Vaportrail56

It has been a couple of years since I have been on my bikes and my belly is the proof so I figured it was time to get back in the saddle. I have been working on my stamina for the last month or so to get back to the 30 mile mark I use to ride, sometimes a little more sometimes a little less but mostly around 30. I mostly ride on roads that have long straight sections and I was looking for something to bring a little more comfort in my rides especially the longer ones. Would getting Aero Bars be more comfortable on the long rides? I have never had any so I wouldn`t know. Also would changing my back tire, it is about worn out, from a 23mm to a 25mm give a more smoother ride that I could tell? Both my bikes fit me great (Synapse and CADD 10) and I feel good on both of them, I feel more comfortable on the Synapse, that is the one I was thinking about putting the aero bars and tire on but the CADD is alot more fun to ride though just not as comfy. Anyway I am getting older (60) .
Maybe I should fix up my Synapse for comfort on the long rides and use my CADD for some short fast rides. Idon`t know? Any help would be greatly appreciated,
Thanks,
Robert

FBinNY 

I wish I could help, but I find it impossible to offer meaningful advice about greater comfort without knowing the discomfort you're trying to address.

Be specific, sore arms/hands, sore rear, legs/knees/feet, neck/back, internals ie. kidneys, prostate, and so on.

Without knowing more, all I can suggest is a plush sofa with decent back and leg support, and a good martini.

Vaportrail56

LOL, oh ok, well it is mostly in my hands. They get a tingly feeling after around 20 miles or so. I move them around on the bars and it goes away for a short while but then comes back, that is why I thought maybe the aero bars would help or maybe a bigger rear tire would cut down on some of the road vibration. At least that is what I think is causing the tingly feeling.

Machka 

Many cyclists are going to 25s or 28s these days. Gone are the days of the really skinny tyres. So that might help.

You also don't need to pump the tyres up so that they are rock hard ... keep to the low end of the recommended value.

What kind of bar tape do you use? Gloves?

What is your setup like ... can you post a photo of your bicycle?

Vaportrail56

Thanks for the reply! I have the stock tape that came on the bikes and I do use riding gloves. It seems I start to get that tingly feeling on both bikes around the twenty mile mark. I have been pumping the tires up to about 100lbs. and both bikes have 23mm tires front and back.

FBinNY 

IME tingling in the hands often has NOTHING to do with the hands. It's often an issue higher up, like the wrist, where nerves pass through narrow gaps in the bone structure. Holding your hands with awkward wrist alignment presses on the nerves, or obstructs circulation causing numbness and tingling.

Looking at the photos of the bike, I suspect that you ride on the brake levers and your hand is at an angle to your arm. Experiment with rotating the bars a bit to find a sweeter spot for the levers, then if that helps, you can move the levers and reposition the bars.

I suggest doing it this way since it's easier to rotate bars in a stem then moving levers trial and error.

Note this is different than tingling or numbness at the direct pressure point, but most people don't describe that as tingling that way.

Vaportrail56

You are right FBinNY, I do ride with my hand on the brake lever pads a lot sometimes moving to the top of the bar, I hardly ever use the drop bars. Thanks for the suggestions, I`ll try some different positions like you said, hopefully that will help. Happy riding

FBinNY 

The key is alignment, hold your arm out and note how the hand aligns naturally, then sit on the bike, and adjust the grip positions as close to that as possible. It sometimes helps if a friend looks at you from the side and tells you if your hand looks right.

WhyFi

Tingly hands, specifically the pinky and ring fingers, are often because of too much weight resting on the bars and a pinching of a nerve at the wrist. Hands should be light on the bars - if they're not, it's often a sign of fatigue and/or a need to improve core strength (which is why it may be showing up after an hour but not earlier). Pay attention to your arms when riding - every once in a while, see if your elbows/triceps are taught. If they are, try to loosen up and unweight them, which means support via core and legs - it'll get easier to maintain as you regain fitness.

Bike Gremlin

Longer wheelbase (chainstays especially) makes for a more comfortable ride. Most modern road bikes have very short chainstays. It makes steering a bit quicker, but makes the bike less comfortable.

Even more effect comes from switching from 23 to 28 mm wide tyres.

