Sizing up

[GregL]

One thought: before making bike fit changes, I always recommend reviewing the human element first. Core and neck strength/mobility are areas cyclists often neglect. We love to ride our bikes, but aren't always willing to spend a few sessions each week doing strengthening and stretching exercises. With concurrence from your health care professionals, back/neck issues can often be resolved through yoga and other means. If you add strength/mobility improvements to bike fit changes, you have a powerful combination that can increase cycling comfort.

Greg

[dcama5]

Dan,

Related to your C-spine issue, I had total hip replacement about 7 weeks ago. You possibly remember. The right hip had severe arthritis in it and I could no longer ride, but now, with the new hip, I can ride no problem.

That's not my issue now though. Due to some bad luck, I fell during the night last weekend and landed on my left ribs on a low table. The CT scan in the E.D. on Saturday showed 6 broken ribs, but 8 fractures - 2 ribs were broken in 2 places. Well - super painful and in recovery mode again.

Adam,

Agreeing with a previous post, after looking at those 2 Pegs closely, it looks like you now have 2 of that model and colorway - wow! You sure do have some nice bikes. In my opinion, fit is a very subjective topic, and I think I have found my best contact point dimensions as well as my wife's, because we both ride comfortably with no follow-up pain.

Dave

[CNY rider]

Originally Posted by GregL

One thought: before making bike fit changes, I always recommend reviewing the human element first. Core and neck strength/mobility are areas cyclists often neglect. We love to ride our bikes, but aren't always willing to spend a few sessions each week doing strengthening and stretching exercises. With concurrence from your health care professionals, back/neck issues can often be resolved through yoga and other means. If you add strength/mobility improvements to bike fit changes, you have a powerful combination that can increase cycling comfort.

Greg

Great advice here.
Adam I think you are now at the age I was when stretching had to become part of my morning routine.

[Likes2ridefar]

Originally Posted by CNY rider

Great advice here.
Adam I think you are now at the age I was when stretching had to become part of my morning routine.

100% my experience. I’m a wreck from past sports and like to wreck occasionally on my off road bikes…

When I do a 30 minute yoga exercise 3 to 4 times a week it makes a big difference in overall comfort, strength, and flexibility that is immediately noticeable on the bike after only a few consistent sessions.

I just use YouTube and search for 30 min yoga flow and found a few at my remedial level I like.

[Hilltopperny]

Originally Posted by dcama5

Dan,

Related to your C-spine issue, I had total hip replacement about 7 weeks ago. You possibly remember. The right hip had severe arthritis in it and I could no longer ride, but now, with the new hip, I can ride no problem.

That's not my issue now though. Due to some bad luck, I fell during the night last weekend and landed on my left ribs on a low table. The CT scan in the E.D. on Saturday showed 6 broken ribs, but 8 fractures - 2 ribs were broken in 2 places. Well - super painful and in recovery mode again.

Adam,

Agreeing with a previous post, after looking at those 2 Pegs closely, it looks like you now have 2 of that model and colorway - wow! You sure do have some nice bikes. In my opinion, fit is a very subjective topic, and I think I have found my best contact point dimensions as well as my wife's, because we both ride comfortably with no follow-up pain.

Dave

I hope you heal up well from the fall! These are different models with the same paint!

Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

[Hilltopperny]

Originally Posted by CNY rider

Great advice here.

Adam I think you are now at the age I was when stretching had to become part of my morning routine.

I have a feeling that you guys are right. I will be 44 this year and have not done any regular stretching in years. I used to have a pt routine I would do daily post surgeries and injuries, but since I have been feeling a bit stronger those have been brushed aside. It may be time to reinstitute those as well as some overall stretching to my daily routine!

Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

[rothwem]

Originally Posted by Cloudofheaven

As someone who also experienced lower back pain in the past, I recommend doing PT. I'm 5'8.5 with a 31.1'' inseam, and a 81'' wingspan. I have a job where there are days that I sit 8-12 hours.

I got a professional bike fit early on when I started cycling after I a bought a 53cm Pegoretti Responsorium. Even though I have long arms for my height, it was recommend that I use a 100mm stem along with short reach handlebars. In addition, the bike fitter told me that I should've sized up in order to gain stack height for my level of fitness and flexibility at the time. The bike fitter referred me to do PT for gluteus medius strength, left hip mobility, asymmetric pelvic rotation, and hamstring flexibility.

My back pain went away after a couple months of PT. I still ride the same Pegoretti but have lowered the stack height and switched to a 120mm stem.

81" Wingspan? Holy **** man, that's not a typo is it? I'm 6'2" (74") with a 73" wingspan. Have you considered a professional career in boxing?

[rkhatibi]

40s were definitely that age where past habits, injuries, and daily life started to catch up. For me mobility and strength work was more useful than flexibility focused work. ymmv.

