Pain between shoulder blades

[oldgreyandslow]

I've consigned my old Donahue to the role of winter training bike and bought a new bianchi, however I now find after about 45 mins to an hour I get some serious ache in between my shoulder blades. The bars are a bit lower on the bianchi but not much and about the same reach, I'm surprised this has made such a difference.

Any thoughts on the probable cause? I've got all the spacers beneath the stem so that can't go any higher.

Should I actually have the bars lower?

Basicaly could it be bars too low? Too high? Too far forward? Or a combination?

I really could do with a solution because at the moment my nive shiny new bike is likely to be an unused ornament!

 

[spandex]

I would say your bars are too low and far forword. Try and angle the bars up a bit that might help?

 

[lukesdad]

Not sure if this helps, I used to suffer same problems and was advised not to get to focused looking straight ahead all the time [I was pretty intense then]and to stretch neck and upper back muscles by turning head side to side every now and then helped me dont suffer anymore perching forward and raising your head up to see will put strain on these muscles try dropping your head from time to time also.its aquestion of strengthening muscles that may not have had much use uptill now.

 

[kevin_cambs_uk]

I have this but as I have been communting almost every day now its started to get less as I get fitter. Its worse if I really put the hammer down, but it used to be unbearable, but its getting beter as I get fitter and loose more weight

 

[oldgreyandslow]

Thanks folks for the advice. I have now been in the garage and have done what I should have done on day one, measured everything against my old comfotable Donahue

So nearly everything was the same with one notable exception; the saddle was too far back, about 2 inches too far! So now the distance between the tip of the saddle to the bars is the same, I'm hoping that will cure the problem. The only other "slight" difference is the vertical height from an imaginary line from the top of the saddle to the top of the bars, new bike is 1" lower, however I can probably overcome this if I twist the bars up a bit to raise the hoods.

I'll try tomorrow morning and see what happens.

 

[HLaB]

With the saddle thing from my limited experience its where you sit on it that matter rather than the tip of the saddle (different saddle may be slightly different length) You should ensure that the distance from the centre of the seat post to the back and the distance from the centre to the BB is the same as the Donahue and the distance from the centre of the saddle to the bars should be similar.

These are the dimensions I mean (although the are the dimensions for me)

 

[montage]

I would say your handlebars are too narrow...they should be the same width as your shoulders

 

[nigelnorris]

This has been troubling me for ages, but today something seems to finally have clicked and although the pain was still there it didn't bother me. Managed to ride about 60 miles and in the past by that stage the shoulder pain allied to all the other aches and strains would have had me ready for tears, but without exaggeration I feel like I could get back on my bike in an hour or two and go for another ride.

The moral I think is that if you are happy that your bike is set up correctly, then persevere, things get easier.

 

[oldgreyandslow]

I think its sorted I did 3 hours today and only got a slight twinge after about 2 hours and I only finished due to family reasons. There's a limit as to how much time I can spend away enjoying myself