One thing that works to prevent neck stiffness for me is to completely relax my upper body - it takes lots of practice actually. My fit on my AHH (with 42 cm Noodles) is such that I have a natural bend in my arms and my scapulas aren't popping out of my back (not that I could see this anyway, but I can feel it when my body is tensed up it feels like my scapulas are protruding). I see lots of riders out there with their arms stiff and straight at the hoods, scapulas popping out, and over the years I have figured any upper body stiffness I get from riding seems to correlate with how tense my upper body is and I think that is directly correlated to the cockpit fit I have dialed in at the time. My experience with albatross bars seems to exaggerate this even more - creating a natural bend in my arms and naturally relaxing my body - I think its more the relaxation in my arms rather than being more upright. When my bars are 1-2 cm above my saddle with my Noodles, it helps alleviate almost all the pressure in my palms and hands and can naturally bend my arms a bit to get into relax mode.
You mentioned Harris Cyclery so if you're in the Metro Boston area, the fitters at Ace Wheelworks in Belmont do a darn good job. Plus you can lust after Peter Mooney's lugged steel he has hanging around the shop...which I just noticed a couple weeks back that he's got a flickr page now.... http://www.flickr.com/photos/petermooney/ There's lots of carbon forks in there so just close your eye when they pop up. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
