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Trying to ease myself back into mtb since having back surgery earlier in the year so I thought I'd jump on the gravel bandwagon. However, on my local loop I'm getting quite bad wrist pain towards the last 20 minutes of the ride. I'm running Schwalbe CX Comp tyres in 38c, have tried lowering the pressures, but there are some very rooty sections and feel I may pinch flat if I go lower.
Are there any special road bike tricks that might help such as bar angle or stem length that may help, or should I just get a bigger front tyre to damp the front end more?
Have you got too much weight over the front and putting too much pressure through your hands? Can you raise the stem at all?
Specialized Phat Wrap bar tape & Grail gloves can dampen some trail buzz.
Gel pads under the tape and a double wrap can help, wrist supports too depending on what's wrong with them. Oh and staying on smoother trails or using a suspension fork might help 😉
Depends on the pain, it could be vibrations or damping as mentioned above or putting your weight through your arms/hands. If the 2nd, try working on your core so you are supporting yourself and not slumping forward.
you don't say but was the surgery related to wrists/arms or is this 'new'?
Also what does 'in the last 20 minutes mean'? - is your local loop 3 hours, in which case maybe find a shorter one, or 45 minutes in which case it is a more serious issue 😉
For practical help - yes, double wrapped tape, gel pads, etc. all reduce buzz and little impacts which can add up. Could you get a bigger tyre in, to run lower pressure? Also remember that you can run lower front pressures while still avoiding pinch flats, it's not often that you PF a front compared to a rear which has more weight and less control over what it goes over.
But also, consider how you place your wrists; if you are mainly on the hoods, can you ride more in the drops where your elbows will do more shock absorbing work, or on the tops to change the angle of the wrists and see if you can put the inevitable impacts through them in a different way. I broke a scaphoid some years back and find that position more comfortable, so I ride a lot on the tops on mine, and have chicken levers for that reason (among others)
Why not ride the MTB, surely it will be a better riding position than a bastardised road bike? Change the tyres for some semi slicks if needs be
CX bike is the harshest bike for me. I'd be on my mtb in your position.
You might be too far forward if trying to sit like an mtb, putting more weight on wrists. I found lowering the saddle and moving it back helped alot comfort wise. I also found the kneecap to pedal plumbob test helped set up as did moving cleat centre to align with widest part of foot, but the seat height calc methods were way off for me.
Why not ride the MTB, surely it will be a better riding position than a bastardised road bike?
Wot he said.
Why not ride the MTB, surely it will be a better riding position than a bastardised road bike?
Wot he said.
What they said.
From my experience at least, riding drop bars off-road (or on-road for that matter), will be harsher on wrists and back than riding, say, a rigid 29er with flat bars on easy off-road trails, which will likely be as fast anyway.
Is it possible that, as you're back is still recovering, you're weighting the bars more than normal?
Could you convert the gravel bike to flat bars for now?
Edit, like the Arkose on the last page of the thread on here...
https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/pinnacle-arkose-three-jameso-to-the-forum-please/page/28/
How does one know if one's stem is too long?
Cork tape and riding in the drops for those sections would be my first suggestions.
I don't think there are any road bike tricks for "very rooty sections" other than questioning bike choice, sorry. (that's not to say don't do it, more that it sounds like you're taking a gravel bike on an MTB ride)
Lucky bastard. You actually have a legit excuse for getting a Slate.
EDIT: lol. I was expecting that to get hit by the swear filter! Is that not swearing? Bastard bastard bastard.
EDIT EDIT: Guess not 😂
Good, we can have a Stooge Gravel Bastard thread now
http://stoogecycles.co.uk/product/gravel-bastard-ti/
Cheers for all the advice guys. Will definitely be making some adjustments to the bike and body position. I was mostly worried that I'd get too keen if I went on the mtb and wreck myself. Also this loop is just really flat. I think I'll bring my expectations down for what you can bully a road bike into, and maybe get on the mtb a bit. Thanks for the help
Going tubeless and dropping pressure would probably make the biggest difference, I mainly hold the hoods in singletrack but have adjusted them a fair bit compared with my road bike so my wrist don't hurt. For straighter rough sections I find wrapping my hands over the hoods aero style to be more comfortable that hooking in to them.
The disadvantage to this hot and dry summer has been the washboard baked mud on the byways, worse than any rocks or roots I've ridden on my CX bike.
Don't death grip the bars. Learn to ride looser.
It's a lack of hand positions on flat bars - so make sure you move about. I 'was' a roadie until I got my spine broken on the way to work, but road bars let you move about more. Now, I just move my hands about the bars. It's harder with flat bars, but you might just need to grip either side of the stem on a smooth section. Keep 'moving'.