Galoot

I don't know the exact size of the tire, it's at home and I'm visiting my brother for the weekend. They are big though--the tubes I buy are 35 to 38mm. But I inflate to 80 lbs, always. I'll \try the lower pressures and see if that helps.
Rather than buying the Redshift step and adapter I'll go to a good bike shop in San Jose and ask for the best solution to raise my bars and bring them closer to the seat.

Polaris OBark

Here is how the 30° one looks:

Polaris OBark

And another manufacturer:

downtube42

Three points of contact with the bike: pedals, saddle, hands. Imagine those points rotating around the center of the crank. Back, back, back until you are hanging on the bars to keep from falling off the back of the saddle. Then forward, forward, forward until all your weight is on your hands. Those are the extremes; you're making small adjustments in the middle of that wide range. Whether you can get this particular bike and your particular body adjusted to work together is unknown.

icemilkcoffee 

Softride quill stem:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/304503852033

BCRider

The seat going forward moves your core further ahead and the support from your feet on the pedals doesn't support your weight in the same way. The seat has to hold you in the proper relation to the pedals as well as the bars. In fact I'd say that you need to set the saddle to suit how your body works best and balances best over the pedals. Then alter the stem to move the bars as needed to suit your reach.

I've no idea if it's right or not but I found that the bikes I feel the most comfortable on are those where I can lift my self just barely off the saddle and almost let go of the bars and I'm balanced quite finely over the bottom bracket where I tend to fall forward or back quite evenly. This being for a semi upright posture. I'm not sure what the equivalent "sweet spot" is for a rider in the drops on a road bike. But I suspect there is one. Whether or not it is when the rider's center of gravity is directly over the BB or not I can't say.

If it's your weight on your hands which is making them go numb I don't really see how a shock absorbing stem will help. It's not the shock but the weight that is causing the issue. Or perhaps the wrist angle is not the same. Perhaps when in the drops you're reaching more than you used to. Maybe not flexing as naturally at the hips as you used to. If you feel like you are reaching to the drops instead of having a pretty natural and non strained stance this might well be affecting the angle of your wrists and that is what is making your nerves go numb.

ClydeClydeson

Too many 'absolutes' in the discussion above... "If you move your (seat/bars) (fore/aft) you will put (more/less) weight on your (arse/hands)". I put 50:50 odds on the idea that half of you are right about half the time.

In my experience, there is no one 'right' set of adjustments that will work for everybody. In fact, I would go as far as to say that each individual needs to find the correct set of adjustments, not to just do what someone else said worked for them.

Also, in my experience, saddle angle has as much effect on weight borne by hands and arms as for/aft position of saddle or bars. A saddle adjusted to be significantly 'nose down' (when viewed from the side) is very likely to result in excessive pressure on the hands and arms. Most people find a saddle adjusted to be perfectly level, or even slightly nose up, will reduce pressure on hands and arms. If the saddle is uncomfortable adjusted so, then try a different shaped saddle, or experiment with fore-aft and height adjustment.

Galoot

Uh oh. An old OLD bicyclist I work with said that numb crotch is best solved by lowering the front of the seat. Crap.

ClydeClydeson

If a saddle is uncomfortable when level, I would suggest trying a saddle with a different shape. When I was young YOUNG I had a new bike with a Selle Italia 'Turbo', which was one of the most common on racing bikes of the era. When viewed from behind, the saddle had a vey round profile, which was great for keeping the bike centred between your hips, but also seemed designed to compress all the soft tissue in my crotch and cause numbness after relatively short rides. For me, the solution was finding a saddle with a flatter profile (as viewed from the rear) and with less/firmer padding. I won't even mention the brands of saddle I eventually found worked for me because (a) the shape of my arse means nothing when discussing what might work well with the shape of someone else's arse, and (b) the specific models that worked really well for me were discontinued 20 years ago

Galoot

I have tried at least a dozen different saddles and ALL of them gave ne numb crotch. Including the ridiculous Sella Anatomica. I have a fairly padded saddle now with a big hole in the middle and it seems to work OK with the nose tipped down about 10 degrees.

Galoot

To be clear--I have been doing long long rides regularly since the mid-70's. I've never ever done a long ride without getting numb crotch in all that time.

Galoot

Update: went out for an 18 mile ride today (felt pretty good but definitely tired me out). The best advice I have had in this thread is to flatten my back--I learned this in college but got lazy and forgot how important it is. When I do that it is much easy for my legs and core muscles to support my upper body. NOTE: My seat is nearly all the way forward. So if I move it back, I think it will be even easier for me to flatten my back.

