Raise Your Handlebars to Avoid Shoulder, Neck, and Back Soreness

When volunteering as a bicycle mechanic, I hear a common complaint. “My shoulders, neck, and back hurt when I ride my bike.” This is followed by a question, “Is it possible to raise my handlebars?”

Poorly fitting bicycles do produce aches in the neck, back, arms, and hands. This problem is becoming more common as a result of the increasing prevalence of buying a “bike in a box” over the internet or picking up a bike at Walmart. People without any mechanical experience have to assemble their internet bicycles. In such cases, seats are often too high or too low. Front stems are too long or too short. I have talked to several people about brakes that aren’t working properly because the forks have been installed backward.

The reality is that many variables can cause riders to have sore hands, shoulders, and backs.  These include the height, location, and angle of the seat, the length of the top tube, the type of stem, and the style of suspension. It should also be remembered that parts of the body carry the weight of a bicycle rider. They include your feet, your bottom, and your hands. Any adjustment in the handlebar height will inevitably shift the weight between these body parts and perhaps require muscles to pick up the slack.

A couple of things are important to remember when considering adjusting the height of the handlebars or purchasing a bike with high handlebars. The first issue is that raising handlebars generally puts more pressure on your seat. This is the reason you see beach cruisers with thick rubber pads on the seats. Low handlebars also may increase pressure on your hands, shoulders, and neck.

Low handlebars may not cause problems for younger riders who can use their back muscles to lift their torso so that only light pressure is on their hands. The back also will be more angled or perhaps even curved for bikes with lower handlebars. This is fine for young adults who want to cut down wind resistance because they have the requisite strength and flexibility in their backs. However, this can be a problem for older adults with weaker muscles and less resilient disks between their back vertebrae.

The second issue is that raising the handlebars can mean that the cables connected to the brakes or gear shifters may have to be replaced with longer ones. This can complicate and increase the expense of adjusting the height of the handlebars. Each individual bike must be examined to see if the handlebars can be raised without the extensive work of replacing the brake and gear cables.

For each individual, there is a position that is just right for putting the proper amount of pressure on the feet, seat, and hands. The hands should carry very little or even minimal amounts of the distributed weight on the bicycle. The hands should be used for guiding the bicycle rather than carrying any of the load. Finding the right position can be a matter of trial and error. For younger people that are more flexible, getting the handlebar and seat position just right is not as critical compared to older riders. But even for younger adults, getting the right height and reach for their type of riding can mean the difference between pleasant and unpleasant rides and the ability to ride longer distances.

The Story of my 1976 Sekai Competition Bicycle

1976 Sekai Front Headbadge

(Photo: Doug Barnes)

The US in 1977 has its largest trade deficit in recent history (Lawrence, 1978). Asian and European companies are making inroads into US markets with sales of less expensive or higher quality products. Fears abound that this will hurt the US economy. Sound familiar?

Trade concerns also were felt in the booming bicycle industry during the early 1970s. Consumers began turning away from American-made bicycles such as Schwinn and began favoring brands from Europe including Raleigh, Peugeot and Motobecane. This all changed in the mid-1970s as Japanese companies began taking advantage of their low-cost and high-quality manufacturing facilities to penetrate US markets (Brown n.d.).

Even companies like Schwinn got into the act, importing bicycles from Japan and relabeling them as “Schwinn Quality.” The World Sport and Le Tour models introduced by Schwinn in 1972 were made exclusively in Japan (Crown and Coleman 1996). This was paralleled by the emergence of high-quality component manufacturers including Sun Tour, Araya and Shimano. The Japanese bicycle invasion was in full swing.

Five Bicycle Hardware Tips for Older Riders

Older Bicyclists on Legacy Trail in Venice, Florida.

(Photo: Doug Barnes)

It’s not uncommon to see a 50- or 60- or even 70-year-old riders hunched over bicycles that look like they belong in the Tour de France. Those bikes are designed to reduce air resistance by bending the body into the shape of pretzel. I am sure it is thrilling to go fast on such bikes, but for the average older rider, it’s a very uncomfortable position. The back gets sore, the hands go numb and the knees complain. There is a better way.

Tips for younger bike riders are frequent in magazines and on websites. Advice for the older bicyclists is uncommon, despite the fact that some people ride well into their 70s and 80s. Even young riders eventually grow old facing problems such as sore backs and swollen knees. To continue enjoying riding what I call the "Happiness Machine," older riders need to forget advice geared towards younger enthusiasts and bicycle racing. To compensate for the stiffness and inevitable consequences of aging, older riders can make some sensible changes to both bikes and riding techniques.

How Bicycle Coaster Brakes Work

I can see a puzzled look suddenly come over the young woman’s face as she picks out a cruiser bicycle to ride at the C and O Canal Bicycle Loan program at Great Falls, Maryland. She sheepishly asks, “Where are the brakes?”

“Just pedal backwards. The bike has coaster brakes.” This information doesn’t quite compute.

“Pedal backwards. Really?”

“Try it out. People have been riding bicycles with coaster brakes without a problem for more than 100 years. The one on this bike is a Bendix Coaster brake that was popular in the 1960s.”

The forty or fifty year old bike she is going to ride is Columbia bicycle that is very popular in the program. The brake is a Bendix Model 70. Bendix began manufacturing coaster brakes in 1924 after deciding to diversify from its car parts business and to start producing bicycle components. The company produced bike parts until the demise of its bicycle division in the 1980s. During the 1950s and 1960s Bendix coaster brakes were quite common on Schwinn, Columbia and many other major bicycle brands.

A Short History of the Bicycle Coaster Brake

The coaster brake has been in constant use on bicycles for over a century, but it seems to get no respect. Compared to other bicycle components such as wheels, derailleurs, shifters, rims or tires, the bicycling community does not pay much attention to coaster brakes. The probable reason is that they are found mostly on low-cost bicycles. Despite this lack of respect, coaster brakes are still sold in high volumes in the USA and throughout the world. In addition, they were a key invention during the 1890s, an era when innovations defined the modern bicycle.

Brooks C17 Cambium Bicycle Saddle Review

My bikes are not new, so I usually don’t do product reviews. My oldest bike is a 1971 Raleigh that I use for going to local stores or restaurants. Others are more recent including a 2001 road and a 2008 cross bicycle. Occasionally I do replace old components for new ones, but I prefer writing about bicycling experiences, infrastructure issues and policy rather than equipment. I also just like to ride a good bike without worrying about whether it has the latest or lightest components. My aversion for doing product reviews recently was softened when I replaced my venerable Brooks Team Professional saddle with a new Brooks Cambium.

A Short History of the Bicycle Wheel

(Photo: Doug Barnes; 1915 Bicycle in Bicycle Heaven Museum, Pittsburgh)

Today, when building and truing wheels we are standing on the shoulders of past bicycle inventors. The discovery of the wheel was necessary before anyone could think about riding on two wheels. Today's modern bicycle owes its existence to inventors who started making and changing bicycles about 150 years ago. The early inventors were not mechanical engineers or physicists. They were more like tinkerers, figuring out how things work and trying to find ways to improve them. But even they started out with wheels that had been around for centuries.