back pain with biking

[joshuaseu]

started biking to work (1.5 miles). total of four times a day, started on my old bike about 2 weeks ago, once i got my tolereance built up, was going great.

gotta new bike end of last week, when i ride it's fine, but when i'm in my office, sitting at my desk, my low back starts to get realy sore, is actually very painful right now.

what could be causeing this? was not an issue with my old bike. i got rid of it already, so i can't ride it to compare what i'm doing differently. when i bought the bike, they just had me ride it around the store and it felt good, and they said they didn't notice anything out of place, so they didn't make any adjustments.

one thing i found was that if your thigh comes about horizontal as you ride, this can cause low back pain. so i'm going to try and raise saddle, handle bars when i get home today. any other suggestions?

appreciate any help i can get, i really want to be able to continue riding.

[BamaDave]

I am definitely not a biking expert, but I frequently had low back pain while riding my previous bike on hills - a budget mountain bike from Wal-Mart. After I bought a new bike from a local bike shop and had it fitted to me specifically, this problem disappeared immediately. Maybe take it back to the shop and let them recheck the fitting???

[caffer]

Try raising or lowering your seat... A good rule of thumb is you leg should have a slight bend to it when the pedal is at the bottom of the pedal stroke.

[Kaiser]

Since you didn't have it before and have the pain now, there's obviously a difference. Your thigh should generally come to horizontal during the top part of the pedal stroke, so that is not a good thing. If you raise the saddle too much, you'll end up with pain in the back of your knee.

Possible things to look in to, in order of doing them, IMO:

-Fit, specifically saddle height AND tilt AND fore-aft placement. A good bike shop should be able to help you with this. A bad one (like the one it looks like you bought it from) will really muck it up.

-size of the frame: different than before? If so, the setup will be different than your previous ride.

-geometry of the frame: is this a different shaped frame? Same as above.

-handlbar height? lower than before? Combined with the factors above, this could be it.

More than likely, it may be a combination of the factors above. A good fine tuned fit will likely resolve it. If you need to go to a knowledgeable shop to get it, and you didn't buy the bike at that shop, expect to pay around $35-50 and spend about 1/2 to 1 hour getting it right.

[ohammersmith]

Can you go back to the store you got it from, explain the problem and have them help you adjust it?

The bike shops around here would be glad to do that for you. Espeically if you're having problems.

[joshuaseu]

well, i found a website for a guy, something White, and he had a big 5 page deal explaining what to do for fit, so i raised the saddle height, slid the saddle forward, raised the handle bars, and rode two more times yesterday without and pain, and once this morning, i'll be in my desk for another couple hours, so we'll see if that worked or not.

and as far as bringing it back, the bike shop is in a town about an hour and a half from where i live, no quick trip, i researched it pretty heavily and it had a good reputation, i wasn't able to test ride it a whole lot that day as it was raining like mad outside. so as i said before, just around the shop. and brining it back for adjustments, well, it'll be awhile before i get that way again, and my town doesn't even have a bike shop (ridiculous).

i appreciate everyone's input.

thanks alot

[Kaiser]

If you didn't do it, have someone help you with the fit adjustment and checking that you are in the right place. It's impossible to get a fore/aft saddle check by yourself. You need to be in the position you ride in the most (for a road bike, either the drops or the hoods). You can't check your own fit well from there, even in a mirror (I know - I've tried ).

Best of luck.