumbent for a while, you really start noticing how diamond-frame riders get fixated on the road 20 feet in front of them. And when you go back to a DF after a long time on the 'bent, you instantly miss that feeling of being easily able to look around as you ride.

If your posture is good, riding the drops shouldn't cause neck strain.

The last time I rode head-down, I ran straight into the back of a parked Buick. I was about 12 at the time.

Watching the road ahead keeps you aimed in your intended direction. It also helps you avoid things that might dart out in front of you.

I recently got serious about stretching to help with pain in the neck and back. I started with stretching twice a day, and after three weeks went to once per day. My pain is gone, although I can't say for sure that stretching is what solved it. I can say that stretching really makes me feel good. You've got to do it for several weeks before you feel the benefits.

These are the stretches I do every day:

Stretching Exercises
Cat Stretch
Knee Raise
Hamstring Stretch (Strap)
Lumbar Rotation
Paper Clip
Child's Pose
Hamstring Stretch (Wall)
Achilles Stretch
Quadriceps Stretch
Pectoralis Doorway Stretch
Shoulder Stretch
Neck Stretch
"Look behind you while riding" stretch
Ingela Stretch (squeeze shoulder blades together)

Excellent advice. Nearly all of us would benefit from paying more attention to stretching.

While on a long ride event this weekend, I felt a bit of stiffness in my neck and did this yoga stretch at rest stops. It relieved the stiffness right away! (of course, I did it while standing): http://yoga.isport.com/userfiles/Gui...01_300x350.jpg

At least there are a few honest DF riders in the world. They freely admit that there are short commings riding a DF bike. Neck pain and fixated on the front wheel are a couple of them. While DF bikes are overall faster, but not in all cases bents do have many of advantages. No neck pain and being to comfortably being able to look around are two of the things described in this thread. BTW another is not being all humped up and compressing the lungs is another.

"This seems like a dangerous habit to get into. Is this simply an age thing?
Are you finding you aren't looking around anymore but focusing directly ahead?
If you are riding fully in the hoods or drops, are you really head up, looking around & in the distance? "

It is potentially dangerous to focus on only one area of the road that you are sharing with fellow road users,
some of whom are worth paying close attention to.
Is it an age thing? I don't know, do you? Only you can answer that question for yourself!
If I were in your shoes, I'd alter the fit of my bike to make it easier for me to see more of the road.

Am I, "not looking around", like you say you are, you ask?
No.
My bike is a recumbent, equipped with rear-view mirrors.
I have an excellent field of view.

My handlebars are not equipped with drops, so my head really is up... looking around & in the distance.

If you're in the drops, you're looking for more speed with the same effort, obviously.
If you can't see well while you are in the drops, then adjustments must be made so that
you can see.

Speak for yourself. I ride both, and have no problem looking around on either platform, despite the fact that I recently lowered the stem on my road bike, to 3" below the saddle. But, I DO have a rather large blind spot on the 'bent: I can easily scan the forward 180 degrees, and my two rearview mirrors give a good view back, but in the ~60 degrees between I'm essentially blind. And it DOES matter: that's right where traffic comes from at one of the more dangerous intersectons on my commute, as well as when I'm pulling out of the driveway at work. It doesn't stop me commuting on the 'bent, but it could be a major issue in a more urban environment.

SP
Bend, OR

The DF "issues" you describe sound an awful lot like a poor fit on the bike. My df position is not quite "pro racer" aggressive, but I run the top of my handlebar 3-4" below the saddle, and have no neck pain or restricted vision. And since I lean forward from the waist, I'm not "all humped up and compressing the lungs". If anything, my breathing feels LESS restricted on the df, and my power output is measurably higher for the same effort level than it is on the 'bent.

BTW, I'm also an avid 'bent rider - rode it pretty much exclusively for 3 years, after 30+ years on df's. Both platforms have their limitations, and I've gotta say my 'bent is an absolute BLAST to ride. But so are my df's, and what with the higher power output and significantly lighter overall weight (20-ish pounds vs 35 for the 'bent), they climb WAY better - a significant consideration when my favorite rides include 5000 - 6400 ft mountain passes.

Sorry you think the only "honest" df'ers are the ones who agree with you. There IS more than one way to be right.

