I used to be able to ride a bicycle for hours on end in my 20's and 30's. Now I can't look up when bent over in that position, I need a rise in the handlebars to get me almost vertical. I didn't hurt myself. I didn't get in an accident. It is just a fundamentally unnatural position and the discs just started to deteriorate from years of holding that position. My bikes were sized and fit properly, and I was doing everything right and everything felt OK for literally decades until one day it wasn't OK.
Intense bike positions require you to statically position the neck at almost 90 degrees to look forward, and keeping the neck maxed out like that is probably not great in the long run.
The articulation to look up/down is maybe +/- 15 degrees, and being dynamic it should be a positive movement that strengthens your neck.
That you have reduced neck flexibility decades later could easily just be age…
> Intense bike positions require you to statically position the neck at almost 90 degrees to look forward
Cyclists learn that the proper position is to hold the head at roughly the same angle of the spine and to peer upwards at an angle. So you are basically looking UP, but since the top 2/3rds of the spine is tilted forward at 45 degrees, you end up looking forward. However, as the neck muscles tire from holding a 15 pound head this odd position, riders end up like you described.
