Back pain - such thing as an aerodynamic helmet?

[Bibio]

its not a great lid and it has its faults but my bell m2 has never ever given me any grief as far as making me ache after a days ride.

[Nobbylad]

You could always try exercising whilst on the bike. I'm not talking squat thrusts or owt, but stretching and rolling your head around works wonders to stop the muscles stiffening and keep blood flowing.

I personally think you have a problem (without having read every bit of this thread) with your riding on that day that has been aggravated by the slightly more extreme conditions than you are used to . My first port of call would be body temperature . If you get a slight chill (doesn`t have to be much) it can cause your back muscles to clench a little . Couple this with some constant buffeting and adjustments being made to keep the bike on the good path then you get a strain . I had symptoms like this for years and what helped stave it off was by keeping toasty warm on a bike .

One example was a couple of years ago . It was September , still warm , I popped to London to see Metallica at the O2 and then hoofed it back to North Wales . At around 1 in the morning and on the M6 I got a tad chilly .... "Nevermind not that far from home" .... damn was I wrong . I just compounded the problem and it turned into a slog of will power , gritted teeth and the need to get it over and done with and about another 100 miles to go . I started wearing a kidney belt for colder days and that helped a bit . Ultimately I ended up having Physio for the famous "Bed Incident" that was chronicled on here . And it wasn`t until then that I realised that a few things were not quite in alignment and they soon got sorted and I felt so much better on the bike . You probably took a hammering the other day without realising it because you`ve been riding years and have ridden stuff like that before . Throw in a bit of fatigue as well and it soon equates to some epic soreness that is almost akin to neuralgia .

Now don`t forget I have an ABM comfort kit and dropped pegs , imagine all that with clip ons and being hunched over the bike a bit more . I am convinced that it bunches up the muscles around the neck when you are over the front wheel on clip ons and it means then that your core strength has to build up ... which it does over time and many rides , but get a nasty day like you had and it will have tipped you over the edge a little bit which just got worse as you carried on . Hope this is a bit of "Food for thought" for you mate . I`ve spent quite a lot of Winters in extreme riding conditions and know all too well the pain that you have , as to what is the cause of it ? , remains to be seen .


*Ooh and another thing , on long distance runs like yours , when you think you are going to be ready for a stop soon , and pass a service station that says 2 miles and 22 miles , Don`t think to yourself "I`ll crack on for the next one" . Take a stop at the 2 mile one , have a walk and a brew and a slash , even a 20 minute stop to walk it out a little will be better than caning onwards to the next station and being a bit more fatigued and sore and taking a half hour break at that one .... or more in some cases .

I got pretty cold on Saturday because I was on the bike for 8 hours in the p1ssing rain and eventually it got through my jacket and wet my fleece and T-shirt. (Only did 200 miles in 8 hours, but anything but main roads in ROI are very slow going, and lots of stops to take photo's, which is another good point, a lot of poor roads and a bit of a rough ride off the sports bike suspension on Saturday).

Originally Posted by xXBADGERXx

*Ooh and another thing , on long distance runs like yours , when you think you are going to be ready for a stop soon , and pass a service station that says 2 miles and 22 miles , Don`t think to yourself "I`ll crack on for the next one" . Take a stop at the 2 mile one , have a walk and a brew and a slash , even a 20 minute stop to walk it out a little will be better than caning onwards to the next station and being a bit more fatigued and sore and taking a half hour break at that one .... or more in some cases .

Yeah, good advise, thanks. On Sunday from the hitting the A5 leaving Shrewsbury, to leaving the A14 at J2, the only services are at Telford on the M54, then at Corley Services on the M6 at Coventry, which is about 45 miles later. So I decided stuff it, feel fine and crack on at Telford, having ridden from the petrol station at Betws-y-coed. I thought about coming off at M6 J7 Great Barr because there's a petrol station just off the junction, but I was at J6 before I remembered I had planned to stop there! Then I thought about dropping in on Specialone for a coffee at M6 J5, but it was Sunday evening, he was probably enjoying watching the telly in peace with his wife and wasn't expecting me, and there was no way of stopping to make a phone call. By the time I got to Corley, I was only 30 miles from home, so I decided to crack on there too.

It's kind of in my nature. I'm stubborn as a mule, and I've been doing long journeys between England and Scotland several times a year since I was a few months old, and since I met my wife 10 years ago lots of holidays in France. In the car I often do 5 hours without stopping if I'm on my own or everyone else is asleep, and there's nobody else moaning to get a bladder emptied. I do several long bike journeys each year too, and riding from fill up to fuel light isn't that unusual either, but usually I've got time on my side and I'm on A roads. I think that's the first time I've ridden out a tank of fuel, with most of it on the motorway.

Won't be doing that again on a bike anyway!

[Viney]

I concur with the Badger. I ran down to wales a while back, and the journey back up the M4 was horrid, wet and cold. I ached for about a week after, neck, back, legs etc, and i stopped twice on the way back.

I dont think that its your lid in anyway or that your lid will make a huge difference anyway.

Something else that might help is fitting a touring screen, or an attachment to the top of the screen - they have a small adjustable section at the top that changes the flow of air.

Example on a V-strom I think some of the other guys on here have them on their SVs.

Just a thought!

And you know I am not far from Betwys-Y-Coed . In fact you can hit my house with a flicked ciggy from the A55 , if anyone is ever in need of a stop or in trouble then you can tap on my door , I`ll make time for you no matter ungodly time of the morning it is . If it`s well late then I`ll open the door , point at the gas fire and the kettle and you can sort yerself out .... I`ll just sod-off back to bed lol

Telford used to be my last stop on the way home to North Wales . And sometimes I would find that I would have to make another stop again , it`s only 70 miles from Telford Services to my gaff ..... but sometimes it just gets too much when you have already thrashed yerself to Hell and back and your riding on pure stubborness with a Big S on the front of your shirt and wearing Red undies outside yer pants . And in your own mind you are just cracking on and getting home , feeling like a Super Hero and a hardened endurance rider . We know that a day later you are gonna feel like the scraggiest Swamp Donkey on Earth that`s been ridden up and down Blackpool sands with a broken back .

Col, you're always welcome to pop in here mate, especially for a fuel stop after a journey like that

Originally Posted by xXBADGERXx

And you know I am not far from Betwys-Y-Coed . In fact you can hit my house with a flicked ciggy from the A55 , if anyone is ever in need of a stop or in trouble then you can tap on my door , I`ll make time for you no matter ungodly time of the morning it is . If it`s well late then I`ll open the door , point at the gas fire and the kettle and you can sort yerself out .... I`ll just sod-off back to bed lol

Originally Posted by specialone

Col, you're always welcome to pop in here mate, especially for a fuel stop after a journey like that

Thanks guys. I'll remember that and might just take you up on it one day

[embee]

More or less like the others say, sounds to me like cold had a significant part in it, you tense up when the cold starts and that just tires your muscles after a while.

I know what you mean about just carrying on, it's always a temptation, you just have to be rational and take a break.

As an aside, I've just got a Shoei Qwest to replace a Schuberth S1. I haven't done much yet, but have to say so far it's all positive. It fits me perfectly, it's very light, I'd say quieter than the Schuberth, the ventilation is very good indeed, the visor sealing is super (spring loaded onto the seal when closed), and aerodynamically it seems totally neutral with very little buffeting from truck wakes etc. Also for those of us who use helmet speakers, it has moulded plastic sockets to take speakers and still gives loads of clearance for your ears.
I got it from http://www.vcustoms.co.uk/ in Telford who were brilliant and gave me a very good discount, and even threw in a couple of bottles of Wurth cleaner as freebies.