SP
Bend, OR

I just rode 750 miles, halfway across France and back on my DF in just under 90 hours. I had zero neck and back pain. I have what most people my age consider a fairly extreme position, it's the one I find combines the most comfort with the best performance. This is not for everyone, but when i see someone riding a DF with a very upright position, I wonder about their butt, because it's taking a lot of weight. I was noticing on the road that all the recumbent riders I passed (also on the same ride) had one shoulder considerably lower than the other. Later, I talked to a recumbent rider about it and it appears that over a long distance like that the dominant side takes over and the non-dominant side sags. Obviously there were some DF riders that ended the ride with neck problems, but a majority of the recumbent riders I saw looked a mess.

The ideal DF position simply does not do what you say it does to the lungs. If you take a racer's DF position and rotate it back to the correct angle to put that person on a 'bent, you will see that the positions are very similar. Yes, you have to hold your neck up on the DF.

IMO, neck fatigue is more about hamstring and back flexibility than neck issues. If one leans forward by tilting the pelvis and keeping the back straight, the neck does not require as much extension to see up the road. If the hamstrings and lower back are tight, the pelvis does not rotate and the middle back rounds pointing the upper spine down. In that posture to see, up the road in the drops requires more neck extension and generates fatigue.

As far as seeing up the road, I think that is obvious. It is especially true in pelotons or pacelines. The goal in a group is to gage the distance to the rider ahead by using peripheral vision while looking far up the road and into the paceline to anticipate moves the group may make long before you are confronted with a panic situation. This is called reading the pack.

When I trained with my Russian coaches at the cycling gym, they wanted our heads up watching the TV and not looking down at electronics. We were allowed to glance at the electronics.

I ride and race a lot in the drops and do not have a problem looking up the road or reading the pack. Getting the bike setup right and learning to look up the road, while maintaining an aero position, is yet another body adaptation and advanced skill set required for group riding and safe riding in general.

How do you change the weight distribution?

With only 3 contact points (hands, seat, feet), the seat would naturally receive most of the riders weight. If I rode with more weight on the hands, that would increase hand and shoulder discomfort. How do you ride and where is your weight?

That's five contact points, not three. And for me, most of the weight is on my feet when I'm pedalling actively. My hands are basically just resting on the bars, not holding up much weight at all, and my butt is more or less just maintaining my position on the bike. Dawdling along, because of traffic or a much slower-riding companion, there's more weight on my bottom and hands, so I find it less fatiguing to keep up a fairly brisk pace.

This has worked for me since for 35 years. Center of gravity is roughly over the bottom bracket. This is achieved through adjustment of saddle setback, saddle angle, stem length, stem height, and posture. And bending from the hips rather than the waist keeps the back and neck straighter, causing less strain. Channel Japanese businessmen greeting each other. With proper center of gravity and an extended back and neck, you embrace the forward lean rather than fight it.

bobby

Your statement that DF bikes climb "way better" was laid to rest during RAAM a couple years ago. The RANS team riding Xsream bikes improved it position on the way up the west side of the Rocky mountains.

While there have been several posts by DF riders that they dont fixate on their front wheels, and maybe they dont, on a group ride anyone can see the ave DF riders do. This is a dangerous thing to do.

A very atypical situation, don't you think? Bents have an advantage for solo riding, but that is mitigated when pacelines are involved. That's why you don't see bents at the top of the leader boards on the big event rides. A full fairing bent, ridden by a guy who was much younger, and appeared much fitter than me, was well behind me the last event I did. IIRC, I was 50 something, and he was 80 something, out of about 1,000 starters. It's all a matter of how and where you want to ride. I like pacelines and pelotons, and bents don't really fit in with that.

I made no such claim. I said MY df's climb far better than MY 'bent. I'm not fortunate (or wealthy) enough to be able to try every 'bent on the market to find the one perfect one, so I ride what I have. And when I'm riding in the mountains, it's on my df because it climbs better THAN MY 'BENT.

SP
Bend, OR

You must have remarkable visual powers to be able to tell where a passing rider's eyes are focused.

Not to mention that a 35-pound 'bent isn't going to be one of the speedier examples of the breed.

FWIW, I've seen the front wheel fixation. It doesn't happen often on normal rides; it's usually a result of fatigue from a hard ride.

Actually, it's surprisingly rapid on flat to rolling courses - a good 2 mph faster than my df, on average. (BTW, we're talking about a Performer Agenda semi-low, so it's pretty aero with a 20-deg seat angle and so on, but being a pretty entry-level bike it is rather portly and flexy. It's still a gas to ride, except on those 20-mile climbs.) And yes, I'd LOVE to have a Carbent or some such, but that's WAY outside the budget for this lifetime.

SP
Bend, OR