So I have just done my longest ever ride.

400km on a fully loaded bikepacking krampus over 4 days, probably 70% road due to adverse conditions.
Previously I have done various 200km rides over 2 days.

I have Jones H bars which on 1-2 day trips I have always found perfect.

On this trip on day 3 & especially day 4 I got a real knotty cramp in my right shoulder blade,
just on the point nearest the middle. Stopping every 30 to 60 minutes & a massage helped.

I guess fettling my position is the cure but as it has only happened on this trip at about 250km+
it will be difficult to adjust.

my position is fairly relaxed upright.The bars are angled slightly downwards
so my one thought is to make the bars flatter.

Any thoughts please ?

my best(!) photo of the loaded bike is this

It could just be as a result of the amount of road riding? I get aches and pains after an hour on the road on my ss mtb but don't have any after 20 hours off road as it means I move about more, stand up more and use different muscles. Do you move your hands about on the Jones? On a road section I like to use the loop to change my position.

The current weather has meant I've done more road miles with the odd ache etc. but I'm not concerned as when the trails improve I'll be back off road and shouldn't have any issues. If you've been OK before it might just of been a one off? As you said though these things are difficult to test as you might need to do 3 days of riding each time you change something to see if it worked.

My initial thoughts are - were you cold, as that may give your muscles a harder time. Secondly, there looks to be a lot of weight on the bars - could that be increasing the amount of work your shoulders are doing?

think you both might be right.

Poisitional change - no - my hands stayed firmly inside the pogies.

Weight - yes heavy but perhaps not too bad.
It looks worse than it was - I repacked the red bag when I took this photo.

Cold - think I was OK but there was a consistent strong wind all 4 days
& I did feel it on day 4

Some Lauf's might be also be an answer but need to sell the kids - any offers ?

If your hands are inside pogies could it mean you are not shifting around the bars? Changing positions really helps on multi day adventures, I’m all over the place with my Jones bars!

I find it’s why I ache more road riding that mountain biking as you spend less time out the saddle and hand positions stay fairly static.

fatbikerbill wrote:a real knotty cramp in my right shoulder blade, just on the point nearest the middle

I used to get that. Kinda under the shoulder blade. A red hot pain?
I'm assuming you're right handed too?

Partially its your position on the bike. Try a slightly shorter stem to take a bit of weight off your hands.
The other bit is how you'll be riding. (I'm assuming) you'll be using your dominant arm too much which causes too much stress through the arm. As daft as it sounds its about relaxing and using your core muscles/hips/legs more and relaying on your arms less.

Chew,

Doesn't sound daft at all and yes I'm right handed.

Relaxing, definitely. Not sure how to get my core in to action. I'll have to do some reading.

I think the lack of movement will also be a factor but I'm mighty glad I had the pogies.

When I first tried loop bars on my Krampus I used the same stem I'd been using with the 50mm rise bars that were on it. This mean that the loops were 50mm lower and I got a lot of aches and pains in both shoulders after a 6 hour ride. Elevating the loop bars to saddle height stopped the shoulder pain. Note that Jeff Jones designed loop bars for his own frames which will place the bars between 1 and 3" above seat height

Wonder if this useful?

https://youtu.be/uBtpymfE1NA

I like the guy's bike fitting advice. Helped me a lot.