I'm currently experiencing quite a bit of dull discomfort with sharp pain in one area, all between my shoulder blades.
I'm training (or trying to) for Grinduro Scotland this July; and these problems came up around mile 30 of a 40 mile ride. They have not gone away since.
I ride a Sonder Camino in L (420cm reach) with a 60mm stem and a Ritchey Corralitos 46cm bar.
I have the stem as high as it will go. I have a 50mm stem available to try; but when I had this on the bike before it made it feel incredibly twitchy; so I moved back to a longer stem.
I'm not quite ready to invest in a Bike Fit; and to be honest I am dubious about them anyway. I think I've got the saddle height nailed and upper back/shoulder/neck issues seem to stem from cockpit setup.
So, I'm looking at the bars. I love the Corralitos geometry and am nervous to consider another bar; the shallow drop is amazing on this bar.
My shoulder width is about 40cm. Ritchey do the Corralitos in 44cm; is a 2cm reduction in width going to make a difference in improving my comfort and reducing my upper back issues?
Any advice or experience would be great. Thanks!
by colourofsound
20 Comments
I would argue that the whole “you need wider handlebars on gravel” is just idiotic. I would go for 400 mm handlebars if your shoulder width is 40 cm, just get some that have enough flare for those sections you need wider stance for more control. Your hands will be in more natural position and most likely you can put the stem back to lower position.
Super hard to say but if you can get a decent video it’ll help a lot. Either on a trainer or if you can get someone who will do a decent job to ride beside you and film you pedaling at a steady pace on flat ground for long enough for you to be in the various positions on the bars for a while…
You could just be on a way too big bike, or not have the seat dialed, or it could look pretty ok at which point whether a new bar will help is perhaps a crap shoot…
Comfiest bars are typically shoulder width apart. Measure the point bits on the tops of your shoulders. Yes it makes a massive difference. You wont be rotating your hands inwards on the bars which strains your shoulders.
I used to have a lot of shoulder pain and hand numbness and then put on a taller stem and it made a big difference. Just my 2 cents.
46cm is absurdly wide. Get some narrower bars. I’d say 40 or 42
Would prefer you consider a 40 or 42cm gravel bar instead.
Have you looked at https://whatbars.com ? Great tool for finding and comparing handlebars.
2cm will definitely make a difference. My bike came with 44cm and I switched to 40cm. The difference in comfort was dramatic. It took a couple of rides to adjust my handling to the change, but it feels normal now. I got the same bars I had already (Zipp service course SL70 XPLR), just in a more narrow size.
You should go with the 40 cm since that’s your shoulder width. The area where you’re getting pain is where mine started a few years back due to a bad bike fit. As I rode more, it spread to the neck and then turned into nerve pain down my arm. Hopefully nothing like that happens to you, just saying keep that in mind since you’re training. A professional bike fit isn’t a bad idea especially since you’ve been actively making changes on your own anyway and asking here on reddit. One more person’s input can’t hurt.
I also have a large camino, I’m running 44cm bars, they’re the sonder spitfire road bars with a slight flare. I’m going to change them to 42cm versions when I get my bike serviced soon.
Shoulder width. To hell with the wide bar, run what fits you.
> I’m not quite ready to invest in a Bike Fit; and to be honest I am dubious about them anyway
At some point it probably would have been more cost effective than shotgunning parts at the bike but I’ll concur with everbody saying your bars are too wide. I’m pretty shocked at how short people are going with stems these days especialy with how short the reach is on the bars. Seems like maybe too much flat bar MTB fitting being applied to drop bars.
Wide is marketing. Ride what fits you. Get the 40 with moderate flair. 42 might be fine but the flair and shifter angle matters. The narrower Redshift bars are pretty good.
There is a guy I know whose “great deal” on a Ti drop MTB frame was just buying a bike that was too big. But he insisted on running both a shockstem in 80 or 80 and those dumb Curve 50 bars. He was spread eagle and in agony every ride. I wish I took a pic of him so we could bicyclecirclejerk him to oblivion because he refused to listen to anyone about his fit. He needed a 50 stem and 40 bars.
Unpopular opinion and I don’t mean to snark but: increased flexibility and strength will improve your comfort and reduce back pain a lot more than a few cm of handlebar width. Overhead squats especially.
I went the opposite direction from 420mm low flare to 520mm Ritchey VentureMaxes to address pain between my shoulders and it worked exceptionally well for me. I’m 6’3 and broad shouldered. Went from having moderate pain that could persist for hours or even days (after a bigger ride) to no pain at all.
Width fit is very important. Well worth the hassle of getting it right
Edit: another commenter mentioned neck and nerve pain. I had this too after a particularly long, hilly ride. That was the ride that pushed me to go from thinking about it to actually getting new bars.
I have 440 mm for gravel, and switchen from 420 mm to 380 mm on road bike. The 44 might be a little bit too much for me, but it is comfy for gravel roads. The road handlebar swap was remarkable! Two main things I noticed. The air drag is significantly lower on the narrower. I can tuck myself in, on the old handlebar I felt myself like a flag. The cornering ability changed. I have to corner wider and the handling is more insecure if you are not used to that.
Shoulder pain can be caused by a lot of things. Lack of strength, stem lenght is not right, your handlebar is too low, bad habits (on a road handlebar, you should switch hand position every 30 seconds or after a couple of minutes).
I love my ENVE gravel bars because of the shape at the widest point that fits my hands and shoulder width perfectly. To me, the change to 48cm bars was about how my hand fit the bars. When held above my 46cm bars, the difference isn’t visibly noticeable.
I had a flared 44cm bar until recently and switched to a 42cm bar. Feels much better for my shoulders. If you buy bar tape without adhesive glue on it and learn to wrap bars, it’s cheap and easy to swap bars. My local co-op has PILES of drop bars that no one wants, so I keep trying different shapes.
I’m a bike fitter with about 6 years experience…. Theres a fair amount of time till July, I would recommend core strengthening exercises. If that doesn’t help a barswap is a 2nd line of defense.
Wide gravel bars make no sense. U dont get more control at all. Im just as confident on rough sketchy descends on 38cm as a 44cm bar