[krooj]

Originally Posted by Cloudofheaven

As someone who also experienced lower back pain in the past, I recommend doing PT. I'm 5'8.5 with a 31.1'' inseam, and a 81'' wingspan. I have a job where there are days that I sit 8-12 hours.

I got a professional bike fit early on when I started cycling after I a bought a 53cm Pegoretti Responsorium. Even though I have long arms for my height, it was recommend that I use a 100mm stem along with short reach handlebars. In addition, the bike fitter told me that I should've sized up in order to gain stack height for my level of fitness and flexibility at the time. The bike fitter referred me to do PT for gluteus medius strength, left hip mobility, asymmetric pelvic rotation, and hamstring flexibility.

My back pain went away after a couple months of PT. I still ride the same Pegoretti but have lowered the stack height and switched to a 120mm stem.

Hard agree on the PT, and some of the best "PT" any of us can do is walking. Cycling puts you in an absolutely 'eff'd spinal position, then tightens up your hamstrings, psoas, and puts abnormal strain through the QL - it's a recipe for disaster when you combine it with a sedentary job, and this is just your lower back. So yeah, the best thing any of us can do is a core PT routine that involves walking to ensure those muscles are working as they're intended.

[dcama5]

Originally Posted by Hilltopperny

I hope you heal up well from the fall! These are different models with the same paint!

Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

Adam,
Thanks. I think I see it now. Is the one with the green cages a Big Leg Emma and the other an Mxxxxxo? I never owned one but always liked the Big Leg Emma.

My approach to fit/sizing is partly objective, but also partly just plain subjective. My wife and I only ride road (with a bit of gravel) so we only have road bikes - she has 2 and I have 4. I get 4 dimensions for the contact points and try to match them on all the bikes: setback, tip of saddle to ctr of bars at top, ctr BB to top/ctr saddle, and drop from top of saddle to top of bars. It's a bit subjective how I get the "ideal" numbers I use but that has mostly do do with comfort.

Dave

[Cloudofheaven]

Originally Posted by rothwem

81" Wingspan? Holy **** man, that's not a typo is it? I'm 6'2" (74") with a 73" wingspan. Have you considered a professional career in boxing?

Sorry for the typo, I meant 72'', not 81'' hahaha. I have narrow shoulders, my arms are still relatively long for my height. I would love for another 9 inches in wingspan, every inch matters.

[lorenbike]

Originally Posted by krooj

Hard agree on the PT, and some of the best "PT" any of us can do is walking. Cycling puts you in an absolutely 'eff'd spinal position, then tightens up your hamstrings, psoas, and puts abnormal strain through the QL - it's a recipe for disaster when you combine it with a sedentary job, and this is just your lower back. So yeah, the best thing any of us can do is a core PT routine that involves walking to ensure those muscles are working as they're intended.

Agreed on sitting and needing to walk/stretch especially for those of us on computers. I will add that I had both a bike fit (through PT) and PT for my lower back and it definitely helped.

However the difference between a 100mm 0deg stem and 100mm -7deg stem (same number of spacers) on my road bike is a noticeable sore lower back for me.

[mdeth1313]

I found sizing up didn't work, I ended up flipping my stem and it solved the problem.

[krooj]

Originally Posted by lorenbike

Agreed on sitting and needing to walk/stretch especially for those of us on computers. I will add that I had both a bike fit (through PT) and PT for my lower back and it definitely helped.

However the difference between a 100mm 0deg stem and 100mm -7deg stem (same number of spacers) on my road bike is a noticeable sore lower back for me.

Yup - the weird thing is we're all so conditioned to seek that massive amount of drop, and it might be comfortable for some, if you're spine has the flexibility of a pool noodle, but looking back, even when I was at my fittest, the drop wasn't crazy.

Originally Posted by mdeth1313

I found sizing up didn't work, I ended up flipping my stem and it solved the problem.

Same - I've never had a successful encounter with sizing up: it always fixed a single problem at the expense of creating many more unfixable ones. Sizing up is also why I likely failed to enjoy an Aethos - I was trying to fix stack issues inherent in a 54 with a 56 at the expense of reach.

[NHAero]

Overall, I haven't been sizing up but down, but with long head tubes to get the bars level with the saddle. My '72 Bob Jackson was sized way too big for me (572mm TT) and now my bikes are 550mm TTs. The Jackson also had a Campy seat post, inherently a setback post, and a 90mm stem. Because I love that bike, I ride it with a 60mm stem and zero setback post. And roughly zero drop. I used to be able to ride with some drop but at 70 those days are gone.

I like a 550mm effective TT and +/-170mm HT. When I can't get the HT I just use a riser stem (current example is the Supersix). I spent some time this winter working on getting my contact points set the same on all 4 drop bar bikes, starting with using the same saddle and saddle setback, and setting reach by distance from saddle tip to hoods, because those are the real contact points.

Adam, if I were you I would leave those two Pegs alone in a dark room with soft music playing (or maybe some Italian opera) and seeing if by morning there's a nice little baby Responsorium.