road bike / race bike / hybrid / touring / fitness bike - which one

In article ,
Rob Morley writes:
|
| | No, certainly not. The hands can be resting fairly lightly on the hoods.
|
| Which means that you are carrying a large proportion of the weight of
| your torso with your back muscles for long periods. NOT good news for
| most of the large number of people with lower back problems, and many
| people can't hold that position for long at all without resting on
| their hands.
|
| IME it's the inability to comfortably maintain pedalling pressure that
| causes a problem with this position - I have lower back problems and
| cycling is one of the strenuous activities that actually helps my back.

Not all lower back problems are the same. I can't hold that position
without pain for long. More to the point, my posting corresponds to
what the physiologists and physiotherapists say is the recommendation
for most people.

| Although we walk upright our spines didn't really evolved for that
| posture - leaning forward reduces pressure and allows the spine to flex
| rather than jarring with road shock.

That is another of the commonly quoted myths which seem to infest
cycling. We have been upright bipeds for c. 3 million years, and our
spines are no longer adapted to anything other than a vertical position.
True, they aren't perfectly adapted to that, but are more adapted to it
than to any other position.

All physiologists and physiotherapists point out that you should keep
your spine essentially upright when any strain (INCLUDING jarring) is
involved. I once worked on ejection seats (in a minor way) and the
same is true for them.

| The other problem that riders
| often have, whether with straight bars or drops, is that they lock their
| elbows rather than keeping them flexed, so shocks from the bars are
| absorbed by the hands and wrists or transmitted to the shoulders and
| neck.

Fine. IF you are strong enough. Not everyone is. In fact, probably
most people aren't, at least for a period of an hour or more.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.