More Upright = Less Neck Strain?

[Jay]

In your personal experience, have you suffered with neck pain and found that sitting more upright on the bike has alleviated the pain?

Prior to getting a Roadini over two years ago, my road bikes had 5-10cm of drop from saddle to handlebar, and after years of this plus bad posture at work, I had an unnatural bend in my cervical spine that sometimes causes neck pain (that general area).  My current chiro helped me mostly resolve this so that it's only sore after really long rides, when it's really windy, or after a lot of riding.  Drop handlebars on my Roadini are about level with the saddle, and I can usually ride with little to no pain in the neck area.  

I rode a lot in May, and that pain came back in a big way in the last 45 minutes of today's long ride with my friend.  I think the increased volume in May was the main contributor.  However, this year, both the Roadini and Fargo have drop bars.  Last year, I had Velo Orange Granola bars on the Fargo.  Last year, I cannot recall that pain in my neck showing up once with any severe or prolonged discomfort.  I'm now wondering if that's because a 1/3rd of the rides were on the Fargo with the more upright (and just, different) position, so it was less repetitive strain to my neck.  I'm thinking of putting the Granola bars back on the Fargo.  It could also be other factors (age - one year older, stress, or perhaps my position on either bike has deteriorated somewhat).

Thanks!

[Chris Lang]

Don’t forget about the width of the bars.   I find too wide of bars cause me neck and shoulder pain as well. 

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[Jason Noonievut]

I was going to add that bit of information but decided to keep it short.

What I like about drop bars are the multiple hand positions and width (40cm, straight line from my shoulders).  Granola bars are 650mm wide, but I had them set up more upright and it felt okay (neck area anyway).

On May 31, 2026, at 7:44 PM, Chris Lang <clan...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Gabe]

Hey Jay,

I've definitely experienced neck pain (and upper back pain) on long road rides (two to eight hours) and it did improve some by raising the handlers a couple inches. Interestingly, however, depending on how often I rode that road bike, my activity tolerance increased. So how used I was to that bike and that set-up and how time I spent in that position definitely affected how much I could comfortably tolerate. So two hours after being off the road bike for a few months hurt more than six or eight hours when I was using it more often. 

Perhaps also talk to a PT about how you hold your head when looking forward (like using your eyes more and keeping your chin down rather than kinking your neck). 

Generally all these things exist as a system so tweaking one thing could put more strain somewhere else. But in my experience high handlebars, on avg, were more comfy. 

- gabe 

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[Ron Mc]

My thought is you don't strain cervical muscles/ vertebrae unless you lean on your hands/ wrists.  

If you support yourself with core muscles, all that should be relaxed.  

You'll also discover new spin you didn't know you had when you lean into your core muscles - if you need more, bend your elbows more.  

[Ryan Mulcahy]

One thing I like about alt bars is the variety among bikes: 3 bikes with diff alt bar setups feel different (to me) much more so than 3 bikes with diff drops. Which means in practice that though I really prefer drops -- the hand positions -- I need only one drop-bar bike because I'm always going to choose the one I like most. 2 alt-bar setups and I'll switch it up.