My hands

[Steppylud]

help! I'm in agony.

My hands go so so numb when riding. (Flat bar)

I am pretty sure my seat is at the perfect height. I wear nice spongy gloves and I have even resorted to some handlebar ends. But nothing seems to relieve the numbness.

My bar is at the highest setting so would a logical step be to try and lower it?

What about the angle of the bar ends, should these be flat? Mine are raised as I felt this would give the best angle to not have bent wrists.

Advice please!!??

Thanks in advance.

 

[Sharky]

How quick does the pain come on and is it a new situation or always when riding?
Does it disappear from one hand if you ride single handed while holding the other down by your side and giving it a shake?

To rule out any serious problems, you need to see your GP, but if you put it down to just pressure on the hands, you could experiment with bars that give you more varied positions. Dropped bars would, but the switch from flat bars would probably require a change of brake leavers. Butterfly bars might be a good option, as would give you a lot of variation. Clip-on tri bars might sound unsuitable, but would take all the pressure off your hands. I have arthritis creeping on and have now fitted tri-bars to all my bikes, not just the ones I use for TT's and apart from the aero advantage, they are very comfortable if you have them at a height which allows you to see forwards without straining your neck.

Hope you find the cure

Keith

 

[Onyer]

I had this problem with my Ridgeback Genesis Day1 bike. I put on bar ends so that I could have a different grip, but that did not help. In the end I bought a Spesh Roubaix - carbon frame and carbon forks - and the problem has gone. So I put it down to road buzz. How many miles do you do before the numbness? You could think about getting some carbon forks to help try and eliminate some of the road buzz.

 

[vickster]

How's your core at supporting you rather than putting all of the pressure on your hands?

 

[Joshua Plumtree]

Always had this problem on a hybrid after about 5-6 miles, but only in the left hand weirdly! Not painful, just numbness followed by pins and needles.

On one occasion, racing to a cafe stop on a club run, my numb left hand inadvertently changed down to a lower ring when I was pushing quite a high gear and the chain came off half-way up a steep hill! Merriment all round as everyone sped past and left me to it!

No such problems on drop bar road bikes. In the end I sold the hybrid!

 

[Fab Foodie]

How's your core at supporting you rather than putting all of the pressure on your hands?

This^^^
If you have too much weight on your hands they are going to go numb.
Try moving your seat backwards a little, this bizarrely will start to take weight off your hands.

 

[vickster]

Oh and have a read of some articles about cyclist palsy, will give you some direction. It may be you need to stop riding for a bit to let the nerve recover

e.g. http://www.sportsinjurybulletin.com/archive/cycling-injuries.html
http://www.elitesportstherapy.com/Cyclists--Palsy

 

[DannyCFC]

I had this for a few months - being aware of how I sit and trying vary my hand position has helped a lot.

 

[dr snuggles]

Just got back from Majorca and rode a bike that was too small for me for a couple of days (took me this long to work out the problem) My hands going numb was one of the problems that occurred. Is the bike the right size for you? Try moving the saddle as far back as you can to see if this helps. Another problem I was having was a distinct lack of control at higher speeds ie downhill, does this happen at all?

 

[Studley]

You might be gripping the bars too tightly, it's a common issue with motorbike riders.

 

[Yorksman]

help! I'm in agony.

My hands go so so numb when riding. (Flat bar)

Have a look at this article on steering systems: http://www.ergotec.de/en/05_lenksysteme.php#slide-1

Also, have a quick check at the bar height link and the posture link.

 

[Paulus]

As Studley says, try to rest you hands on the bars without gripping them, you don't need to grip the bars tightly to steer the bike.

 

[Steppylud]

Wowzers, thanks everyone for replying I will have a good read tonight and respond!

 

[Mummy3monkeys]

Hope you resolve it a bit with all this advice. I have been reading this with interest, as I have the same problem, but I know I grip my handlebars too hard, I am now trying to move my hands round more and use padded gloves. Problem mainly resolved. Would be even better if I fit my bike properly, so that is the next plan. I currently ride a mtb.