Comfortable position for hands/wrists?

phal44

After a while my hands tend to start to lose feeling a bit I need to let go of the handle bars and shake em around a bit to get some blood back in there every now and then which I dont like!

Im a fairly large guy btw - 6'5 and 17st and my bike is a 21" Trek 4300

At first I thought it was my grips being too hard so I got some softer foamy ones but not much change. I got a blister without noticing in a long coldish ride so I decided to get some gloves and they have a little padding too but I still get numbish Then I read somewhere that too much padding was bad for blood flow too so Im wondering whether thats the case lol

I got some bar ends to help with different riding positions but I cant ride too long on them either...

I also started getting slightly sore wrists too I think thats due to the crappy forks being way too stiff but I guess Ill find out soon when I replace them!

After all these thoughts going through my head Im starting to think that maybe Im putting too much pressure on my hands? Leaning forwards too much? Like I said earlier, Im planning to change the forks to something decent like a Reba which should hopefully filter out alot more of the bumpy stuff but it still feels like Im leaning on my hands alot. I tried moving my saddle forwards to cut the distance between me and the bars a bit but that hasnt made much difference. After some reading I though maybe a shorter stem could help too but Im wary of how itll change the handling. I don't really do anything fancy but I dont wanna change the way it feels too drastically.




Im not sure if theres a question in there somewhere but Im just looking for other views on my problems really and possible solutions lol

cee

try changing the angle of the dangle of your brake levers so that your wrist is in a nice straight line...

commonly...brake levers which are too horizontal or vertical mean you have to put strain on the wrists reaching for them...

not sure about the forks to be honest...I have ridden plenty on fully rigid forks without wrist pain....

BigShot

To expand on Cee's bit about brakes.
I was taught to adjust them like this:
* Loosen the clamps enough for the levers to rotate around the bar if pushed, but so they'll stay in place on their own.
* Sit on the bike as if you were riding and pull the brakes, let go without moving them any more.
* Tighten the clamps again.

I find that doing it like that puts the levers in a natural position and it seems to have worked well for the other people I've helped set their brakes up like that too.


Also - agreed re: forks. No bother for me with rigid forks for the first 6 or 7 years of mountain biking that I didn't have suspension for.
I'm inclined to think it's either a setup thing (seat, bars, stem, brakes) or possibly a wrist thing. Could it be that you've got weak wrists (no limp-wrist jokes please ) or that there's a weak muscle somewhere in the group that supports and works the wrist?
Have you ever had an injured elbow/shoulder/arm/whatever that might have caused problems with the wrists?


More questions than answers, of course, but it might lead to something worthwhile.

phal44

Yeah I also looked at the angle of my brakes and tried pointing them down a bit more and up a bit more. It seemed common sense to me to get them so that my wrists wouldn't be all crooked so thats what I did.

I havent had any wrist injuries so they shouldnt be weak or anything like that

I think I find myself resting on the heel of my hand quite alot just due to the weight on my hands since otherwise I find myself gripping the handlebars quite hard

My legs are quite long so I have the saddle fairly high to let me push better but it does put my arse up about level or slightly higher than the bars.

I think the new forks would help but I dont think they would be a fix. Like I said Im 17st and they hardly move for me lol I did read somewhere that some of these RST forks had been fitted with the wrong springs but since Im planning to replacement them Im not too bothered.

Shame I dont have a little device to measure how much pressure my hands put down on my bars! That would be useful to compare with others lol

BigShot

Ever worked out? Some people don't do it properly and end up with imbalanced muscles. I believe that can cause trouble.
I'm clutching here though.

It amazes me that I see so many bikes with the brake levers up above the rider's knuckles. Not so much when riding off-road, but at the bike racks in town and when people (kids or adults) ride past it's really common. I thought it was pretty common sense too.

phal44

Na its not working out hehe

Guess Ill just keep trying different stuff! Ill see if the new forks make much difference and maybe try a shorter stem so Im not reaching forward as much...

Come to think of it maybe I can try sloping my saddle back a bit since it leans forward some at the moment. I might need a new seat post though since the last time I tried adjusting the angle I found I couldnt :P lol

Stupidboypike

If you spend a lot of time putting pressure on your wrists, they will feel it. I would think the higher the bars compared to the seat may help, and anything else you can do to lessen the pressure.

it's just like riding an old GSXR. It's sh^t.

tjwood

I suffered similar problems when I first started riding. Things I learned:

Your wrists should be more or less straight when you grip the bars. Not bent back on themselves or bent forwards. Adjusting brake positioning as well as concentrating on how you hold your wrists can help here.

