Pain in the hips - seat position??

[smiddo]

After some advice other than get a bike fit as I'm over 500k from the big smoke and not able to buy a new bike at the moment (it is on the cards but isn't it always)

Have ridden on and off over the years but have recently started slowly building up the distance again over about a 2 month period - starting about 25k and now up to riding 60k. I've started getting a bit of an ache/pain in the hips which is not too bad but slightly niggling and annoying - not sure if is just a fatigue thing or maybe something along the lines of seat set up.

Can anyone give some general advice re how to correctly set the seat position so I can see if that changes anything. Not sure if the seat is too far back/forward.

My bike is an old OCR3 that has had a few incarnations from the original, singlespeed and now back as a roadie again and never really had a problem before but alas I'm not as young as I used to be. Probably answering my own question as well but I get very stiff in the lower back after a ride so probably need to stretch more.

Cheers

Shane

[trailgumby]

+1 to stretching. Lower back pain could be triggered by having the seat too far back and/or too high. The latter in particular leads to rocking the pelvis to maintain control of yoru foot at the bottom of the stroke, which stresses oru lower back and teh Sacro-illiac joints in particular.

Try lowering your seat so that at the bottom of the stroke you get a 25-30 degree bend at the knee. Google the term KOPS (Aka Knee Over Pedal Spindle) for a starting point for fore/aft position.

[smiddo]

Thanks TG,

When I rebuilt the bike back in Jan I set up the seat with the plumbob as per KOPS. Just googled it again and there is an interesting article on Sheldons. Just checked it again and the string almost exactly bisects the pedal axle.

Might get one of the family to take a photo of me on the bike so I can actually have a look at how I sit and measure the leg angles unless there is an easier way.

Oh and just did some stretching in the ads watching biggest loser!!!

Cheers

[gorilla monsoon]

+1 on the hip pin but only on the roadie, not the flattie.

On a recent ride with some pretty reasonable hills I got pain in the right hip, but only under maximum load.

I also reckon it has a lot to do with the seating position but I am actually looking at raising the handlebar height rather than the seat height.

[The Womble]

Any morning sickness?

[gorilla monsoon]

No, but I get the sh!ts when the alarm goes off at 5.30am for my morning ride. Does that count, Dr Womble?

[The Womble]

I know nothing about early morning evacuations in the first trimester and theres nothing on Wikipedia. Take 2 Panadol and walk

[gorilla monsoon]

Walk? I don't know how to do that. I have two bikes and two cars. Why do I need to walk anywhere?

I think you are a very poor doctor.

[The Womble]

I dont need to be good. I work at a superclinic

[gorilla monsoon]

Ah, then that explains everything. Just don't forget the latex gloves for proctological examinations.

[The Womble]

Too far. Back in your box.

[Nobody]

Can anyone give some general advice re how to correctly set the seat position so I can see if that changes anything. Not sure if the seat is too far back/forward.

One of these may help:
http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/articl ... ents-27605
http://www.exrx.net/ExInfo/Posture.html
http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/articl ... mend-20142
http://www.cyclemetrics.com/pages/FitLi ... _links.htm
http://www.ecovelo.info/2008/10/16/more ... le-height/

[smiddo]

Think I'll steer clear of the Womble clinic, thanks to Dr Nobody for the "serious" advice. Interesting reading the EcoVelo blog. Measured my inseam and came out with a Lemond measurement of 74.1 & Petersen of 73.3. Checked the bike and it was about 74.5 so I dropped the seat down about .5cm to split the difference. Will go for a ride tommorrow and see how it goes but today the pain is pretty well gone so could have been simply a bit of fatigue as well or the stretches I did last night could have had some benefit.

Love this cycling caper, you never stop tinkering and learning.

[trailgumby]

You might like to order yourself a copy of Steve Hogg's DVDs on bike positioning called "Sitting Pretty"

http://bagear.com.au/product.php?productid=1197

Worth the money. I viewed my set again last week (in bed with the flu ) and picked up a whole lot of new information.

The interesting thing was last time I couldn't pick very well a lot of the things in the guest cyclists' pedalling actions that he was saying were examples results of bad positioning... this time they stood out like the dogs' proverbials.

I have my set signed by Steve