Hand issues while touring

[pkeenan]

Has anybody ever suffered from hand issues during or shortly after a tour?
During my last tour, a gradual numbness spread through my hands and by the time I reached JoG I couldn't open/close doors, write etc - my hands just wouldn't respond. To the hosts' amusement - I locked myself in a toilet in a lovely Old School House restaurant at JoG - my hands simply didn't have the strength to grip the lock and move it!

I was worried about this at the time (especially as music is my livelyhood), though a friend who's done lots of touring told me it was something many people have problems with. I accepted that as fact, though as I hatch plans for some touring this summer it remains in my mind.

Any similar experiences, or is my ulnar nerve extra sensitive to pressure!?

[I wonder if it was partly due to my losing my trusty Specialized BG gloves a few days in. The replacement has never quite been as good]

 

[Gary E]

Yep, same here. Got really worried when I couldn't open doors!

There are several threads on this forum but basically:

Time on the bike.
Good (not too tight) fitting gloves.
Correct riding position (not leaning forward so as to put too much weight on your hands).
and not gripping the bars too tight (change hand position regularly and don't hang on for grim death!).

seem to be the solutions in most cases. Also drinking electrolytes (especially on long rides) helps keep your salt levels up (a cause of cramps).

Hope this helps (it did me )

 

[rollinstok]

On long rides I used to suffer problems with my left hand in particular
It was prone to cramp and often locked up like I was playing a C chord on guitar... on occasions I had to force the fingers back straight
I use the Ergo grips now, and so far have not had any major discomfort
If you are using a flat barred cycle for touring it may be worth considering a set of these excellent grips
If you are on drops then I'm sorry for wasting your time

 

[Ian Cooper]

I wouldn't just pass it off as 'normal'. I've never had this and I spent a year and a half straight touring.

If I were you, I'd see a neurologist and make sure it's not a cervical disc problem.

 

[takeonafrica]

I had a similar problem on a long tour (couldn't open drinks bottles), but my hands improved after time off the bike. However, I have since been on another long tour and the problem re-occurred and I would say that even a few months after finishing this trip I notice my hands are much stiffer and weaker and sometimes I get a pain up my forearms. So, definitely don't let it continue. Short-term numbness is not necessarily a problem, but long-term effects can be.
As said above, I find good gloves help, I think I need more padding on the handlebars (although I use ergon grips anyway). The main thing is changing the sitting position I believe.

 

[strofiwimple]

Finished 13 day ride on 7th June and I developed numbness particularly in my left hand after the second day. Never had this problem before during four day rides.
Really struggled to ties shoe laces or write for the rest of the tour (and wiping backside with other hand is a novelty ) . Doc reckons it is median nerve palsy (similar to carpal tunnel) been wearing a wrist splint for last fortnight and taking anti inflammatory tabs. It has eased off a little-i can just about write-but no grip strength in my little and ring fingers.
Sods law that I'm left handed so have missed so many tennis matches in the last couple of weeks and obviously no biking. I've never been a patient patient so back to the docs on tues to see what next stage is.

 

[pkeenan]

Thanks for all the various responses so far. It's interesting to read of peoples similar experiences and how they've dealt with them.
I think my first step is to get some higher quality cycling gloves (probably from the Specialized BG range, as I've had good history with them).
The Ergo grips do looks like a possibility too. I've got a butterfly set up, so it's perfectly possible.

strofiwimple - the way you describe how yours was sounds very similar to how I was, though I didn't go to the extent of sorting it out as you have (which was probably a bit silly of me, really).
Ian Cooper - I think you're right that I should seek specialist advice. I can't afford for hands to suffer, as I am dependent on their functioning well.
Gary E - Drinking electrolytes was something I hadn't even thought of. Thanks for the tip!

Thanks once again to all for sharing their experiences. Do keep 'em coming!

 

[strofiwimple]

Hope you get it sorted soon pk, just for info- i used zero tablets which worked well for me with no cramping at all-so in my case it is more to do with nerve damage rather than electrolyte deficiency.

 

[jjb]

I got this after 3 weeks cycling w/o mitts. Put mits on, all fine.

