Hello. A little over two years ago I decided to upgrade from my Bianchi C2C 928 to the Oltre XR4. My hubby worked with our bike guy to make sure the fit could be as close to the 928 as possible. When it arrived I had some minor tweaks and off I went. About 4 months into it, I was in so much hip pain I stopped with 6 miles left in a ride and took the sag back. Needless to say I have had the same chronic issues for 2 years now.
I have had 3 fits, by two different fitters. Shortened the cranks, changed out the seat, changed the stem, even played around with spacers in the front end. Nothing works. It is like I hit a repeat button starting in around mile 14/15 of any ride.
I have been to sports Dr’s, Sports Chiropractor, also swim, run , and do a mix of Pilates, tai chi, and yoga twice a week.
Any advice on something I am missing? Is there a general rule of thumb on something like this?
PS I do not have the same pain on my Bianchi tri bike. It is just this XR4.
Thank you in advance!
Any more specifics on the type of hip pain? E.g. joint issue vs. hip flexors vs. glute-type muscular pain?
It sounds like this has been attempted, but has the road bike been made as close as possible to the tri bike? E.g. putting the road saddle X/Y position as close to the tri bike saddle X/Y as possible? (though sometimes not possible to perfectly match given differing geometry).
Same saddle? Same pedal system with same adjustment? Same shoes? If different shoes, same stack height? Crank length? Q factor?.
So, first, same shoes, two new saddles, have switched back and forth, same pedals, same size bike, same crank length, etc.
SI joint has been known to be inflamed on occasion. Sports Dr said my glutei were not firing, but last visit he said they were strong. Hip flexor was out of sorts on one visit, IT bands being tight have been an on and off issue for years, piriformis this time around as well. The pain is sharp and basically where the IT band meets medial glutei meets ? If I move around on the saddle I can alleviate it temporarily and then it will come and go for the rest of the ride. I have tried to figure out if I reach more forward, flatten my back out does that do the trick? Answer is not always.
When I go to my Sports Dr and we works out any scar tissue or other things related, I generally will have a couple pain free rides, and then it starts up all over again. He is calling it chronic and I am about at the point where I no longer want to ride the bike because I know what is coming.
Sheesh. Tricky. It sounds like you and the people who’ve helped have covered all the obvious bases.
The weird thing is the tri bike being fine. Given that and your talk about saddle positions sometimes helping, I’d be curious about the saddle fore/aft position between the two. E.g. if you dropped a plumb bob from the tip of the saddle, how far in front of (or behind) the bottom bracket does the string lie on each bike. Often a tri bike will have a saddle farther forward. Maybe that’s helping. Maybe the fitters have already covered this, but sometimes it’s simply impossible for a road bike to get as far forward as a tri bike.
That’s all I’ve got!
I’m curious about this. Show us your position on the road bike and a picture of just the bike setup…
Gall
I cannot find a perfect side view. Unlike my Tri bike I have plenty from races.
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Tri bike
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My .02 cents on what I’d do… Extreme movement of the saddle position.
If the tip of your saddle is forward of the center of the bottom bracket, I’d lower my saddle 3-5 cm and put the saddle as far back as you can. If the tip of the saddle is behind the bottom bracket I’d put it all the way forward and still lower the saddle.
Gall
The location you report as painful is a common referral pattern from the lower back. Honestly, it sounds like your chiropractor doesn’t know what’s going on as he/she is just chasing various muscle groups without results. Everyone has something tight… it doesn’t matter unless one can show it provokes pain. Have you had a real mechanical exam? Anyone tried to reproduce your pain off the bike? It sounds like you need a different approach and possibly a refit bike.