Originally Posted by
davidallenxyz
So I took a too-long ride last week, went beyond my comfort levels on the bike and managed to hurt my right hand/arm.
The symptoms are consistent with some form of injury to my ulnar nerve (my ring and little fingers are both numb and/or "tingly").
I'm not asking for medical advice here - just wondering whether other riders have suffered something similar, and how long the numbness lasted?
It can last anywhere from minutes to days to longer. With a good bike fit, it really ought to not happen at all. Assuming the nerve shenanigans are happening at the hand (which may or may not be the case!), some things to consider:
1-If you're putting lots of weight on your hands, you may benefit from a less-aggressive posture that puts more of your weight over your butt. This typically involves rotating everything backwards around the bottom bracket (saddle farther back and lower, handlebars higher, etc).
2-There could be other sorts of fit problems. A saddle that's tilted too far down can sometimes push the rider against the handlebars, for instance. Sometimes high hand pressure is also caused by the bars being too *high*, if your body is at an aggressive angle where it wants the bars to be lower or otherwise farther away. It could also just be that your hands don't like the shape of the grips, perhaps because the handlebar wrap is too narrow, or they don't like your handlebar style.
3-Similar to saddles: if there's excessive padding at the hand contact, the bones of the hand can sink into the padding, causing the padding to push against softer areas of the palm. I use unpadded gloves for this reason; padded gloves can make my hands go numb almost instantly.