If you reckon vibration and road shock are factors, consider tyre pressure and the tyre size as well as mitts and handlebar tape.

 

[vernon]

I have suffered from this with drop barred bikes. I cured it by padding the handlebars with old innertubes used as underlay for the bar tape. Specialzed make a gel pad set called bar phat wich comes with bar tape. You might need two packs to deal with butterfly bars.

I had a similar but less severe problem with my new flat barred bike. Only on my left hand. It was cured by shortening the stem by a few cm and raising the bars by a centimetre or two.

Getting oneself measured up and having the bike bar and seat positions altered migh be worth investigating.

 

[MacB]

The Ergo grips do looks like a possibility too. I've got a butterfly set up, so it's perfectly possible.

I've done a lot of miles on butterfly bars and tried them in all 4 orientations, open back forward and back and rising/dropping, plus at a lot of different angles. For the model I used, BBB Multibar, I found I liked them best with the open part to the rear, dropping not rising and angled with the back lower than the front by about 30 degrees. For grips I used rubber Ergon style(some cheap BBB ones) pushed well onto the open part so that they actually went slightly round the first curve. This gave me some extra heel support on the sides where I liked to ride as well as on the flats. For the rest of the bars I used some BBB tubular foam grips...all the BBB stuff I got from Dotbike. The foam grips can also be wrapped in bar tape if so desired.

But I made some setup errors early on as I tried to get comfy messing about with the cockpit. Once I understood a bit more about how my weight was distributed on the bike then I started from the saddle and worked forward. The height you have the saddle at, and the distance it is behind the bottom bracket, dictates how far you bend forward naturally. If your bars don't compliment this then you'll constantly be using your hands/arms/shoulders to try and adjust for it.

By the way I moved from butterfly bars, via various others, to big sweep risers, my choice for that is the On-One Mary bar. I found I liked to ride with my hands on the sides of the butterflies and didn't like having to move them to reach brakes or gears. I did try to get the controls on the sides but it never really worked. With the Mary bars I have the controls where my hands like to fall, get proper use of ergo grips there and I also put some little stubby barends forward of the grips to provide alternate hand positions.

 

[Ian Cooper]

...Ian Cooper - I think you're right that I should seek specialist advice. I can't afford for hands to suffer, as I am dependent on their functioning well...

I have cervical disc disease and herniated discs at C5 and C6. The herniated discs press on the spinal cord and it translates to pain in the forearms and fingers. When it gets really bad, the fingers and back of my hand go numb and I get a loss of strength in the triceps muscle. If left untreated, this can become a chronic issue with permanent loss of strength and feeling.

Note that spinal injuries often go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed by general practitioners who are often not taught to recognize the signs of such pain. My spinal injury was misdiagnosed for 6 months (and I was waking up screaming from the pain, which the doctor simply chose to disbelieve) until I insisted on getting a referral to a neurologist who correctly diagnosed me literally within two minutes. Often GPs see patients suffering from spinal pain who don't respond to muscle relaxants and regular pain killers, so they assume they are faking and classify them as drug seekers rather than as patients in severe and real pain.

Anyone with prolonged pain or numbness anywhere on their body should seek out a neurologist's opinion and get an MRI of the brain or spine. You can't be too careful with this sort of thing. Often a course of physical therapy can re-strengthen the muscles to shield the spine from further injury. This, followed by simple daily exercises, can prevent further problems. I can now ride my bike without pain or numbness as long as I do a minute's worth of neck stretching exercises every day

 

[pkeenan]

You can't be too careful with this sort of thing.

Your post has summed it all to me very well - thank you. I think I will be going to a neurologist as soon as I can.

 

[Blue Hills]

If you reckon vibration and road shock are factors, consider tyre pressure and the tyre size as well as mitts and handlebar tape.

I'm no doc but I would also check this out. Reason I say this is that although I've not done any real touring I have done some very long day rides - I have had similar but by no means as bad symptoms when riding my Speed Pro - pretty harsh ride with small tyres at 120ps. But have never really had this problem on my other bikes, particularly not on my old comfy steel ridgeback with its 38 tyres.