Wrong size?

[Lost my mojo]

Hi I bought a boardman team last year and have hardly used it as I can not get comftable riding it. I find most of my weight is on the shoulders and hands rather than on the saddle. I went to the local bike shop yesterday with the idea of buying a shorter stem for the handle bars. I was told that by doing that I would also make the bike more nervous, to me the bike feels to nervous anyway and certainly wouldnt want it anymore nervous.

Im just wondering if anyone has any other bright ideas or is it just a case of me buying the wrong bike.

Cheers
Andy

[itsnotarace]

Can you post a pic of the bike as it's currently setup?

From your description it just sounds like you need to rotate some weight backwards

[RRS_Staffs]

If you bought it in person, even if it was from Halfords!, it should be roughly the right size.

To be fair I went from 25y of MTBing to a road bike relatively recently and found it to be utter torture until I got used to it
Its now very comfy with only a bit of fiddling - mostly it was just acclimatising to the new riding position.

Having said that have you tried moving the saddle back and forwards?
If you are thinking of a shorter stem then moving the saddle forwards may help instead

My biggest error was assuming the MTB "arse backwards" stance for getting my weight over the back wheel as it felt stable
I eventually realised its not good to unweight the bars when descending but also that was the main reason for my bad back and posture
2cm or so forwards with the saddle made an appreciable difference

Good luck

[Matt London]

I had the same thing with my Boardman HT Pro, although I don't know to what degree you are suffering. I had pins and needles in my hands which wouldn't go away and was keeping me awake.
My solution was to buy Ritchey WCS Carbon riser bars of eBay. The extra bit of rise made the world of difference and I currently do 5hr rides without any issue. Carbon looks nice too

It's definitely worth playing around with different seat heights,forward backward position and tilt. Also have a look at the Handlebar rotation. Small adjustments can make a world of difference. I played around with my positions for quite a while before I hit my sweet sport.

Of course your bike could still be too big.

Good luck.

[anonymous-user]

there are lots of things to try before buying new bits like stems.

try moving the seat forwards or backwards or the seat post up or down a bit, its quite likely from the sound of it that you are having problems getting your upper body to fit the bike and the problem is your arms if the pain is in your shoulders.

first thing i would try is to lower the seat and shift it forwards a bit. every mtber i know who now rides a road bike has the seat too high.

[Matt London]

Definitely try the above first before spending.
I had a look on eBay and can't see the bargain Carbon Bars I bought but found these
http://www.merlincycles.co.uk/Bike+Shop/MTB++Parts...
At Merlin.
As I said I found the 15mm(?) of extra rise over the original bars mad a massive difference. If all else fails, it's worth considering.

[With these feet]

Have you adjusted the bike to fit?

There are quite few posts on-line that give you guidelines on seat height, reach etc.

I had awful shoulder pain when I got my new road bike, I adjusted the seat height, bars etc and suddenly the pain disappeared. It was simply making me sit up a little more in normal riding.

Before buying new bits, make sure theres something wrong before replacing!

[Mars]

I just put a short, upwardly-angled stem onto my hybrid to bring the handlebars a little closer and a little higher. I bought the Ritchey 30 degree 60mm one. I'm not entirely sure it's made much of a difference to be honest - neither positive or negative. It was only 20 quid plus P&P so if I can't convince myself it's better after a couple of weeks more with it, I'll be selling it on and trying something else.

[HundredthIdiot]

Saddle back and down, shorter stem with more rise. This will rotate you back over the BB and relieve weight from your hands.

Don't worry about twitchiness. You'll get used to it. I know people running <90mm stems without issue.

The major disadvantage of a rearward seat position is that if you raise the bars you'll be less aerodynamic, and if you don't raise the bars you'll close up the hip angle which will likely rob power. For this reason I run a forward seat position (50mm behind BB) even for long slow rides; my arms just got used to it eventually.

Issues with arm/hand discomfort are classic "untrained cyclist" problems. As you get fitter you put out more force through the pedals, and this takes load off your arms, hands and arrrrse.