I have ridden road bikes since I was 19 (Peugeot UO8) in the late 70’s but I have my first tt/tri bike at age 49. I have not had it fitted yet, but soon, but my main question is how long does it take a nearly 50-yo neck to get accustomed to the ride? Of the 20 miles I have put on this bike so far, my neck is by far the first body part to give out. I can only ride for about 10 miles at a time before I have to stop.
I am not a rookie (3 sprints) but am gearing up for a 70.3 in April and would like to use the tt/tri bike if I am ready for it; otherwise, I’ll go back to the Orbea road bike.
Has anyone else started riding a tt/tri bike later in life and how hard was it?
hi, welcome to the sport. I’m 51 and started 11yrs ago. Neck muscles build stregnth pretty easily. you can help it along with some isometrics. push your head against your hand, your hand keeps the head from moving. do that for 10-15secs, each side then front and back. a few repeats a few times a day. it should not take long.
However, the problem may not be the strength of the neck muscles but the position on the bike. and if you’re having trouble after 10 miles and it’s not improving then i’d bet that it is your position. you may want to visit the fitting sooner rather than later. you could always post a picture here but beware…
Also, you may want to consider puting on a look ergostem for the first year or so. you may find that your position changes a enough that you go thru several stems over time. also, you may want to ‘develop’ into a good position over time. with the look stem you can make small adjustments periodicly. If i had it to do over, i would do that. they’re expensive but have good resale value on the classifieds/ebay.
BTW, i have a peugeot ventoux that i keep trying to get around to refurbishing. nice bikes.
Bill is right. Go see the fitter and explain your limitations and what you expect from the bike. It’s now worth the trouble posting pics here. Everyone here wants to put you into the most slammed down, no spacer, most uncomfortable position possible and admonish you to HTFU.
I also found my neck soon adjusted to my aero position. I still often have a sore neck the day after a race but I find that when I am stuck into a race I don’t notice it at the time. My experience is mainly over 40k. I think you will want to give you neck a few weeks of TT position training in order to be able to stay down for a 70.3 bike leg.
I made the change from road to tri bike on a trainer, which didn’t require my head to be up so long right away. This also meant I only needed to be fit one time.
I got into time trialing and doing tri relays at 49. It takes a little while to adapt, but it happens. One thing that helped me along, I started doing all my road rides in the drops which helped hasten the training of my neck muscles.
Each time you’re riding and you think about the soreness and tightness in your neck muscles, try to relax as many of those tense muscles as you can while maintaining the same head position. If you keep doing that and get good at it, you’ll find your head naturally goes to a lower and more aero position. Ultimately, you should be able to ride with your head very low and the muscles of your neck fairly relaxed.
I did experience neck pain but that is gone and now I have forearm pain, I’ve lowered and raised the bars several times is it something I will just get used to? I have about 700 miles on them.
you shouldn’t need to ‘get used to’ pain. somethings wrong and you need to solve the problem. could be you need to tilt the bars up or down a bit. could be be elbows too close. do you have an old injury that need rehab? or maybe you just need a little more pading on the pad. get some help solving the problem or keep trying different things but don’t live with pain. 700 miles is really not a lot so keep working at it.
you shouldn’t need to ‘get used to’ pain. somethings wrong and you need to solve the problem.
Not necessarily. The way you’re saying this is a “glass half empty” perspective. You have to have the ability to discern. Nobody is talking about “getting used to” pain like you just learn to live with being in pain. We’re talking about adapting to a position where, with a few weeks of training in the position, the body adapts and there IS NO PAIN ANYMORE. Of course, not everyone has the same tolerance for pain or the same ability to adapt. It’s a bit of an art to be able to determine if a discomfort is something you will be able to adapt to or if you’re just wasting time trying to push an unworkable position.
You have only put 20 miles on the bike, give it a couple weeks.
Also, you can see a fitter, who may help, or may not depending on how clever/experienced they are.
You can also fit yourself, experiment with height of aerobars, width of elbow pads, stem lengths etc. Tiny little changes can make a world of difference sometimes.
I have ridden road bikes since I was 19 (Peugeot UO8) in the late 70’s but I have my first tt/tri bike at age 49. I have not had it fitted yet, but soon, but my main question is how long does it take a nearly 50-yo neck to get accustomed to the ride? Of the 20 miles I have put on this bike so far, my neck is by far the first body part to give out. I can only ride for about 10 miles at a time before I have to stop.
I am not a rookie (3 sprints) but am gearing up for a 70.3 in April and would like to use the tt/tri bike if I am ready for it; otherwise, I’ll go back to the Orbea road bike.
Has anyone else started riding a tt/tri bike later in life and how hard was it?
I got my first tri bike last year at 53. It took a few rides getting used to the aero position but I never experienced any discomfort or soreness. Eventually the aero position became more comfortable and easier on my upper body, shoulders and neck then riding a road bike. Now any time I ride my road bike I wish I had the aerobars.