I was out on my crosser yesterday and arrived home with a severe headache. The headache felt like it stemmed from my neck / shoulders, I know I took quite a pounding on some of the rougher trails but I wondered whether the fairly narrow bars might also have contributed to the neck/shoulders and ultimately the headache.

Yes / no / who cares?

I reckon it's more to do with the lower position, less give in smaller tyres too, so more jarring to the neck.

I think it's the lower, crouched position. I get it on my road bike if I do too many miles, cross bike less so and my mountain bike just feels like a big sofa.

I have swapped between my 44cm wide drop bars on the Croix de Fer and the 690mm wide flat bars on the Fortitude in the last few weeks.

I have to say that at first the drops felt really narrow and weird, but now the flat bars feel too wide.

The only discomfort I have had is lower back grumbles when riding the CdF, although not all of the time...

I know, it doesn't answer your query, but we do care....

Si

Peaked mountain bike helmet on drop bars forcing you to tilt your head back more maybe?
Try the same ride with no peak and see if it helps.

Peaked mountain bike helmet on drop bars forcing you to tilt your head back more maybe?
Try the same ride with no peak and see if it helps.

No peak.

I'll just put it down to the nature of what I was riding, it was pretty rough / rocky.

Does your head drop in a kind of "lazy neck" way? Mine does and I find I get a headache if my posture is poor....

slarge wrote:Does your head drop in a kind of "lazy neck" way? Mine does and I find I get a headache if my posture is poor....

This makes total sense. I used to get a lot of headaches, but since doing some work on my core strength and general posture, it has pretty much stopped (apart from dehydration headaches in summer).