Hurting arms
- Thread starter Jillmarie
- Start date
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Cycleops
Legendary Member
- Location
- Accra, Ghana
Likely due to your posture on the bike. What model of bike is it? Sounds like you might have too much weight on your arms.
If you can post a pic of you on the bike that would be helpful, if you can’t due to being new post a link to a photo sharing site.
BTW welcome to the forum.
If you can post a pic of you on the bike that would be helpful, if you can’t due to being new post a link to a photo sharing site.
BTW welcome to the forum.
HLaB
Marie Attoinette Fan
Too much weight on your arms/ lack of core strength. Perhaps also keeping your grip/arms too tense.
Tenacious Sloth
Guru
- Location
- Huntingdon, UK
^^^^ wot he said.
biggs682
Touch it up and ride it
- Location
- Northamptonshire
Hi Jill and welcome to the forum. I don't think there will be a single or simple solution to aching arms. I still get aching arms and I wouldn't put myself into a fairly new group. Particularly after a break in cycling due to weather or illness etc, but after a few weeks, the strength returns and the aches dissappear.
You're only a month in to cycling, so give it a bit more time.
Happy cycling
You're only a month in to cycling, so give it a bit more time.
Happy cycling
Once a Wheeler
…always a wheeler
Ok, thanks. Is there any other way to combat this ~ other then strengthening the core, which I am working on that.
I have a Rove “Liv 3” and yes, my arms are straight with a very little bend ~ my handlebar have just the hand placement that came with the bike ~ what do you mean by grips or tape? I know I do not have tape on the handlebar ~
My handlebars are straight ~ I didn’t think about handlebars when I was buying the bike ~ I can always go back to a bike shop and see about switching the handlebars ~ if that helps I would be so glad because that is my only real problem with riding. I have been gradually adding time and miles and enjoy itAnd what sort of handlebars; straights, butterfly or drops - ? If they're straights, then little opportunity to move your hands & arms around which will compound the issue.
HLaB
Marie Attoinette Fan
Getting the right size of bike and modifying if necessary; lower saddle/ raised bars (to make you more upright) and/or a shorter stem, saddle fore and aft (so your less stretched) will help but it can be painful if you get it wrong; a Bike fit would advise on any mods needed.
Riding more relaxed may help with the latter.
vickster
Legendary Member
Sounds like you could be over stretched, you should have some bend in your elbows to absorb some of the shock.
Are you using padded gloves? May also help
SkipdiverJohn
Deplorable Brexiteer
- Location
- London
Flat bars are not going to be causing problems on 10-mile rides, unless there is a problem with the way the bike is set up or it is grossly mis-sized for the rider. I'm routinely doing 20-25 miles a day including a fair bit of bumpy gravel on a rigid frame with flat bars and the most I ever get is a mild discomfort that just requires a quick shake of the hand to alleviate.
Bike set-up certainly needs to be considered, but the overall fit is important. For example, a LOT of cyclists have their saddle set too low, as they have this weird thing about putting their feet flat on the ground whilst seated - which makes riding hard work and is very fatiguing on the legs. Therefore having the bars relatively higher than the saddle may not be a good outcome if it means the saddle gets lowered below it's optimum.
When I get on a new-to-me bike, the first thing I do is set the saddle height, and I generally also try to get the fore-aft adjustment so the seatpost comes up through the centre of the saddle as a starting point. This can't be over-emphasised; the saddle height is THE single most important setting that you can make on a bike, and everything else you alter should always be done AFTER you have got the saddle correct. Once I know my legs will propel the bike effectively as possible, I turn my attention to the handlebar height, and whether the reach to the bars is comfortable or too stretched.
Obviously, if you are riding an off-the-peg factory-produced bike, all it's dimensions will have compromises to give an acceptable fit to the "average" rider. That means sometimes you can jump on a bike and if really lucky, it will fit like it was made-to-measure, or more likely it will sort-of fit but need some fiddling around with to optimise the comfort. Often you will read comments about getting bike fits; I am very much of the opinion that 99% of bike set up issues can easily be resolved by the rider themselves having a methodical approach to how they adjust their bike to suit their own body proportions.
Bike set-up certainly needs to be considered, but the overall fit is important. For example, a LOT of cyclists have their saddle set too low, as they have this weird thing about putting their feet flat on the ground whilst seated - which makes riding hard work and is very fatiguing on the legs. Therefore having the bars relatively higher than the saddle may not be a good outcome if it means the saddle gets lowered below it's optimum.
When I get on a new-to-me bike, the first thing I do is set the saddle height, and I generally also try to get the fore-aft adjustment so the seatpost comes up through the centre of the saddle as a starting point. This can't be over-emphasised; the saddle height is THE single most important setting that you can make on a bike, and everything else you alter should always be done AFTER you have got the saddle correct. Once I know my legs will propel the bike effectively as possible, I turn my attention to the handlebar height, and whether the reach to the bars is comfortable or too stretched.
Obviously, if you are riding an off-the-peg factory-produced bike, all it's dimensions will have compromises to give an acceptable fit to the "average" rider. That means sometimes you can jump on a bike and if really lucky, it will fit like it was made-to-measure, or more likely it will sort-of fit but need some fiddling around with to optimise the comfort. Often you will read comments about getting bike fits; I am very much of the opinion that 99% of bike set up issues can easily be resolved by the rider themselves having a methodical approach to how they adjust their bike to suit their own body proportions.