Drop bars and sore wrists...

[Black Sheep]

Hi all,

Trying to get the wife ready, cycling wise, for a triathlon in a month (she's really not put much effort into training but shhhhh you'll get me in trouble!)

So we've dragged her road bike out and got it running nicely, it's years since she's ridden it and in that time she's had an injury and operation on her wrist.

Riding the road bike she feels she's putting a lot of weight on it (and bent over quite a lot)

My thoughts are to fit a slightly shorter riser stem on (the stem that was on was fairly straight giving a natural rise due to the angle of the head-tube)

Does a shorter stem make the bike's handling more or less twitchy?

Any advice for setting up a road bike for someone with wrist issues?

My back-up plan is to chuck some flat bars on it if I have to as she'll do better on the road bike than the chunky mountain bike.

 

[mcshroom]

Shorter or higher will mean less weight on hands and more on the saddle, so you are on the right lines.

I would start with rolling the bars back towards her (anti-clockwise when looking at the bike from the drivetrain side to see if that helps.
The next thing I would do if her bike is a modern a-head stem, would be to see if it can be flipped the other way up to make the bars higher
Then the next step would be the new stem.

Another thing to try adjusting is to move the seat back a bit (unless she's already set that up exactly where she wants it). Moving the seat back also moves weight of the bars.

It might take a bit of fiddling to get it right

 

[vickster]

Bars too wide if it’s not a wsd bike?

 

[I like Skol]

How about flared bars? I find them much more stable and comfortable than conventional bars. I have a pair you can try but they might be wide for a woman. Drop me a PM if you want a long term borrow

 

[Heltor Chasca]

I have a short stem and it isn’t any twitchier.

 

[I like Skol]

I have a short stem and it isn’t any twitchier.

I swapped both my road bikes to shorter stems and much preferred the handling.

 

[Sharky]

Try putting on clip-on tri bars. They take all the weight off the wrists.

 

[si_c]

Try putting on clip-on tri bars. They take all the weight off the wrists.

If you're going to do that, do it now, it took me about a month of riding daily with aero extensions to get used to the position, the change in handling and get the bike setup right.

Personally I'd make sure the stem is set as high as it will go, and flip it so that it's angling upwards, then rotate the bars as has already been suggested.

The other thing for her to try is not putting any weight on the hands at all, and let her core take the weight, she should aim to ride as if she's controlling the bike with just two fingertips on each side.

 

[Black Sheep]

Hi all, thanks for your replies and suggestions.

The bike is an older inch headset, but it's got a converter in with a shim on it to fit a standard stem. It is 'upside down' as, being used to mountain bikes when building it, I put it on the wrong way up.

How about flared bars? I find them much more stable and comfortable than conventional bars. I have a pair you can try but they might be wide for a woman. Drop me a PM if you want a long term borrow

Thank you very much for the offer, she's riding mainly on the hoods so not sure if flared would make a big difference or not?

She's also struggling to feel like she's got control over the brakes, especially her right (the bad wrist)

 

[mjr]

I have a short stem and it isn’t any twitchier.

@Fnaar!

 

[Heltor Chasca]

@Fnaar!

Finally. Smartie pants.

 

[Drago]

A shorter stem makes no difference to a bikes handling - handling is determined by wheelbase, rake, trail and castor, and these remain utterly changed by stem length. However, it does alter the effective leverage Mrs Sheep will apply, and the offset to the steering axis at which that force is applied, so it will feel different in her hands, but for every degree of travel around the steering axis the bike will handle identically regardless of stem length.

I'd have a twiddle with stems, and Mr Skols idea about flared bars may help. In my experience bike fit vendors are hopeless at accommodating injury, so if no joy I'd track down a sports I jury specialist and seek their wisdom.

I have some metal work in my elbow so also prefer it up on the hoods to reduce the amount so have to pronate my hands- all the fiddling with bike set up in the world won t alter my injury, so Mrs Sheep may need to accept the same. I could have no weight on my hands at all, but holding them in certain positions without any load would still cause me problems.

Good luck, hope Mrs Sheep has a good race.

 

[Heltor Chasca]

How about flared bars? I find them much more stable and comfortable than conventional bars. I have a pair you can try but they might be wide for a woman. Drop me a PM if you want a long term borrow

I could agree. I have Salsa Cowbells on my tourer. All day on the drops. Easy.

 

[I like Skol]

I almost always only rode on the hoods. I would estimate this was 99.5% of the time, then i got a bike with flared bars and in a short time i found i was spending much more time on the drops, maybe 30-40% of the time. I also found i tweaked the bar rotation so the brakes were lower, allowing easier braking and gear shifting when on the drops as comfort on the hoods was no longer so critical.
This week i had a hire bike in the Alps with standard drop bars and even though the bike fitted me really well it just didn't feel as natural as the flared drops i am now used to.

if you want to try them i might even be able to lend a short, highrise stem to match. 1 1/8" stem and 31.8mm bars.

 

[vickster]

Hi all, thanks for your replies and suggestions.

The bike is an older inch headset, but it's got a converter in with a shim on it to fit a standard stem. It is 'upside down' as, being used to mountain bikes when building it, I put it on the wrong way up.



Thank you very much for the offer, she's riding mainly on the hoods so not sure if flared would make a big difference or not?

She's also struggling to feel like she's got control over the brakes, especially her right (the bad wrist)

Can you fit crosslever brakes? I use on all but one bike (which is now the bike I rarely ride)