Good fitting is also important:

bike fitting

Setting up road bike bars - Cycle Gremlin

Silvercivic27

You already have a synapse, which is an endurance bike with a longer wheelbase. The numbness and tingling in your hands is from too much weight/pressure on your hands and to some extent the angle of your hands at the wrists. That causes nerve impingement, like carpel tunnel syndrome. Your core and leg strength has weakened from not being on the bike for a year, so on longer rides, your core and legs become fatigued which then causes you to put more weight on your hands, which makes them numb. Vibrations from the road cause some fatigue and don't help things but aren't the major cause and spending tons of money on things like new gloves, carbon bars, gel bar padding, latex tubes, tires, etc are not an effective solution, although they probably will help a teeny bit especially if you ride on really rough roads, but you live in Pensacola. Getting your position more upright helps, but your synapse already has a tall head tube, relaxed angles, upturned stem. It will be much more comfortable than your more aggressively set up CAAD. Really not much more you can do there. As someone mentioned, the angle on your bars and hood placement may need some tweaking on both your bikes, but it is hard to see from the angle in the photos. Maybe it's fine. Really the only solution is to keep doing what you're doing. Ride more frequently (not necessarily longer), move your hands around frequently and if you have time, try to add some exercises off the bike for flexibility and core strength like stretching, sit-ups, planks, etc. It will just take some time and patience before you're back in the saddle again and doing what you used to do. You will be much more comfortable on the Synapse than in the CAAD especially on longer rides, regardless of your fitness and core strength because of the design/intent of those frames. Hope that helps.

Vaportrail56

Thanks for all the info guys! You know I haven`t touched the handle bars on either bike since I bought them. So I`m going to play around with some different angles on them to see if that helps. I believe that it is my core strength that I need to work on, like you guy mentioned, because it is at the ends of very long rides when my hands start to tingle. I might be putting to much weight on them making that happen. I will try and be more aware of how my arms and hands are from now on. I like to ride my bikes so much I try and ignore the tingles but I would like to try and find a way to make it go away. I like to ride my CADD more because it is so much more fun but not as comfortable as the Synapse like you said Silvercivic27. Also thanks for the links Slaninar!

Silvercivic27

As your legs get tired you take weight off the pedals and put them other places like your butt and your hands, so it is also a matter of general fitness as well, not only the core. Just enjoy yourself, don't push too hard too fast. It takes time.

hsuehhwa

After a certain point, your own fitness is just as important as bike/bike components and bike fit. In addition to weight loss, a better core strength will allow you to ride in a more aggressive position, faster and longer. A series of core-training/yoga classes could be as effective as aero components.

berner

If you opt for the martini remedy I'd skip the olive since weight management is already an issue.
Bern

Vaportrail56

I got to thinking, I have an old mountain bike that maybe I could ride it every so often to work different muscles. Also back to the aero bar question, if I got some and I was riding a long ride, I could switch to them. Good ideas?

mpath

Being in the Pacific Northwest where my winter mileage drops, I make time to work on my core strength, with some yoga/pilates thrown in the mix. I can't keep up with my football player 16 yo son, but we do P90X together, particularly focusing on the ab workouts.

Trakhak

Aero bars are a great idea, especially aero bars with pads positioned a good distance above the handlebar (example: BikeIsland.com - Bicycle Parts, Accessories and Clothing at Affordable Prices with Free Shipping).

You won't get a lot of people in his subforum responding positively (or at all) to questions about aero bars because it's mostly triathletes who use them. I use them on all my bikes to avoid the numbness that otherwise still happens in my left hand after riding for half an hour, despite having had surgery to correct nerve damage in that hand about 15 years ago. If I'd used aero bars earlier, I might have been able to avoid having the surgery.

rmfnla

I am surprised that nobody else has mentioned this but both of those bikes have the saddles nose down, which tilts you forward and puts more weight on your hands, leading to exactly what you are experiencing.

Try tilting the noses up a few degrees and see how that feels...

Vaportrail56

These are some great tips everyone! I will adjust my seat to see if that helps. I did have a bad motorcycle wreck when I was in my early twenties and fractured both my wrists when I hit the ground after flying over the handle bars. Maybe I am putting to much weight one them. So I will try and build up my core to help keep the pressure off my wrists.
@ Trakhak, that is the same thing I was thinking. If the tingles start just move to the aero bars for a little while till it stops and then move back to the regular bars, at least till I get my core stronger. thanks.