road bike / different position

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Scarlet,
Getting a good bike fitting is always a good idea.
However- when I first got my road bike (had been used to a hybrid) I was sore in places I didn't even know I had for a while. It took me weeks to feel at ease with the road position. One year later now, my whole body seems to have adapted to it and grown stronger in many different ways that make me feel more comfortable now riding on a road bike. Your body will slowly be adapting and changing and strengthening- and that is a different thing from needing the bike to be adjusted to fit better. Sometimes it is confusing as to which is which, but time will help you sort it all out, and if you have bad pains of course you should seek a bike fit solution. But keep in mind that your muscles are not yet used to this new contortion!

[HappyAnika]

Make sure you are using your core muscles to support your upper body and not putting all your weight on your hands. As the others said, you should have relaxed arms that can absorb the bumps. Its a good idea to add some core strengthening to your exercise program.

Congrats on the new bike!

[Scarlet]

Scarlet,
Getting a good bike fitting is always a good idea.
However- when I first got my road bike (had been used to a hybrid) I was sore in places I didn't even know I had for a while. It took me weeks to feel at ease with the road position. One year later now, my whole body seems to have adapted to it and grown stronger in many different ways that make me feel more comfortable now riding on a road bike. Your body will slowly be adapting and changing and strengthening- and that is a different thing from needing the bike to be adjusted to fit better. Sometimes it is confusing as to which is which, but time will help you sort it all out, and if you have bad pains of course you should seek a bike fit solution. But keep in mind that your muscles are not yet used to this new contortion!

this has been the most useful reply so far thanks xx
Scarlet x

[Kano]

Scarlet,
Getting a good bike fitting is always a good idea.
However- when I first got my road bike (had been used to a hybrid) I was sore in places I didn't even know I had for a while. It took me weeks to feel at ease with the road position. One year later now, my whole body seems to have adapted to it and grown stronger in many different ways that make me feel more comfortable now riding on a road bike. Your body will slowly be adapting and changing and strengthening- and that is a different thing from needing the bike to be adjusted to fit better. Sometimes it is confusing as to which is which, but time will help you sort it all out, and if you have bad pains of course you should seek a bike fit solution. But keep in mind that your muscles are not yet used to this new contortion!

Ditto what Lisa says! I got my road bike this spring, and I'm finding new body parts all the time! I post about those things now and again, wondering what to do to improve my own strength, and the first thing people seem to post about is changes to make to the bike. At least some of these things may well need to happen too, but the new position takes some serious getting used to!

People are mentioning core strengthening, and that seems to be helping me a lot. The next thing I changed was my gloves: first I bought some new Specialized gloves, and when they didn't fit as well as they seemed to in the store (I think the padding was in the wrong places), I got some Pearl Izumi gloves that made a huge difference! (I'll wear the Specialized ones when riding my old bike)

In some ways, I think it's easy to do everything right on the trainer at the LBS -- They're watching us, and so we're more careful, whether we realize it or not! Know what I mean? You sit there on your bike on the trainer, all eyes on you, watching what you're doing, how relaxed and into your real riding style can you be? (my last visit, I had three bike dudes: store was quiet) We don't really find out what we're doing "wrong" until we're out in the real world. I've found that it's been more helpful to go into the LBS hurting -- take the bike -- and tell them where. They seem to be able to fix it better when we can feel it most and our bodies are tired so we're doing whatever that thing we do to cause that ache is! (ski boot guys taught me that: bring boots while your feet are hurting!)

Karen in Boise

[Scarlet]

cheers Kano for the info
nice to know its not just me
happy cycling
x x
Scarlet

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Yep....in the year I've been riding my road bike, I feel that in getting slowly more comfortable, half the changes were things I did to my bike, and the other half were things my body did to adapt to riding my bike.

Also, it took several months for some little things to make themselves obvious to me about something about my bike fit that needed changing. I didn't know how I was "supposed" to feel. But as time went on and I kept riding some things just began to jump out as needing a change.
At first I felt I needed a really short stem and my saddle shoved all the way forward to enable me to reach the handlebars and not feel I was falling on my face with weight on my hands.
As I got stronger over the months I swear my body also stretched and I felt cramped and too far forward. I then put a longer stem back and shoved my saddle all the way back and it made my reach EASIER and now I feel really comfortable and my weight is better balanced further back. Go figure!