One aspect of bike fit that you might want to check is sufficient saddle setback. I’ve found over the decades that sometimes sliding the saddle rearward so that your core torso muscles support your upper body’s weight — of course, this means that your torso core muscles have to be sufficiently toned, but this means simply normal strength, not something out of the ordinary.
I’ve been super stiff in the back since my 40s if not 30s — comes from doing little exercise but riding (*) — and I suffered from back pain (muscular) in my early 40s, but found that with suitable saddle setback the typical 45* angle while on the hoods with elbows slightly bent was a comfortable refuge while standing upright or lying down might be painful. Now, a couple months shy of 70, I still find that a sufficiently butt-back saddle keeps my back happy with bar ~3 or 3.5 cm below saddle and 8 cm stem on road bikes or 0.5 cm below saddle with 10 cm stem on my dirt road bike. As always, YMMV, but perhaps something to look at. (*) Nowadays I find that walking — as in walking the dog briskly 1 mile/20 minutes or so 3X a week, and occasionally walking instead of riding to the grocery store 1/4 mile from my house (but easier to carry loads when riding) helps loosen up my legs and lower back — as does very occasional weed pulling, leaf cleanup, and picking up dog shit daily from the xeriscaped gravel. Oh, and sitting crosslegged when I say my prayers. My brother, 64 and 1/2, practices (South) Indian squatting to great benefit; the typical traditional South Asian sitting posture is to squat with soles flat on the ground and knees around one’s ears. I can’t come close to that; nor to the lotus position. On Fri, Jan 3, 2025 at 7:44 AM Adam <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi all, > > I'm curious to hear any comments thoughts, etc on back issues and riding. > > The context is that this fall I've had some nasty lower back/hip pain. > Rest and some stretching & PT has "solved" the issue, but I'm still having > trouble getting back on the bike without a little stiffness in the lower > back. > > I have thought about swapping out my drops for alt bars and have an old > bosco setup ready to go. My issue is that I've tried sweptback bars before > and always end up back on HIGH drops. I really like my current setups and > have ridden many long stretches on these configurations, so I'm not > excited to change what's taken a lot of tweaking to accomplish. > > My current strategy is to raise my current bar height a bit (already above > saddle height) and to do shortish (under 1hr) rides indoors on rollers > being mindful of core muscles, etc. That seems to be working, but I still > have a bit of stiffness post ride. > > I'm curious to hear anyone else's experiences. Not really looking for > advice, but curious to hear what other folks have tried, etc. > > Thanks! > > Adam > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/31e70beb-76e6-4844-8f4f-c9f0974aa30bn%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/31e70beb-76e6-4844-8f4f-c9f0974aa30bn%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- Patrick Moore Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Executive resumes, LinkedIn profiles, bios, letters, and other writing services ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *When thou didst not, savage, k**now thine own meaning,* *But wouldst gabble like a** thing most brutish,* *I endowed thy purposes w**ith words that made them known.* -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/CALuTfgvtjv_3KV_cPiZGSu42eRYWA6zcufXjQZ_dOhResC2Dog%40mail.gmail.com.