Also you shouldn't be putting much if any weight through your arms - most of your weight should be passing down through your legs, supported a little by your saddle, and your hands should really just be holding the weight of your arms. It's possible due to your saddle positioning you are actually supporting some of your upper body weight through your arms. In fact the chances are you need to move your saddle backwards, rather than forwards - this will move more of the weight of your upper body off your arms and towards your feet.
(This is slightly hard to get your head around but you can convince yourself as follows: Stand upright, arms-length away from a desk/table/worktop. Now keep your feet still and lean forward so your hands are placed firmly on the edge of the desk. Now bend your knees and hips so you are in a half squat position. Feel how much weight you are supporting with your arms. Now keeping your feet still move your bottom forwards and feel that the weight supported through your arms increases; move it backwards and feel how the weight is lifted from your hands and supported by your feet.)

Finally if you have big hands you may want to find larger diameter grips, so you're not gripping as tightly.

Gazlar

Have you tried ergon grips, i was abaout the same kind of weigh as you a while back not quite as tall (6ft 2) and they were such a godsend, I had I think ergon gc2's with the little stubby bar ends, I still have them on my ht bike and they make things a lot more comfortable

I suffer with carpal tunnel and rsi in my wrists, as I'm a train driver, i tend to rest my left wrist in particular on the control lever and it tends to flare up quite often.

Anyway, they are a bit odd looking but in my opinion well worth a go. superstar do a copy version too for around 15 quid, but i beleive they are fairly heavy compared to the ergons

Stupidboypike

gazderry wrote:

Have you tried ergon grips, i was abaout the same kind of weigh as you a while back not quite as tall (6ft 2) and they were such a godsend, I had I think ergon gc2's with the little stubby bar ends, I still have them on my ht bike and they make things a lot more comfortable

I suffer with carpal tunnel and rsi in my wrists, as I'm a train driver, i tend to rest my left wrist in particular on the control lever and it tends to flare up quite often.

Anyway, they are a bit odd looking but in my opinion well worth a go. superstar do a copy version too for around 15 quid, but i beleive they are fairly heavy compared to the ergons

A mate has some of these and they seem pretty good.......

Mccraque

+1 for ergons...my mate also has carpal tunnel sydrom and says that they relieve the pressure on the nerve in the hand.

Also - Specialized gloves tend to have a lot of padding on that area of the hand too.

phal44

Ive got Gyro gloves which have some padding and the foamy grips I have are quite large and soft but I might look into those ergo grips ta

Uchiga

I say adjust the stem angle and bar angle and the brakes and controls as well. The padding i suggest ergon or cheap ergon copies the only sacrifice you make with getting cheap copies is the weight. A lot of gloves have the padding in all the right places Specialised have what they call a body geomatry fit and they stop the Ulnar nerve in your wrist and arm from getting sore. Good luck and hope it works.

The only other thing i can think of is your riding style but that comes with riding position :?

phal44

My stem doesn't adjust angles but I'm pretty sure my brakes are already at the right angle to let me keep straight wrists. The problem is that I either have to rest the heel of my palm or grip the handle bars quite tight to support the weight I have pushing down onto my hands.

I thought moving my seat forward would help remove some weight by putting my body more upright but as TJWood said this might be wrong.

Might do some testing later to see what feels best.

ride_whenever

Go to a decent bike shop with some biccies when it's quiet and ask if they'd have a look at you on the bike. The adjustments you need to make will depend on where you are currently, what is possible with the bike and your own physiology.

-liam-

I think its something you just build on just like any muscle group when riding. It gradually improves. I tend to try and make a conscious effort to just vary my hand positions when i can, especially on long days to prevent fatigue. I don't use them anymore but have you tried barends?

meesterbond

It does sound like you might be putting too much weight on the bars.

Couple of thoughts... if your bike has riser bars, can you twist them round to get a little more 'rise' out of them? Otherwise is there any scope to raise the stem slightly (any spacers on top of the stem?). If not, and you're going to get new forks, before cutting the steerer down all the way, experiment with the number of spacers underneath.

On my road bike, I found that just 10mm extra underneath the stem made a massive difference to the pressure I was putting on the bars.

Getting measured / evaluated as a good bike shop would certainly be a very good start though...

phal44

I already have some easton bar ends on which are nice and comfy but still hurt after a while because of the weight resting on my hands

Theres already a few spacers on the stem so its already highish.

