Wrist Pain on Longer Rides

Rinko

I've only in the last few weeks returned into the cycling fold and have been commuting to work daily. What I have found is that my 5k commute to work is absolutely fine, no pain or discomfort at all.

However, when I go for a longer run (20k in the last instance) I have found that my right wrist specifically has been very stiff and painful in the latter part (last 5k ish) of the ride. Additionally I don't think it made much difference whether I was in the drops or on top.

I'm quite a large chap and ride a Trek 1.7 which doesn't have much padding on the bars, so I guess the combination of that any my weight being damped through my wrists/arms is the case. I try and ride with bent elbows to minimise this but it's obviously still a problem.

I've considered having padded tape put on my bike, along with picking up some padded gloves - I also think I need to adjust my seat and general ride position to make sure less of my weight is on my wrists.

Does anyone else have any suggestions of the cause/solution?

TIA,

Cheers,

Paul.

amaferanga

Sounds like you've got too much weight on your hands like you said. Have you tried tilting your seat up a bit? Nose up slightly might not cause you any problems down there and could take some of the pressure of your wrists.

Rinko

amaferanga wrote:

Sounds like you've got too much weight on your hands like you said. Have you tried tilting your seat up a bit? Nose up slightly might not cause you any problems down there and could take some of the pressure of your wrists.

Cheers for the response.

I think I need to tinker with my seat position to see what works for me - struggling to find a comfortable position which doesn't compromise power delivery.

Had some discomfort last week "down there" and was considering a bit of nose down to alleviate - sounds like that is only going to make the wrist issue worse.

Think I might take a trip back to my LBS and get thier opinion on tweaking my setup now that I have a few miles under my belt.

woodywmb

Flat bars or ones with slight rise plus Ergon grips did the trick for me three years ago. Still using them. The "wing" on each grip supports the soft padded area of your palm directly below the tip of your pinkie. You can position the grips up or down to obtain maximum support. Each grip acts like a shelf.

Garz

After each minor adjustment, if they should fail then try changing the seat position on its rails a tad forward or backward. Sounds like a small adjustment would hopefully fix this.

Mettan

In addition to Gel Bar tape, Gel padded gloves and saddle bar drop height changes, you can always bend or shake your wrists/hands every couple of minutes whilst riding - ie just give them a quick break for 5 secs or whatever to try and interupt the buildup of stress in the joint. I use a considerable saddle to bar drop, so to compensate for the added weight on my hands I regularly shake/relax them every couple of minutes (similar to getting out of the saddle to give your rear a rest from time to time).

Myk-ee

I stopped wearing a watch whilst cycling and that has helped at least one of my wrists.

sampras38

I'd hazzard a guess your saddle is too high or your bars are too low.