Had a bit of numbness in my left hand fingers and none in my right. I think the silly pool noodles help, and getting some 5mm padded gloves will help- even more. Thanks for all the help!

Andrew R Stewart 

See my earlier reply. or visit a fitter and have experienced hands on help. Andy

Fredo76

A Selle SMP TRK saddle cured the crotch numbness for me, and is the most comfortable seat I've ridden, both on upright and drop-bar bikes.

Bigger tires at a lower pressure help. I went from 23mm at 100/105 psi to 28 mm at 80/85 psi on my road bike.

Cinelli cork/gel bar tape helps somewhat. Exactly how you place your hands and how often you vary the placement makes a difference too, for me at least.

I actually have a ShockStop stem. I used it in a rather Franken carbon bullhorn setup which was quite comfortable. I had to use the lower-stiffness rubber inserts to feel it working, perhaps because the carbon bullhorns had a fair amount of flex by themselves.

Really, do try the Selle SMP TRK. It's like a crotch cradle.


Selle SMP TRK

Germany_chris

If you're getting numb junk and numb hands you have more issues than we can help with, once you get comfortable measure everything so you can duplicate the contact points across bikes.

hokiefyd 

I have found the same, and it sure is counter-intuitive. I think it's simply a case of a forward saddle not being forward enough to really do what you think it should do. Moving the saddle rearward forces your core muscles (even those of us who have relatively little "core", like me!) to do some work. Because of the angle of your torso, they're able to. Additionally, the pedaling force of your legs downward helps suspend your torso...some.

Moving the seat forward should relieve arm pressure because more of your torso's weight is vertically suspended over your saddle. Except that it doesn't work out this way because you can't get your torso truly vertical, where you would have full support on the saddle (not with most bikes, anyway). Because you can't get it truly vertical, you end up sort of inclined forward in an awkward position where your core muscles have a poor angle to work with...so your hands end up having to do just as much work, if not more work, than if your saddle were more to the rear...because your core muscles are out and you still don't have torso weight support on your saddle.

You'd think that there'd be a linear curve there, to where X movement of the saddle forward translates into X less force on your hands, but it doesn't seem to work out this way, ergonomically.

ofajen

We are about the same age, but I have been riding regularly for a number of years, so our situations are different.

Still, I will mention that I ride an old drop bar bike some and I can make my hands numb or avoid it entirely, depending on how I place my hands on the bars in the various useful positions. When I use positions that avoid pressure over nerves, all is well. If I put the heel of the palm in pressure contact or pressure over the nerves running thru the middle of the palm, my hands will go numb.

So before you change other stuff, I’d just make sure that my hand placement is optimal in avoiding harmful pressure points.

Otto

Galoot

This is *almost* excellent advice. What *is* a good part of my hand to have on the bar when I'm in the drops?

Kelly

ofajen

The two main bearing points that work for me are basically the padded parts of the thumb and the pinky located in the palm. Those parts of the palm are not directly over major nerves.

Here’s an easy example. On the bar tops, I often rest the pinky side of the palm on the bar with fingers lightly curled so that the pinky and ring fingers come back to touch the bar. That helps me angle the thumb side up just enough to keep the center of the palm off the bar.

On my bike, the drops are maybe the toughest to manage weight. Yours likely is that way too. Traditional round bend drops seem awkward when trying to put that pinky part of the palm on the drops. I’m actually pulling on the drops a fair fraction of the time I’m using them, but that probably isn’t the case for you right now.

Still, experiment with what suits you as far as using those two points to bear weight on the drops. Keeping weight off the nerves running thru the palms is likely to help at least some.

Hope that helps!

Otto

Galoot

I found what I think will be a good long-term solution. I wrapped most of my drop bars with black foam pipe insulation, held in place with friction tape. Last week I did a 22 mile ride, and the only time I had any tingling was after I rode on the drops for a few miles. Switching around my hand positions plus the foam works very well.

rydabent

According to several suspects that haunt this forum you are wrong. According to them DF bikes are totally comfortable in all respects.

SoSmellyAir

Not so. The fore/aft position of the saddle affects your balance on the saddle, but a shorter stem does not. You tend to roll forward on a saddle that more forward and/or tilted down, thus putting more weight balance onto your arms and hands.

Galoot

Trolling gets you blocked, bye.