I recently started getting upper neck and upper shoulder pain on my bike but it always only effects my left side. I did become aware that I keep a very tight grip while on the hoods and I'm trying to learn to relax my hand position.

1. How tight or loose should my grip be while in the hoods?

2. Should my hands grip the hood completely leaving no space between my hand and the rubber of the hood or should my hands be tilted outside a bit to kinda abosrb shock more?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

There is no right or wrong placement, but holding on with a death grip is usually not desirable.

https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycli...l#post12953035

Your grip should be firm enough that an unexpected pothole or rock doesn't knock your hand off the brifter. But that should be only the tensing of muscles in your hands, not wrists and forearms. The rest of your arms should be relaxed, even loose (so say another rider bumps your elbow - it would then be no big deal).

There is no magic re: space between your hands and the brifter. Find the best, secure and relaxed positions (plural). And change them often. Also ride the drops. Wind at your back? Sit up and ride the tops. The great thing about dropped handlebars with brifters/brakes on them is that you have so many choices on where to place your hands. The different choices offer more and less secure handholds, elbows in for minimum air resistance, elbows out for maximum breathing and power, etc. Gert to know them all. Observe what other riders do. But above all, find what works for you.

Ben

Thanks for you insight. I learned a lot from this.

I usually position my right hand similarly to the left hand, but not always.

Overall, it will depend a bit on where, how, and with whom you're riding. In the city, I'm usually close to the brakes. Out of town, a bit less so. And, in a group of cyclists, also on the brakes.

I don't think I've ever had the bars ripped out of my grip. But, I can change grips or grab the brakes as fast as I can react to a situation.

Sometimes I'll just ride with 1 or 2 fingers, or perhaps the finger webs on the tops of the bars. Sometimes I'll use my aero position, grabbing the top of knobs on top of the brake levers, and lightly rest the arms on the top of the bars. This actually seems to be the easiest on the elbows.

Beat me to it...

Loosey-goosey. We teach our juniors to keep everything bent and loose. Hands, wrists, elbows, shoulders, neck, waist.

There absolutely is a correct way, and lots of incorrect ways to hold the hoods. Its all in the wrists.

Hoods too low means you have to move your wrists into ulnar deviation which can result in locked elbows/shrugged shoulders and cause neck and shoulder pain.

Your wrist should be neutral - not flexed or extended. Extended wrists (hands bent back) can be caused by bars which are too wide or a frame/stem too long.

The wrist in this picture is correct...



Bike fit can typically fix most issues but sometimes it is a matter of form. I flexed my wrists a lot when I got my first real road bike and had to just work on proper form. Eventually it became second nature.

Bike and Body: Have neck and shoulder pain on the bike?

Wrist Movements

This video covers the different hand positions including the hoods. Notice how relaxed their hands are on the hoods.

Me too. I've been losing my touch as of late.

Not sure who wrote that article but that's not right. You want your hoods positioned so that you can easily grab the brake levers with your hands in the drops. Which is generally vertical to the ground. The way those are in the pic it would be more difficult unless you have really long fingers. Having the hoods pointing to the sky like that screams "Fred".

You want your bars positioned so that your wrist isn't bent unnaturally while in the drops. That does look correct in the pic.

correct wrist and bar setup with arms bent

My point is that the wrists should be neutral, that's all.

It's like a bridge or a house. You can't get a level, stable structure if the foundations and supports are not correct.

I disagree.

In practice, having the wrists straight like this promotes straight arms, locked shoulders, and pressure on the nerve in the palm.

Better to roll the wrists inward, draping the hands over the bar/hood, which flexes the arms, lowers the torso, drops the shoulders, & puts the bar contact more on the meaty heel of the hand.

Try it both ways & see.

Agree that hoods too low isn't good, although people managed BITD.

My wrists would be suffering on any long out of the saddle climb cocked up that much, both on the hoods and in the drops. My preferred setup is with traditional drops, hoods parallel to the ground and a real downward slope to the bars above the hoods. In other words, very old style and to your mind, totally wrong.

Now that brakes run the cables under the tape, I often drape my forearms over the bars, palms over the tops of the hoods. My wrists are as straight as in your photo. This is the most aero position on my bikes and also quite comfortable. (I fantasized about having between my middle and ring fingers surgically cut so I could get that position with the old brake cables. On my long rides as a racer in the '70s, I had lots of time to think! )

OP, I am not suggesting for a minute you should follow my habits. Find what works for you. But I am NOT a fan of "loosey-goosey" when it comes to grip. Crashes cost way too much. Far better to invest a little effort into holding onto those bars. (On a prepped TT course, that loose grip is fine, but on someone's wheel, behind a car or anytime your attention isn't focused on the pavement ahead, no. The crashes we are talking often involve broken bones. Broken bones mean loss of training. The firm grip is a habit you will not regret.)

Ben

except that is wrong and has no bearing on correct hand position

It may also help to not that the shape/style of your hoods may dictate adjustments...so while I see some riders take a ball-claw approach covering the whole good, I can't do exactly the same thing because my Sora shift cables come out the side of my shifters, dictating a different finger position.

Let me offer a bit of practical advice, outside of the discussion of how to position your brakes on the bar.

On any bicycle where you need to lean forward, you should use primarily your stomach and back muscles to hold yourself in place. When you do this, you can take the weight off your wrists. Next time you're in the bike, stay in your normal riding position, but consciously feel what happens when you lift your hands from the hoods. You'll feel your stomach and back muscles go to work. That's what you want to use to keep yourself loose and comfortable.

I blame my company; they actually expect me to work during prime BF hours...

This is sound advise. This becomes easier if you ride with plenty of saddle setback. I would like to add that you can strengthen your lower back in the gym by doing deadlifts or kettlebell exercises. Also, upper back and shoulder pain can be alleviated by strengthening the trapezius muscle by doing dumbbell shrugs. I'm a huge proponent of both upper and lower body strength training for cycling - both to increase power and to alleviate pain.

Sean

Hoods too low as in bars set too low? I would think if anything bars have got lower in recent years.

Or do you mean hoods set low on the bars, as with Sean Yates here;


For some reason he always seemed to have his bars pointed down. A lot of riders back then would have the hoods set barely above the midpoint of the curve of the bar. Riding on those hoods for prolonged periods would be uncomfortable, but then, back in those days whenever someone was really hammering, they were on the drops.

The right hand position is usually the same as the left hand position. Duh.......

Did you change your bar height? Sounds like they are too low and causing you to strain your neck to look forward.

Raise the bars or do some yoga.

Bars slip in the stem, a little bit at a time and people dont notice it .. though that guy may never use the hoods , just the drops

and that's is his favorite reach to the brake levers.. Next time you see Him , Ask.