Sdjclevland

Hi I been having neck pain at the base of my neck. I ride a road bike and I have my stem flipped and feel I am pretty up right If I go ok a long ride like 40 plus miles it will start bothering me. It's not horrible or anything but is for sure uncomfortable. Any fixes for this?

DX-MAN

It used to be that you could get stems in longer & shorter lengths as close together as 5mm; lately, I've only been seeing 10mm differences in stem length. Either just a TOUCH moe upright or a SLIGHTLY shorter stem will help the neck issue. I had a similar issue a couple years ago, and the bike I was riding at the time had a frame failure, which was ultimately a good thing. The bike I ended up with had a 5mm shorter top tube, and a 10mm shorter stem. 15mm total difference may SEEM small, but 2mm can change the whole character of the bike!

I'd try a 10mm shorter stem, and set about 3mm lower.

Sdjclevland

Thanks. Maybe I will try to tilt the handle bars up more to see how that feels first before I change the stem. It's annoying me cause I wanna ride further and it bothers me some

DX-MAN

Just make sure the little bit more 'up' doesn't make your steering 'squirrelly' before you head out on the longer rides. I KNOW -- it gets addictive, doesn't it?

Sdjclevland

Well I tried to tilt the bars a little higher half way though a 33 mile ride today and I can't say it helped. Also I don't think I liked the change either. I been trying to relax my shoulders when riding and roll my neck when I can and stretch but this does not seem to help. I don't think I have to much weight on my hands at all either.

DX-MAN

Okay -- you got that try out of the way. When you're ready, try the shorter stem & small adjustments I talked about. not much to lose, really.....

Dfrost 

Another way to noticeably shorten the reach, if you ride on the brake hoods most of the time, is by positioning the brake levers higher on the bars. Unfortunately, that means re-taping the bars also.

Sdjclevland

Thanks I will looks into this as well.

ultraman6970

If your neck hurts can be because of 2 main problems... a core problem or a fit problem

If the saddle is in the wrong position is clear where the problem is coming from, no idea what bike are we talking about here too.

I was you i would start with the most simple of the things, post a picture of the bike it self and one with you riding it. Interesting to see a fit thread but help is pretty much useless w/o pictures.

Good luck