Last summer I started road riding after a long hiatus from mountain biking. I never had leg problems mountain biking. However, after a couple of months road riding, I developed bad hamstring problems in one leg which persists a year later. I haven’t been able to ride since. My doctor is sending me to physical therapy for my leg next week. I’d like to try road riding again as I rehab my leg. However, I am not sure if my bike set up contributed to my hamstring problem. The road bike “seems” comfortable. Nothing hurt while riding last year. The pain appeared after riding. Now, a year later, it hurts with even a small amount of spinning on a trainer. From the attached photos does it look like my set up contributed to my hamstring problem? Should I change my setup or get a new bike after I rehab my leg, or is it safe to ride this bike after properly rehabbing my leg and stretching?

These are other factors which might have contributed to my leg problems: a lack of conditioning, lack of stretching, increased cadence compared to mountain biking, riding too often and too intensely for my conditioning. My riding terrain is flat. Thanks for your insight.

Oh, man, a bike with reflectors, dork ring and chicken levers?? Pullease!!!!

Now, on the serious side, it looks like that bike is too small for you.

First- a disclaimer, I am no expert.

From reading your post it sounded like your saddle might be too high. My hamstrings and lower back will let me know if I'm up too high. From looking at your photos, it looks like your saddle is too low(?). But people tend to put their saddle where they like it. I know when I came back to the sport after not riding for a number or years I had problems with my lower back and hams. I think it takes a couple of years to get all the kinks out. You might do good with a stretching program, some people need to stretch more than others (I don't stretch). You might see if you could have someone help you with your set up. Saddle position is really important. If you are not set up right, you will not be using your cycling muscles correctly and it will cause imbalance. I found that if my saddle was on the high side and I could feel the pull at the bottom of my stroke (sort of like floating) it made a big difference. But I am long legged and it took me a couple of years to get my saddle up to where is it now. This info might be useless, but it's a shove in the right direction.

A couple of books that really helped me are: Training for Cycling by Davis Phinney and Connie Carpenter and Bicycling Medicine by Arnie Baker. Cycling is a science. I've learned a lot from reading.

If you have the $$$$$$$ get fitted by someone who knows what they are doing. It's the best money you will ever spend, every little mm makes a big difference....

Oh, man, a bike with reflectors, dork ring and chicken levers?? Pullease!!!!

Front skewer on the wrong side too...sheesh, this one is too far gone, better send him back to the mountain bikers...

;) just teasing

to get a head. I don't know how you live without a head man!

Perhaps you doctor could have noticed that first!

Malpratice?

He erased his head because he didn't want to be seen riding a Salvation-Army cheapo bike!!

From the pictures, your position doesn't look bad at all. Nothing that would contribute to a hamstring injury. I think you hit the nail in the head when you mention that maybe you did too much too soon. I think that is the main cause of cycling injuries.

When it comes to hamstring injuries, from what I have seen on other sports, it's usually from an explosive acceleration. Also from hard efforts without a good warm up.

In cycling I don't think I have ever seen a cyclist do something explosive as a finish line sprint and end up holding his hamstring as you see happen to so many baseball, basketball players plus a fair share of sprinters.

If nothing else, even though you seem to have a good position on the bike, try to make sure that with the crank at 3 o'clock, the middle of your kneecap is either right on top or maybe a centimeter forward of the pedal, that way you use more of your quad on your pedaling action. You can simply move your seat forward about one centimeter and then re-adjust the seat height. You use more of the hamstring the more to the back the seat is positioned.

If you feel too bunched up after making that change, you might one to get a stem that is a centimeter longer to make up for the difference in saddle position.

Try moving the saddle forward and see what happens. And remember to always warm up and not to do any sudden accelerations. Maybe you tried to do some kind of sprint workout when your conditioning wasn't that great?

Sometimes very small changes in bike fit can make big differences in bike related injuries. Best of luck.

From the pictures, your position doesn't look bad at all. Nothing that would contribute to a hamstring injury. I think you hit the nail in the head when you mention that maybe you did too much too soon. I think that is the main cause of cycling injuries.


Don't listen to the other A-holes responding to this thread that have negative things to say.

NOTE: For those who bag on a guy asking for help, get lost and start posting on rec.bicycle.tech where you belong.

As far as your problem goes, I'm not sure what's wrong but I can say that your position looks ok to me. Make sure you make stretching part of your daily routine, particularly your hams and glutes.

Good luck.

Ed

I hesitate to mention this given your leg problems...but I know I use a lot higher saddle position. Just below the height that would cause hip rocking at high cadence. But maybe the Lemond "hike the saddle up and slam it back on its rails" school of bike position is out of favor these days.

Given that your position looks okay, cleat position is the first thing I would check.

Your leg levers aren't working well with the crank levers. Chronically stretched hamstrings are a result of over-reaching. Lowering the saddle or pushing it forward could relieve hamstring stretch. I would try that before anything else.

Also, second Dinosaur on the need to stretch those legs, from possibly years of not stretching them. Exercising tight muscles will tighten them even more. If they're forced to stretch, they get sore.

