I’ve changed my saddle angle from level to nose down 4 degrees about a week ago.

I started to experience an unbearable upper back pain with some shoulder pain for rides merely 2 hours long.

I’ve never had back pain before even on 8 hours endurance rides.

Any suggestions please!

TLDR: L5-S1 disc bulge, need some encouragement.

How did you injure your back, and how did you get back on the bike?

My story:

How it went: I went from cycling as a means of transportation to cycling as a sport in 2021. After a broken collarbone in 2023 I introduced strength training in august last year.

I introduced hex-bar deadlifts in November and progressed to regular deadlift in January with the help of a personal trainer. In late February , after deadlifts, my back and right glute felt weird. The next day, the pain was still there but manageable, when I started riding my bike. after the could barely straighten my back, when I got off the bike. This left me with back pain and difficulty walking for two weeks.

My orthopedic told me, my SI joint was blocked and sent me to a chiropractor. The treatment there immediately helped with pain. In addition, I was told, that my deadlift technique was looking fine and I should just lighten the load.

Four weeks later, deadlifting only 3x10x50kg/110lbs brought the pain back, cycling a few days later had my back lock up again, but not as badly as before. So I figured, I should just stop that specific exercise.

Another 3 weeks later, pain had almost subsided and I went back to the gym. Skipping the deadlifts and not wanting to put high stress on my spine, I went for high-rep squats as a compound lift (5x10x40kg/90lbs) - I had been doing split squats using 3x10x55kg/120lbs before, so this seemed like light load to me. The next day, I had, what felt like severe DOMS. This got worse and worse over the next days and a relatively normal indoor session. Ending up in weakness and severe pain in my lower back and right leg.

MRT showed a protruded L5-S1 disc, impinging on the nerve and protruded L4-L5 disc.

How it's going:

I've been off the back and hardly able to sit for longer for the last 8 weeks now. I tried riding my bike, but anything above 20mins I door or 10mins outdoors triggers my sciatica. Main symptoms are pain on random sites on the outside of my right leg and a numb pinky toe.

Just this week my physio told me, to get back to the gym to strengthen my back muscles. I've been doing stuff like the McGill Big 3 since the whole things started and tried to get about 10k steps in every day. This seems to help, but progress is extremely slow.

What happened to you guys? What did you do to get back on the bike? And how long did it take?

Edit: added imperial units

The title says it all

So, I am female rider (short torso long legs) and my size M Oiz feels a bit long and my lower back starts to hurt.. So question, what will be better for xc race, to flip my 6cm step up or to put a 5cm stem (acctualy 4.5)? I am better on climbing than descending.. Thanks 🙏

Hello everyone,

I'm currently trying to improve the fit of my bike and facing a bit of a challenge. I'm wondering if any of you have experience fitting someone in a similar situation.

I'm 168cm tall and currently ride a 52cm Emonda SL5. The problem is my legs are much longer than my torso. Previously, I rode a 54cm frame which fit my legs perfectly but had too long of a reach, forcing me to stretch through my arms and shoulders.

Switching to the 52cm frame, the bike is a bit small for my legs, and I need a different seatpost to raise the saddle even higher. However, the reach is still a bit long for my arms, so I've reduced the stem from 90mm to 70mm. My handlebar reach is 85mm, which I think is on the compact side.

I'm waiting to receive the 70mm stem and hope it will make the reach okay, but I'm concerned about my legs being in the way when in the drops and the bike feeling twitchy with such a short stem.

Do you think a 50cm frame with a high seatpost and long stem would be a good option? Are there any other adjustments I could make to improve the reach on the 52cm frame? I really hope I don't have to switch bikes again as I don't have the money to do so right now.

TDLR: I'm 168cm tall and currently ride a 52cm frame but my legs are much longer than my torso, any idea how to accommodate a short torso and long legs?

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Hi guys,

I want to order my first Canyon bike. I decided for Grail CF SL7.

I am 172/80 cm. I wanted to order S size, but then I check Canyon's calculator and I landed somwhere between S and XS.

I talked with Canyon's seller and he said me that both sizes should be fine and S should be even more comfortable due to less agressive geometry.

I am afraid that S would be too long for me.

I used to have Trek Domane 4.3 in 54 size. Normal reach is 2 cm shorter than this one in Canyon. It makse me worried, because I felt like Trek was a little bit to long for me.

Could you recommend me something?

On attachment Canyon Table, Grail Geometry and Trek Geometry.

I was hoping to get some advice on my bike size and fit.

My current bike is a Boardman SLR 8.9, Large. I have had this for about 3 years now. I have got it fitted and have had the stem reduced down from 15mm to 10mm.

I went into my LBS and was recommended a Giant TCR and sizing of M/L. Now when I compared the two sizes of bikes they're both very different Stacks and Reaches

SLR Large : S588 R390 SLR Medium: S567 R387 TCR ML: S563 R393

I feel like the TCR sits between the two bikes, so IMO I am starting to think I should have sized down not up.

