I'm new to road riding. My bikes probably got ~200 miles on it. Everything was pretty cool til yesterday on a 40 miler, my neck starts cramping up; mostly on the left side at the base of my neck. It got so bad that I had to stop 3 or 4 times to stretch it out and curse loudly. I was really in a lot of pain and very ticked off. I was mad because I work @ an LBS and no one can tell me what's wrong. During the ride it felt like my neck was craned up too high to see the road.

I'm going to another LBS to pay $50 and use their fit kit to see where my bike is off. In the meantime, I'm really bummed. Anyway, I mostly wanted to rant. One thing I noticed was that there is a 3.5" gap b/w the top of my handlebars and the top of my stem. I thought this was too high, but our manager, Johnny Moots (fictional name, but he rides a moots), told me this difference is not a big deal. I tried a shorter stem and that seemed to help a little, but not much. I stacked another headset spacer on there, and that seemed to help a bit too. But I took that out, because with the 2nd spacer in I had well over an inch of spacers in use - seemed excessive.

Anyway, I mostly wanted to rant, but if you have any ideas, by all means.

Silly idea here, but I'm a complete nood to road bikes and only have about 120 miles on mine (bought a couple weeks ago). My neck pains dissapeared after about the first week. I think they've dissapeared for various reasons including; the muscles getting stronger, and learning to not look up so far whne it's not necessary.

Also, for me 40 miles would be nuts to consider. But you're probably in much better shape than I am. I can only handle 20 miles and I'm toast. The point here, is that maybe you legs and lungs can handle the 40 miles but your neck needs a little more practice before such a long ride.

Good luck. I'm pretty sure it'll get better assuming there's not some other condition.

This was discussed a few weeks ago in this very forum. Using the search engine will give complete details but I can distill the general points:

1. Riding a road bike requires a lot of conditioning and any jump in duration will cause problems. Ramp up the mileage gradually and give your body time to adjust to the new positions/durations. This is also true for changes to bike fit - make changes in small increments so your body can adapt.

2. Make sure nothing is forcing you to keep your head up higher than necessary - helmet adjusted properly, glasses not sliding down your nose, no visor on helmet, etc.

3. While riding, move your head around to stretch out your neck. If you're riding for 60 minutes or more and generally holding your head still, your neck is going to be stiff. Try shrugging, turning your head, etc. Do this often to ward off aches and pains.

Since you're new to riding, it's probably just a case of "too much, too fast". If you jumped from riding 20 miles to 40 miles (or perhaps did 30 miles the day before), you are just suffering aches as you use new muscles or use the same muscles in new ways. Give it time and gradually increase saddle time/distance. Big jumps == big pains.

- khill

1. Neck will get stronger with time

2. Fit Kit is good idea to fine tune your stem, bar, seat etc (assuming yo have the right frame) If your seat bar drop is too much for your flexibility, your neck will have problems

3. How full is your head? Try not to read or learn anything new the night before riding. Think light, carefree thoughts while on the bike, and avoid and dark, heavy murder plots or similar. You laugh now, but...

Ok, number one.... 3.5 inches is too high for a beginner. Its like jumping on a unicycle the first day. I'm being serious. Raise your stem and work your way down. You dont become a racer just because you get on a racing bike, you know? That low places a lot of stress on your back and neck. Too long of a top tube and/or stem will have you too stretched out and have the same effect.

There is some truth to getting your body more seasoned as it pertains to the rigors of road riding, but a good fit is paramount to eliminating these issues. First and foremost, RAISE your stem, and work your way down as your fitness level increases. You will find that comfortable riders, despite slightly inefficient positioning will often ride faster, and almost always further than uncomfortable riders of equal skill. Plus, cycling should be enjoyable. Otherwise you will be less inclined to get on the bike and try more challenging things, especially if you are anticipating massive neck pain or otherwise.

Being too stretched out, or having too much weight forward can present itself in a variety of forms, upper back, neck pain, arm/shoulder fatigue, hand tiredness/numbness. Id look there.

