Cramping in palms from gripping on hoods

l9

Hi All,
I've recently started on a road bike and love it! Except for one thing. The parts of my palm at the base of my thumb (I believe that this is the radial side) seem to really be cramping while I ride on my bike, especially the hoods. I'm wondering if there is anything I can do. THis is what I've tried: 1)moving my hand positions (kind of works, but still cramping), 2) tried 2 pairs of gloves (seems to help for a bit, but then same problem by the end).

Now, there is no numbing or tingling in my hands, just cramping and soreness at the base of my thumbs. Any thoughts? thanks,

Doobz

this is pretty normal - your hands should get used to it after a week or so

l9

thanks for the post. I was starting to think I was doing it all wrong...

jonesey10

You could also have your bars too low or your saddle to high putting more weight on your hands. It's fairly common to get some discomfort in your hands due to the bars pressing on your ulnar nerve. I just shake my hands out every so often which seems to do the trick.
You can also get gel pads which you can attach to your bars under the tape, fizik do it I think, I'll try and search out a link.

jonesey10

http://www.allterraincycles.co.uk/product/108200.html

Here's the link if your interested.

l9

Hi thanks again,
i tried to actually raise my seat a bit because I felt my legs did not "feel right". So, my legs feel better and as an additional benefit, my hands hurt less than they did. Hopefully, that did the trick. thanks for the ideas, I'll look into the gel set.

biggstevie

The same thing happend to me i saw wiggle had a sale on gel gloves so i picked up a set of dhb gel gloves for about £5 my hands have been fine since

scherrit

Bike fit is one possible place to have a fiddle, raising the bars, sorting out the angle of the bars and/or the position of the hoods (we send bikes out with no tape so riders can mess with the exact position of the hoods on the bars for a week). Most people find that a good starting place is having a fairly flat, smooth transition from the bars to the hoods when viewed from the side i.e. no sharp angle. Also bar shape can change this transition... some bars are quite square, while others sweep forwards immediately from the clamped area.

Long term, have a feel of different brands of brake/shift lever.... campag tend to be better for smaller hands, shimano for larger although YMMV

Also Hudz make after market lever hoods that some people reckon are more comfortable then OEM (I have never tried them, though!)
Good luck,
S.
www.thebikewhisperer.co.uk