Originally Posted by
Myosmith
We Have A Winner ! ! !
I've watched countless riders try this bar and that bar, these grips and those grips and whatever glove is top rated this week, all to no avail in relieving hand numbness/tingling/pain. Try this: Go for a ride without changing anything. At the point where you first start feeling any numbness, tingling or pain in your hands lift your hands about 1 cm off the bar (assuming the traffic and road are safe to do so). If you have to change your body position or feel off balance, you have identified your first problem. In your "neutral" riding position, your hands are for steering, shifting and braking. They should not be bearing a significant amount of weight. Of course, sprinting and climbing will change the dynamics but if letting go of the bar on a relatively flat straightaway makes you feel like you are going to fall forward, you need to do some bike fitting.
Bike fit is important, but don't forget to work on core strength, too! Especially if riding a bike with race geometry vs endurance geometry, or in my case, switching from a hybrid to my first road bike. I learned not to carry my weight on my arms while motorcycling, and that transferred over to cycling as well. My only issue now is that I tend to get elbow pain if I don't periodically put my elbow through full range of motion every 10-15 minutes or so, but that is improving.