My assorted hurts

[smurfalicious]

So as much as I love my new girl I'm finding some various aches and pains when I ride. I need lots of help determining which ones are the kind to tough it out and get stronger, and which can be fixed.

The biggest one, the one that makes me want to go home and just cry is my hands. My palms, in the padding under my thumb hurt like h*ll! Not specifically the heel of my palm, but more like radiating out from there. I switch my hands around a ton because it sucks. Most of the time it stops bugging me after a while but it comes back.

My concern here is that I don't think the angle my handlebars are at is working for me. I feel like the hoods should meet me at a more natural angle. Concern two is that maybe I'm just an idiot and don't put my hands right at all. I try to steal glances and at all riders who seem to have a clue, but I don't know if I'm doing it right. I try and keep my elbows bent and in close to my body but this seems to have zero effect.

Ouch number two came tonight. My lower back was protesting pretty hard core. I finally got off and did some stretches, conveniently over the top tube of my bike so I didn't have to lay her down. I think this one is a live through it. It's never shown up before tonight and I got super brave and spent tons of time in the drops. Had to show mister fancy pants on his lighter than a popcorn fart and worth more than I make in a year bike what was for. Amazing the energy you have when chasing guys wearing jerseys from the "snobby shop."

I may try and swing her by the LBS Friday after work. They're all super excited to see her anyway so maybe I can get some quick help from a second pair of eyes.

[tulip]

Sounds like a fit issue. Have you had your bike fitted and tweaked by a person who is very good at doing these things? Should take at least an hour, maybe two.

Also how's your core strength? If your core cannot support you, you will end up putting alot of weight on your arms and hands, and it will also hurt your back.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

The most likely culprit -in my opinion- is the age old issue of a bike that's designed for a typical man having a top tube that's too long, thus when a woman of the same height but with shorter arms than a man rides it, she has to stretch forward more to grasp the bars and it throws her weight forward onto her hands.

[maillotpois]

Ditto on the previous posters' suggestions.

Another question - how is the angle of your wrists and elbows? Your wrists should be neutral, as if you are shaking hands with your hoods, not severely flexed/angled. I see a lot of new riders with very bent wrists. Also your elbows should have a bend in them at all times, acting as shock absorbers.

Get a good bike fit and I bet most of those issues will go away. Just a couple of things to think about in the interim.

[aicabsolut]

For your hands, try rotating your bars upward some (hoods closer to you). Or, you can go in for a fitting and maybe they'll move the hoods higher up on the bars towards the tops. You should also be able to be comfortable in the drops. Perhaps you need a higher or shorter stem or shorter drop bars. I'd see how rotating the bars work first, because that's the easiest thing, and you can do that in a couple minutes on your own. The muscle in the pad of my thumb will cramp if my hoods are too low, because I must hold them in a weird way.

[rij73]

When I had really bad thumb pain it turned out to be two things:
1. My saddle was too far forward
2. My handlebars were too low.

A fitting at the LBS will probably help!