[RatBikeRod]

No, seriously, I am having a lot of neck pain.

I was not sure if it was wearing a helmet riding my motorcycle or the position of my neck on my MTB’s. I have narrowed it down to the MTB.

I want to do one more test to see if I have the problem when riding my Stache 7. I do a lot of riding on the Ogre I built for touring/bikepacking. I am running a Moloko bar on it and love al the positions. However, I feel like the position I have my neck in to ride (so I can see ahead) is causing me a lot of neck pain.

I probably have some degeneration in my spine as well, need to get this checked. But I tend to have to lay in the floor with a wedge under my neck (to stretch my spine) for a while after each ride.

I am sure some here have dealt with this, and wanted to see what advice you might have.

 

[Blue Dot Trail]

I’ve had this issue on and off for years. What solved it for me was dialing in my riding position / cockpit. Took about a year of buying bars, grips, stems etc. I learned I can’t be stretched out AT ALL. If I have to “look up” my neck will be destroyed. Now I sit up much straighter.

 

[Tall BMX'r]

Usually it's the bar sweep or height. For me, not enough back sweep and I feel it in my wrists and shoulders. Your Moloko's have a lot of back sweep. Almost cruiser bars. Seeing that it's neck pain you are having, that leads me to bar height. Your Moloko's have no rise. I would recommend either some new riser bars with extra back sweep, or a riser stem and like this one > https://www.amazon.com/FOMTOR-Bicyc...ocphy=9031534&hvtargid=pla-599416254604&psc=1

I use a short riser stem and 35mm riser bars.

 

[Pisgah]

I think BMXr is probably right. When I read your post, my first thought was to raise the bars.

 

[RatBikeRod]

I will begin there.

 

[HollyBoni]

I struggle with neck pain as well (unfortunately I don't know what's wrong with me yet) and like the others said what helps is a taller front end. You could also play around with different length stems, possibly going shorter.
While riding try to pay attention to your shoulders. If they're going up towards your ears, try to lower them down and just make sure you're in a relaxed position, not all locked out and tense.

 

[RatBikeRod]

Usually it's the bar sweep or height. For me, not enough back sweep and I feel it in my wrists and shoulders. Your Moloko's have a lot of back sweep. Almost cruiser bars. Seeing that it's neck pain you are having, that leads me to bar height. Your Moloko's have no rise. I would recommend either some new riser bars with extra back sweep, or a riser stem and like this one > https://www.amazon.com/FOMTOR-Bicyc...ocphy=9031534&hvtargid=pla-599416254604&psc=1

I use a short riser stem and 35mm riser bars.

I ordered this today to see if it would help. I was going to just get a riser extender, but I really do not like how far up that puts everything. I am hoping this will do the trick.

 

[Tall BMX'r]

I ordered this today to see if it would help. I was going to just get a riser extender, but I really do not like how far up that puts everything. I am hoping this will do the trick.

Riser extenders can create more problems. Because of the head tube angle of your bike, a riser extender moves the bars closer to you reducing the reach. Another problem is adding another point of failure while riding in rough terrain. The riser stem with the angle, raises the grip to ground height but doesn't change your reach.

 

[RatBikeRod]

Just got back home from a Christmas trip with the family and rode my Trek Stache7. I do not get as much neck pain on that bike for some reason. I need to do some measurements to see what the differences are.