I dont think my bars have much of a rise but I might double check later

When I get my new forks Ill be sure to see what possitions feel comfy




As far as getting measured - I'm not sure where I would go to get that done lol The only local bike shops I know of are a Raleigh Dealer/ Halfords or Evans Cycles in Brighton

phal44

Just had a quick look at the ergon grip - do these go ok with bar ends?

Mental Mickey

I find gloves with the padding that proctects the nerves helps, ones like these ...

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/spe ... s-ec011204

After reading a tip from a guy on singletrack, I found that as soon as I started rotating my thumb from underneath to resting on top (next to index finger) of the bar for climbs, this also simultaneously eradicated some of that fatigue problem I had in the nerves.

You need to have your thumbs underneath of course for descending/techincal, but it does seem to help a bit if you use this method for those climbs, instead of having your thumbs under all the time.

phal44

Yeah, I decided to go for a little jolly after work so I adjusted my saddle back as far as it went (a whole few cm) and I could notice the fact I had to reach forward a bit further than I had done but I didn't notice any extra weight on my hands... but then again I can't say I noticed it was noticeably lighter on my hands either lol

About halfway round my trip I started paying attention to my hands and what their position/angle etc were and noticed that I couldn't really brake with just 1 or two fingers because my brakes were positioned too far towards the end of my handle bars and meant my hands were a bit cramped up. To brake properly I had to just leave my thumb under the bar and put all my fingers on the brake lever and twist my hand around a little. I'm guessing thats how my hands always end up going back to resting the heel of my palm on the bar lol. I stopped by the side of the road on the downs and adjusted my brakes towards the middle of the bar by about a centimeter or slightly more and it seemed to feel better so far. A bit hard to tell since most of the ride after that was downhill and I was holding on fairly tight down the bumpy road full of large lumps of flint

Ive uploaded a few crap pics just so people can see rough angles etc. The only other thing Im vaguely concerned with is that the saddle is a bit higher than the handle bars? Guess that wont help with the weight on my hands but I'll see how this new position of brakes performs on longer rides.


Side view :
http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/4963/imag0076g.jpg

Down view - roughly shoulder heigh so about the same angle as my arms would take :
http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/6463/imag0079t.jpg

Uchiga

Well having the saddle higher than your bars isnt wrong. It sticks you in more of an agressive position much like road and proper XC racing. The thing is adjusting thesaddle height effects your pedal strokes and if thats set up right then you should leave that be. Because then you start getting back and knee problems. My next step personally would be to try a differant stem with a higher angle or build on your wrist muscles maybe?

The stem would be my first bet and the wrist trainnign would only come from my youngness and streak of wanting to go fast.

Other than that i can only suggest going to a professional bike shop to get yourself measured up on your bike. And i dont mean Halfords i mean somewhere with credit and a racing know how. My local professional bike shop is 53-12 the guys there are friendly and i can talk to them on a name basis and they do know what they talk about because all of them ride and race as well as having the papery things called qualifications...

Hope it works out for you.

phal44

Well Ill see how it feels on a long ride over the weekend I guess but thanks for the input.

Does anyone know whether those ergo handgrips fit with bar ends ok? I can see theres lots of versions that come with bar ends but since I've already got comfy ones Id rather use those so can I?

Uchiga

phal44 wrote:

Does anyone know whether those ergo handgrips fit with bar ends ok? ?

I know someone who rides for the Ergon 24hr race team... On another note yes you can just buy the ergon hand grips without the bar ends on them and they come in two sizes lare or small so depending on what you want you can buy a long or short set but you can still keep your EC90 bar ends which i am sure are very comfy

phal44

Cool I might give em a try then! I saw some pics of them with funky colours so I might look for some lol

SPIRO

phal44 wrote:

After a while my hands tend to start to lose feeling a bit I need to let go of the handle bars and shake em around a bit to get some blood back in there every now and then which I dont like!

Im a fairly large guy btw - 6'5 and 17st and my bike is a 21" Trek 4300

Hi

I had a similar scenario to this when i first got my enduro. It originally came with quite narrow 660mm bars which were fairly low rise as well. After a few rides i also started to get sore wrists and the like, so swapped to a 720mm bar with a 40mm rise and changed to a set of yeti grips.

I noticed that this brought me up level with the saddle and the wider bars help spread my weight across my shoulders more and gave me a better wrist position. All this combined with adjusting the shifters and brakes cured the problem for me. For info i'm pretty close to your size at 6'4 and 16 stone.

As said, this is just my opinion, but it certainly worked for me.

Gazlar

yeah ergon grips are fine with bar ends, although the ones that come with bar ends are also very comfy