I have ridden my bike to work and on various sportives and distances, but I find at about the 50KM mark onwards I start to get really bad saddle and shoulder discomfort.

I have got a new set of wheels and saddle to swap out for the stock items it arrived with.

Is it worth testing the new wheels and seat out, get it fitted again and then if I am having same issues base this down to the wrong sized bike?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

I'm seeking second opinions on my saddle adjustments. Thanks in advance!

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Hello all,

I just went for my second bike fit with an experienced bike fitting / physio guy in my area.

The thing that he immediately noticed, and was also very obvious to me on video, is that I tend to sit quite far to the right of the saddle. This immediately made sense as the source of my discomfort, as I always felt as if I had the saddle too high for my left leg and too low for the right leg.

He performed various tests on me to check for a leg length discrepancy and mobility limitations which could be causing this, but found nothing (said this is an uncommon case).

He then suggested that it could be just a matter of retraining my position, and gave me a few coaching cues while having me pedal for quite a while under zone 2 kind of load.

Looking at me he said my position is great when following these cues, and he wouldn’t change my bike fit. He also showed me on video and motion capture the difference in pelvic tilt and symmetry of leg extensions before/after, which was significant. The position was a bit awkward to hold, probably because I am not accustomed to it, but the movement truly did feel better.

Besides the cues he gave me a bit of core work to do and said he will send me more detailed explanations as the session was already way over time.

I’m wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience with retraining an off-center saddle position, and how it went?

Thanks for reading all this :)

Hello everyone.

Some week ago I was able to ride a Stevens Tabor bike 48 size. And I would like to buy a Stevens Gavere, but in my country it is not available, but Tabor come with QR, so I do not want to buy it and try to find something else. Stevens site said my size was 51, but the 48 was definitely more comfortable. I felt myself with the 51 a bit stretchier.

I am 165 cm (5' 5") with a 80 cm (31,49") inseam, so I have short torso.

I think the Cube Nuroad (PRO/WS) size XS/50 has almost the same geomtery, Stevens Tabor 48 size come with a 60 mm stem, Nuroad come with 80 mm stem.. But what do you think? Unfortunately I can not try Cube :/ I can sit on it, without pedals, but it is not the same when I can ride it...

Thank for your advice!

Luna

Compare: 2021 Stevens Bikes Tabor Base 48 vs 2022 CUBE Bikes Nuroad Pro Fe XS-50 - Bike Insights

Compare: 2023 CUBE NUROAD WS vs Stevens Gavere vs 2024 Marin Gestalt 1 – 99 Spokes

Compare: Cube Nuroad Pro 2022: 50 cm / XS -VS- Stevens Gavere 2021: 48 -VS- Cube Nuroad WS 2021: XS-50cm -VS- (geometrygeeks.bike)

Hey y'all, got a bikefit recently but things are still not feeling right around the saddle area. Its feeling like the glutes right under the saddle in the seatbone area is limiting the limiting factor on the power I can consistently put down. I'm currently working with a 140mm saddle and my seat bones are a shade under 115mm. Thinking I might have to bite the bullet for a new saddle. Wondering if anyone else has any insight on this. Cheers.

Is that too low? My new (old) bike has a 67.5° angle, that's unusual and I was wondering if it's going to noticeably decrease my performance? What's your opinion? Thanks!

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Generally is this a true statement?

I was fitted for a new Trek Madone last year and the fitter at the store said I should go for a crank length of 165mm when ordering the new bike. I did not end up buying the bike for various reasons and opted to stick with my current very capable Giant TCR.

Now a year later my Giant TCR might need a new crankset and my current crank length is 172.5mm

Can I assume I would be best with a 165 mm crank length on my TCR or should I not move over that measurement from the Trek fitting as it was specific to the Madone?

Is this really a thing? I noticed that in both of my road bikes i can easily see the hub in front of my handlebar. Does that mean the frame is small for me?

Hi there,

Struggling with something and trying to find a fix.
Riding a Trek Checkpoint gravel bike. I've had IT band issues in the past, but bike fit pretty much sorted that. I can ride in the saddle with no issues.

But now when I get out of the saddle for even short, low effort periods I get IT band pain above my right knee. I never get this pain while doing anything under load off the bike, squats / lunges ect, just when I'm on the bike and out of the saddle.

Struggling to diagnose the issue but suspect it could be a cleat position issue. Though these were set as part of the bike fit and not having any other issues while seated.. Also wondering if could be due to the lateral rocking that you get with SPDs causing some instability with foot supination and pronation.

Any thoughts or suggestions for things I could try would be really appreciated.

Cheers!

Has anyone ever suffered from calf muscle pain After the cycling and know what is the reason..?