My elbows are killing me....

[KkAllez]

I had this same problem and and remedied it by getting wider handle bars. It is amazing the difference it has made. No more elbow pain!

[Grog]

I too have wide shoulders and yesterday my elbows were screaming horribly after 60 km. I thought I'd get used to the position after a couple of rides (I am new to road biking) but after 500 km it's still the same, so no. I will be going into a positionning session next week and figure out what may cause this. I suspect it either handelbar width or the fact that I have to bend forward too far (and thus will have to raise the handlebar a bit or get a shorter stem...)

I'll keep you posted - I know how much it hurts!!!

[KkAllez]

The problem I had with my handlebars was that they were just narrow enough that my hands and wrists turned out ever so slightly. It wasn't a huge misalignment but enough to cause absolute screaming pain. We only went a few centimeters wider and the relief was instantaneous. I learned early on to ride loose, not lock my elbows, change positions, etc. But nothing worked until we changed out the bars.

Good luck! Things like this can just drive me nuts, then when I find a solution it is wonderful. That is a huge reason why I do not want to upgrade my bike (my hubby wants to gift me with a new fancy expensive one of my choice). I've spent quite a bit of effort getting the seat right, the bars right, everything just so. I DREAD the thought of going through it all again. I'll just keep my nice little inexpensive bike for now. (buy hey! I will gladly take that extra money and buy some cycling shorts and jerseys )

[nuthatch]

WOW! I never thought about my elbow pain coming from too narrow bars!!! I thought I'd just need to toughen up my elbow muscles - I've only done two long rides on my new road bike. What I can't believe is that riding with the standard 170mm(is that right?) handlebars woud be too narrow for a woman, even a wide shouldered woman like me. Do lots of men have this problem? Seems like they would with many having even wider shoulders.

[Grog]

Oooh no! it's not related to muscle strength, it's probably caused by a squeezed nerve or something like that, quite similar to the carpal tunnel syndrome... Don't let it go unchecked.

My hypothesis for the cause of my elbow pain was that the stem was too long. Well according to the charts and to the length of my forearm, it's actually too short by one or two centimeters, but as the bike store guy said: it's just a standard value. Plus, I have long arms and legs but a short torso, so that may be the cause. Anyway he didn't have a shorter stem on stock for my bike so we decided to try something else for the moment: he reversed the position of the stem so that the handlebars are a bit higher (by something like 5 degrees). We'll see how that fares and if it doesn't work we'll order a new stem. If all else fails, I'll try wider handlebars. I too have noticed that my wrist is slightly tilted, but then all of the people I see have the same position and it doesn't cause them the same problem so I'll try different things...

After a few more hundred kilometers on the new bike I'll go into a full positioning session. It's a bit expensive for my bike budget right now but I think it's necessary if I want to ride and ride some more. I'm getting used to the position on the road bike and figuring out what hurts because I don't have the correct muscles in shape yet (these are fixing up by themselves as I ride) and what hurts because I'm not correctly seated on the bike.

I'm riding a few kms tonight, I'll keep you posted about the new configuration of the pain.

[KkAllez]

WOW! I never thought about my elbow pain coming from too narrow bars!!! I thought I'd just need to toughen up my elbow muscles - I've only done two long rides on my new road bike. What I can't believe is that riding with the standard 170mm(is that right?) handlebars woud be too narrow for a woman, even a wide shouldered woman like me. Do lots of men have this problem? Seems like they would with many having even wider shoulders.

Men? Well, you know men, they don't complain, they just suck it up, at least the ones I know.

I'm wide shouldered, and the sort of pain I had was definetely not something that was going to go away. To think about it, my husband, and the LBS guys thought I was just being a sissy and didn't believe that getting wider bars would help, but when we changed out the bars (after the LBS guy said, "well, it is going to cost XX$" , I'm saying, "SO", and then when they saw I had instant relief it made them believers. Sometimes us gals just have to insist that if it ain't right it ain't gonna get better by "sucking it up" "riding through it" or "biting the bullet".

Grog, I hope you can get get pain free before too many kilometers. That is just a miserable way to ride.

[Grog]

Grog, I hope you can get get pain free before too many kilometers. That is just a miserable way to ride.

I rode today with the new stem config for 30 km and the pain was not exacerbated, so I guess it's better. I was riding on brand new asphalt though, not the kind of bumpy road I had last time when it really started hurting badly. Anyway it seems that it did at least part of the job. I'll see in a hundred more...

Also, my significant other who's a doctor, but a respirologist, kind of examined my arm and, although he seems to loose all of his doctor-reflexes when he's out of the hospital, thinks I might have developed a tendinitis. Actually, it only hurts when I totally extend my left arm, otherwise it's just lightly numb. So anyways don't mess with bad riding positions (like the guys do).

Thanks for inquiring! I'll let you know how it evolves...

[SadieKate]

What I can't believe is that riding with the standard 170mm(is that right?) handlebars woud be too narrow for a woman, even a wide shouldered woman like me. Do lots of men have this problem? Seems like they would with many having even wider shoulders.

Uh, 170mm is your crank length. Road bars generally run 38cm measured ctr to ctr for fairly narrow shoulders to 46 or 48. I ride a 40cm (c-to-c). My broad-shouldered hubby rides a 44 or 46. Bar width is very critical to your comfiness. The trend today is to run wide bars. Keeps your chest open, more stable steering, better wrist and arm angles, etc. Sheldon Brown has probably expounded on this at length but I havn't looked. I do know that I recently swapped my vintage 38s for a 40 and am waaaay happier.

[nuthatch]

Uh, 170mm is your crank length. Road bars generally run 38cm measured ctr to ctr for fairly narrow shoulders to 46 or 48. I ride a 40cm (c-to-c). My broad-shouldered hubby rides a 44 or 46. Bar width is very critical to your comfiness. The trend today is to run wide bars. Keeps your chest open, more stable steering, better wrist and arm angles, etc. Sheldon Brown has probably expounded on this at length but I havn't looked. I do know that I recently swapped my vintage 38s for a 40 and am waaaay happier.

Whoops, my ignorance has humiliated me - I realized later that 170 was kind of WIIIIIDE! My hybrid is measuring 50 from the center of where my palm is on each bar end and my road bike is measuring 40. On my hybrid I feel like moving my hands in all the time - on my road bike, I don't know where I want to move my hands! Could the handlebar being too wide create the same sort of discomfort? Would actually measuring my shoulder width tell me something - and from what point to what point would I measure my shoulders?