Tweaking the bike

[Wasp]

Finally!!!!! Some decent weather. I got the bike out and about an hour into the ride I started to notice the right side of my neck was starting to bother me. At first, it just felt like the muscles were pulling so I stopped and tried to stretch the neck muscles out. But once I started riding again, the pulled muscle feeling turned into out right sharp pain. It's only on the right side of my neck just below the ear lobe and runs towards the collar bone.
Any suggestions what might be causing this issue?

[Sky King]

ugh, early riding neck tweak. Wonder if you had your shoulders in your ears. Was is cold and windy? Maybe you were unconsciously scrunching when you started out and did the right out of the gate neck tweak. Hope it is better today

[Wasp]

Oooooooooooh !!!! You just might be right, I never thought of that! It was below 40f that day and a bit breezy. I was wearing my PI AmFib head to toe, so the only thing that was cold was my face.
Next ride I'll be watching what I'm doing with the shoulders.....thanks.

[emily_in_nc]

Yes, and you should ease into riding again. My neck always gets sore on a road bike if I haven't ridden in awhile. Takes several rides of gradually increasing time/distance to get it back in shape again. I probably wouldn't have tried to go even an hour on a first ride back.

It may take a few days to stop hurting since muscular pain can do that depending on how severe it is.

[velo]

My first thought was scrunching shoulders, too... or locked elbows, which will transfer road chatter up your arms and into your neck... or not keeping your chin tucked in enough. Also, were you consciously changing hand positions regularly? I've ridden my road bike at least a couple of times/week for most of the winter, but had a 3 - 4 week hiatus when we were traveling. After that break I could feel it in my shoulders on my first ride out. During the next ride I made sure to move my hands around more, and a couple of times to sit up tall and do some on-bike stretching mid-ride and it seemed to help. It took a couple of rides to feel back to normal, though.

[Wasp]

Aaaaaaaarg!! Hard to believe but this neck issue is NOT going away. In desperation I've seen a RMT and after each appointment the neck seems worse for 3-4 days then starts getting somewhat better. Back in Feb the neck was so bad I ended up at the DR office getting injections of Toradol which really helped with the pain, but not so much with the underlying issue which so far remains elusive. I changed the handle bars to a smaller one, thinking that my arms were spayed outwards causing the neck issue.....nope! New handlebars didn't help at all. The only thing I can think to do now, is get a bike fitting as I'm running out of ideas.
The hubby wants to adjust my seat forward, but I dont want him fiddling with my bike because that might bring back the knee issue which is currently resolved.

Any suggestions?