My Hands Hurt

pimptovimto

I've been doing longish cycles for a few weeks now and always find that my hands start to go numb and hurt, particularly the middle finger on my left hand. Its not really a distance thing because they start to hurt even after 20 minutes of riding. I change grip position all the time when riding because of this but it really doesn't make any difference.

Anyone got any ideas on what might be causing this, I am not aware I rest heavely on my hands when cycling and I dont feel any weight in my arms or shoulders that suggest I do either.


Thanks

PV

redddraggon

What width tyres are you running on the front? What pressure?

Drop bars or flat bars?

amaferanga

Repetitive strain from changing gears?

robthehungrymonkey

I get this, but it seems to be (very slowly!) getting better.
I think I'm just sensitive to pressure points... my @rse, feet and hands hurt when I started for a while, and only my @rse is now pain free.

pimptovimto

redddraggon wrote:

What width tyres are you running on the front? What pressure?

Drop bars or flat bars?

My Bars are flat and quite narrow, I run 2.00 road tyres and they are at 56 psi normally.

I have thought about changing to wider riser bars in the past do you think this would help?

Thanks

PV

UKScooby

I used to have the same problem on my old bike - a 20yo MTB. I use those letters loosely as things have come on. It would now be looked upon as a heavyweight hybid rather than what we know now - and the frame geometry is of course large by todays standard. This was never a problem when I rode my racer as a kid - and I rode up to 100 miles a day sometimes !!!

One person has said its down to ageing and the way our muscles etc work as we age. But its not the whole story. I the last couple of months I did raise the stem which made quite a difference. - shame I didn't do it years ago. Hence the argument about taking pressure (weight) off your arms / wrists / hands seems most appropriate.

For the last four weeks I have had use of my new Cycle to Work bike - a Ridgeback Supernova - a fast street hybrid. It has carbon forks which may help with absorption - but so may suspension forks on modern MTB. The bike is also quite large, in geometry terms, compared to lots of current stuff - such as the Sirrus. Due to the present size of my gut I wanted a more open frame to my gut had more space to itself until some weight drops off (hopefully)

The big changes though were at bar level. A Riser Stem was fitted in quite a high position, then to this we fitted trekking (butterfly) bars with some nice leather grips (like Mark Beaumont is using on his world record Koga). This gives me many grip positions and maintains a good upright position.

It isn't holding me back on speed - 18mph average on my 3.5 mile commute - with top 20's possible in the better sections . Only my ticker holds me back.

Drop bars may also do the job, but I didn't feel this was the way I wanted to go as I wanted space for my big gut, so I wasn't cramped. Your own body style and comfort may determine a best way forward. But either drop or trekking bars on a riser stem is my recommendation. And if your bike is a bit older with larger geometry you may be better going the whole way and looking for a newer more compact bike.

Gotte

I get this all the time. Plus dead feet. I find for my hands, nothing works (ergo grips, bar ends etc) except for Porteur/Northroad bars. I have them set high, so I'm in a much more upright position (less weight on my hands, but, unfortunately on long rides, more on my backside). I think it might have somethng to do with having my hands parallel to the top tube, rather than opposed to it. Maybe it puts less strain on the nerves in the wrist.