You may want to try a shorter stem. The shop you bought the bike from should have different size stems for you to try. I just went from a 120 to 100 stem and my sore neck that would come on after 3 hours of riding went away. Also check saddle position. Most likely its a fit problem unless you have some sort of injury.

Thanks for all the advice. 2 days later and my neck is still sore. I'm gonna go for a ride on the mtb to see how that feels.

I switched the road bike to a shorter stem and raised it up - hopefully that will help some. I'm also going to get properly fitted to see what's not working.

Your problem is simple. You have girlie muscles in your neck. It'll take a month or two or three, (depending on how much you ride) to build them up. Cycling uses a lot of muscles that you wouldn't think that you would use. ( And they will all complain). Riding the mtb is a good idea. It'll give your neck muscles a rest, and still give your legs a workout.

Mr. Grumpy is being prissy because it is his Time Of the Month (if you know what I mean).

Get fitted and then if your dealer sells Specialized road stems get one in the right length. Fit kit is a great way to get a ball park idea (Yankee Stadium, Simmerdown bandwagon BoSox Fans!) but not the wholy grail! The Serotta fit cycle may be better, I never did that route, but the fit kit worked well for me. Back to the Specialzed stem, the adust from - 16, -8, +8 and +16 degrees so start high and go low as your saddle time and flexabilty increases. I also start the year with a 1 cm shorter stem, but I love to hide in my workshop from my wife (who doesn't!, honestly!) good luck and hey I got my two stems on Ebay for $10 !

... freaking handlebars.
Let me give you a short version of my handlebar lecture, cribbed from Grant Petersen at Rivendell: Drop bars were designed to give a comfortable cruising position (on the tops) and still allow a low, aero position (on the drops) when you need it. If you set them up about level with the saddle, they'll work that way.
Over the years, though, people have dropped them lower and lower so the tops are just a little above where the drops should be, and that makes the drops unusable except by pain geeks and flexibility Nazis. RAISE THE BARS until the tops are within an inch of saddle height and your problems will disappear. I did it three years ago. Not a single neck/back/shoulder problem since, and I'm 60 years old.

Silly idea here, but I'm a complete nood to road bikes and only have about 120 miles on mine (bought a couple weeks ago). My neck pains dissapeared after about the first week. I think they've dissapeared for various reasons including; the muscles getting stronger, and learning to not look up so far whne it's not necessary.

Also, for me 40 miles would be nuts to consider. But you're probably in much better shape than I am. I can only handle 20 miles and I'm toast. The point here, is that maybe you legs and lungs can handle the 40 miles but your neck needs a little more practice before such a long ride.

Good luck. I'm pretty sure it'll get better assuming there's not some other condition.


on a road with minimal things to avoid, what is the minimum, max and avergae distance that you lok ahead of bike, i get neck pain and think i need to look closer to bike while i ride

Drop on your stem is too great! The general rule of thumb is to have the bars level with the seat. You can drop it down later when you've made the team as Lance's replacement.

Seriously, racers can manage the dropped bars because they have the core strength that allows them to support the upper body over the legs and get power to the pedals. They don't lean on the bars, not when they're pushing on the pedals.

Other rule of thumb on fit is distance between the bars and the nose on the saddle should be about equal to your elbow to your fingertips. DON'T move the saddle forward! You position the saddle over the cranks, and then adjust stem length.

If you're too stretched out and the bars are too low, you're supporting all your weight on your arms and shoulders, and cranking your neck back to see ahead. Ouch!

A slightly more upright position, and then don't crank the head back to look down the road. Truth be told, the riding position on a road bike is designed for looking at the rear wheel of the rider in front of you. That and checking the pavement for cracks and ruts.

We lose rearward flexibility in the neck as we get older. You can increase range of motion by tilting your head back and then chin down toward your sternum. Also, lean your head side to side, and rotate left to right. Doing this dialy will increase range. It helps to do this for a couple minutes before your ride, and then while riding just to keep things moving.

But it sounds like your stem is WAY too low for you. Try level with the saddle.