It looks like your too crunched up. Maybe move the saddle back a bit. I'm a MTBer like yourself who recently took up road biking and I were suffering from bad lower back pains after long rides. As far as hamstring problems, maybe get a pedal systems w/ float like speedplay.You'll probably have to excerise to develop your hamstring.





Last summer I started road riding after a long hiatus from mountain biking. I never had leg problems mountain biking. However, after a couple of months road riding, I developed bad hamstring problems in one leg which persists a year later. I haven’t been able to ride since. My doctor is sending me to physical therapy for my leg next week. I’d like to try road riding again as I rehab my leg. However, I am not sure if my bike set up contributed to my hamstring problem. The road bike “seems” comfortable. Nothing hurt while riding last year. The pain appeared after riding. Now, a year later, it hurts with even a small amount of spinning on a trainer. From the attached photos does it look like my set up contributed to my hamstring problem? Should I change my setup or get a new bike after I rehab my leg, or is it safe to ride this bike after properly rehabbing my leg and stretching?

These are other factors which might have contributed to my leg problems: a lack of conditioning, lack of stretching, increased cadence compared to mountain biking, riding too often and too intensely for my conditioning. My riding terrain is flat. Thanks for your insight.

From reading your post it sounded like your saddle might be too high. My hamstrings and lower back will let me know if I'm up too high. From looking at your photos, it looks like your saddle is too low(?). But people tend to put their saddle where they like it. I know when I came back to the sport after not riding for a number or years I had problems with my lower back and hams. I think it takes a couple of years to get all the kinks out.

Dinosaur's thoughts are mine exactly. hamstring tends to be because saddle's too high. but your saddle looks too low. experiment with your saddle height, going upwards, and see if htat helps.

sd

I know McBain is kinda shy, but I was able to get a copy of the photo before he blanked-out his head.
Here it is:

LOL

Not an expert or anything just going by my preferences but the seat looks too low and the bike in general looks several sizes too small.

PS
Dave you do touch up photography??? You need to apply at Maxium magazine

This road bike was purchased years ago when I was a teenager. I guess I could have grown since it was purchased which might explain why it seems smallish, but I doubt it. I wouldn't be surprised if I was fitted a little incorrectly because the shop has long since gone out of business.

5 years ago I used to do long climbs in the mountains on my mt. bike without any leg problems. Now living in the flats I got tired of riding the mt. bike on flat roads. I increased my cadence and started spinning on the road bike and within two months the leg problems hit. One LBS looked at my set up and felt it was fine.

If the bike doesn't seem set up too poorly it appears too high a cadence for my leg (90 revolutions per minute at arobic intensity), lack of rest between rides, and lack of conditioning contributed to my problem. I just can't believe I had these problems on the flats compared to mt. biking a couple years ago.

Admittedly, I'd like to get a new road bike. If I ever do, I'll post a headless pic! However, I'd like to ensure my legs can handle cycling first because I may not be able to ride regularly.

Perhaps I should ride my mt. bike in the meantime. However, test rides show my leg hurts after short, very low intensity, low cadence (but not high gear) rides on the mt. bike too. Next week I start rehab. I am hoping I can construct an on going leg conditioning program to overcome what appears to be a severe hamstring strain or tear. Perhaps I can then start riding slowly again. This is all amazingly frustrating because with mt. biking I just jumped on and hammered away on climbs, of course I was 5 years younger.

NOTE: For those who bag on a guy asking for help, get lost and start posting on rec.bicycle.tech where you belong.

As far as your problem goes, I'm not sure what's wrong but I can say that your position looks ok to me. Make sure you make stretching part of your daily routine, particularly your hams and glutes.

Good luck.

Ed

Re: part 1. Nope. That would be rec.bicycles.RACING where the real flaming is! .tech is small-time comparatively.

Re: part 2. TT is too short. I'd say MAYBE your saddle's too high, but I can't tell from the pics in the OP. It depends on where your leg is at BDC.

HTH,

M

From this pic does it look like my saddle is too high? If so, if I adjust it downward would the bike be safe to ride while I rehab my leg? My hips don't rock where my saddle is now. When I lower it I feel a bit bunched up. One response mentioned the bike seems small. Perhaps I need to get a longer stem? Later down the road I'd like to get a new bike but I want to be sure I can ride pain free consistently. Also if this bike is safe to ride I could use it during foul whether. Thanks for the help.

If the bike doesn't seem set up too poorly it appears too high a cadence for my leg (90 revolutions per minute at arobic intensity), lack of rest between rides, and lack of conditioning contributed to my problem. I just can't believe I had these problems on the flats compared to mt. biking a couple years ago.

Admittedly, I'd like to get a new road bike. If I ever do, I'll post a headless pic! However, I'd like to ensure my legs can handle cycling first because I may not be able to ride regularly.


but we're saying the bike DOES seem like it's set up improperly. so are you going to try fiddling with the saddle (raising it) or not? getting a new road bike doesnt' seem teh answer when the fiddling hasn't even been done. the distance between your butt, your hands, and your pedals are going to be the same on a new road bike, smaller or bigger, doesn't matter. you need to figure out the proper distance for these contact points before you get a new bike.

go ahead and ride your mountain bike; if it's more comfortable, then measure the distance between butt/hands/pedals and duplicate it on the road bike.

sd