bigdo13

Please educate me on the problems for both and how to find a happy medium that's somewhere in between....

also, personal anecdotes about your setup on handlebars and how you arrived at it are plenty welcome...

SpeshulEd 

Slam that stem!

I'd imagine too high or too low could lead to back problems over time. Every bike I've purchased, I've started out with a stack of spacers and just move the stem down over time until it feels right. The more I ride, the lower I can go.

bigdo13

right now I have some spacers on and for the life of me I think that it's straining my neck because my shoulders are being pushed up ya know... like they always seem bunched up and whatnot...

rmfnla

It's all about comfort and balance.

If you are too low you strain your neck. Too high and your back is taking too much punishment.

As SpeshulEd says, it can take some trial and error to get it right...

SpeshulEd 

Are you putting a lot of weight on your arms, locking your elbows?

I've actually noticed a bit of neck pain recently on some of my longer rides and discovered it was my hat, err cap, getting in the way and forcing me to tilt my head back farther to see under the brim.

edit: #capsnothats

Lazyass

It's really about how good it looks when you post a pic in Hot or Not. If you get a lot of positive replies then they're probably at the correct height.

SpeshulEd 

This.

Machka 

For years, I was comfortable with my handlebars even with, or just slightly lower than my saddle.

Then, more recently, I started gaining a bit of weight, and gradually, I raised my handlebars. By the time I hit my peak weight, my handlebars were relatively high. I had enough padding so that sitting on the saddle was comfortable, and I needed to sit upright so I could breathe and so that I didn't suffer from acid reflex.

Since mid-Feb, I have been losing weight, and a few months ago, I started having a lot of sciatic nerve pain (and back pain). The solution didn't dawn on me until just a few weeks ago ... lower my handlebars!! I don't need to be sitting upright anymore.

So a couple weeks ago, Rowan did the great Lowering of the Handlebars on all my bicycles. Sciatic nerve pain ... gone! I'm still experiencing some back pain, so we might lower them even further. I didn't want to go too crazy with it all at once. But I'd like to get all/most back down to even with or slightly lower than my saddle again.

TimothyH

Free fit session on a Guru fit machine at the LBS.

bigdo13

not really locking my arms up...

I actually lowered the bars today a good deal and it feels much better... I think I had them far, far too high... all around felt better, much better... just got done lowering my handlebars on my other bike as well....

we'll see what happens, but so far, they both feel MUUUCH better on my neck...

SpeshulEd 

Good deal! Now you'll move onto finding just the right stem, lol.

cosmicfour

I had my stem flipped up to have a them higher, caused me lots of neck and upper neck pain. I thought being a bit more upright was the right way. I decided to flip it back to be a bit more flat that helped a lot more. As a person with a permanent neck injury it makes a huge difference if they are too high or too low.

Robius

It's been almost 3 months and i couldn't decide the correct handlebar position too.

My bike has a long steerer tube to play around with. I rode it with lowest possible position which is fairly aggressive and I didn't have any lower back pain. When I move it to 2cm upwards I feel more comfortable BUT I feel some lower back pain after 2+ hours.

In love with my steerer tube.

woodcraft

Get a room!

SpeshulEd 

You may want to check your owners manual and review the part where it says no spacers should be used above the stem.

Robius

I guess it's for carbon steerer tubes. Synapse Carbon has an aluminium steerer tube.

Jarrett2

Bars too low = neck pain
Bars too high = ? (I've never seen an issue from bars too high)
Saddle too low = knee pain
Saddle too high = low back pain/sciatica

I learned a new one recently. If one leg is shorter than the other and causes you to put more pressure on one side of the saddle, adjust your cleats to offset the difference.

It's amazing how minor changes can really help out on a road bike fit.

jtaylor996

I'm having shoulder pain lately, and the LBS flipped my stem up. They did this primarily because it would being the bars back a little. If that doesn't work, then they're going to put a shorter stem on there.

I'm still at the top of the stack height wise. I've been waiting on something to hurt to tell me to lower it, but that never happened. I've noticed a little improvement with the stem flipped, so maybe I do need a shorter stem.