Joepasta

When I go for rides after 4-5 miles my hands start falling asleep. I'm riding a straight bar Surly pugs and I have bar ends on it. Is it seat position that I need to change or is it my handlebar length. I was thinking about getting a jones loop bar but don't want to buy something else if it wouldn't fix my problem. Haven't noticed this on my drop down handle bar bike. Hope this makes sense.

rs23

I have the same situation but after 10 miles. following to learn more!

Jaywalk3r

Many people have had good luck using ergonomic grips, such as those offered by Ergon.


These seem to help in two ways. First, they provide a much larger contact area between your hand and the grip. Second, they can be adjusted to promote better wrist posture. My personal experience is that locking them on the bar in a position that results in my wrist being straight makes longer distances much more comfortable.

Also, have you tried using bar tape on your bar ends? When I have bar ends installed, I like to double wrap them with gel tape in order to make them fatter and softer. I personally don't find unwrapped bar ends to be very comfortable. Also, some bar ends are more ergonomically shaped than others.

If you find that ergonomic grips and wrapping your bar ends doesn't have the desired result, you can try switching to drop bars, which many people love (and many people don't like). Drop bars offer more hand positions than plain flat bars, but not necessarily more than flat bars with bar ends. If you switch to drop bars, you'll probably also have to switch levers and shifters (and brakes, I think), so I'd consider that change only as a last result.

drlogik 

Same for me now.

It happened to me as a young man after about 30 to 40 miles. As I aged it now starts earlier..usually after 5 or 6 miles. I try to do things to ease the pounding but they still tingle and I have to shake them out. Over time your hands should condition as mine did as a younger man but some folks I think are more susceptible than others. Spongy bar tape can help.

Grab On brand grips are pretty good until they pack out. I have gone so far as to put plumber's pipe foam on my bars and then wrap black cloth athletic tape over it. Does quite a good job for a few hundred miles then it packs out and needs to be changed. It's a cheap solution though. I used to have riding gloves with Sorbathane inserts and they were great, especially when teamed with pipe foam.

The cause of this as I recall is the carpal nerve. Same nerve as in carpal tunnel syndrome. It gets irritated and swells and causes the tingling. The bad news is over time it can get worse. but for you young folks, as your hands get conditioned to the pounding it should subside.

For me it's the road vibration and the cracks in the pavement. They bash my hands. Mountain bikers get the same effect only worse. Wider grips will work ok as previously stated but the main thing I found is that I had to dampen the bashing. Hence the pipe foam, and it really does work quite well.

I'll also be paying attention to this thread to though.

italktocats

are you using gloves?

canklecat

Same for me on a hybrid, even with ergo grips, including aching wrists and the base of the thumb joint. A few things helped:

• Adjusting the saddle position, forward and backward, to find the right balance combined with...
• ...adjusting the handlebar height 1/2" at a time (easily done via a single bolt with a quill stem).
• Gloves with gel pads on the affected areas.
• Grip squeeze exercises -- I do these routinely while typing anyway, but I added more resistance and some exercises in very warm water.

So far these tweaks have made rides tolerable up to 40 miles. Beyond that I'll probably need to consider some equipment mods.

If your stem/bar has reach adjustments, try that too.

FBinNY 

They need more coffee.

Usually this kind of issue is related to either a pinched nerve or reduced circulation. Also, the problem may not be in the hands but in the wrist, or in rare cases higher in the arm.

The first and most obvious place to look is too much weight o your hands, which can be addressed by raising the bars. Otherwise, I always look at the alignment of the hand, writ, and arm. Many riders have the bars oriented such that the hand is bent back, or to the side at the wrist, or twisted with respect to the elbow.

Here's the exercise I have people do when they have hand issues.

Close your eyes. Put your arms out in front of you and move the hands closer and farther apart, higher and lower, closer and farther from the body, until you find a neutral position where you don't feel anything is stretched or out of place. STOP and open your eyes. Note the distance between hands, alignment at the wrist, hand rotation w/respect to forearm and elbow, and elbow angle w/respect to the body.

This probably won't be a practical position for actual use on the bike, but it does show your natural alignments and you want to emulate those as closely as possible on the bike.

You can also get clues by where you feel the weight when on the bars, ie. the thumb pad, or outside of the hand. Different grips, or rotating the bars up or down may correct this.


Lastly, there may be nothing wrong at all, and it may all be in your head. I'm not saying you're imagining things, but if you're a new and not confident rifer, you might be holding your bars in a death grip, which isn't sustainable. RELAX, support your weight, but let the bars move in your hands. Trust me, the bicycle basically steers itself and you're only ther to nudge it along as needed and as a "spotter" in case the front wheel hits a rut or rock and wants to swing too far off track. Hold the bars no tighter than you hold the banister on stairs.

Chief

move your saddle to a more level/nose up position.

SouthFLpix

My recommendation as well. This will force your weight back and off your hands. You can also try raising the bars.

no1mad 

Pretty good advice given so far

I do have a question (don't recall seeing anyone mentioning it or I wouldn't bother). OP, how tight is your grip? It might just be a case of being too tense from using a 'death grip' and tiring prematurely

Jaywalk3r

How are the grips adjusted? My Ergons provided no relief until I adjusted them so that my wrists stay straight, which, as I understand, keeps my carpal tunnel open, increasing comfort.

From Wikipedia:


With regular grips, the angle between my forearm and the back of my hand is only about 100 degrees, with some of my body weight applying force to push my hand back further. With my Ergons, I can use the wing to keep my wrist straight, so the weight I place on the bars is supported by my hands, rather than my wrist.

Homebrew01

I bent the ends of my flat bars back a few degrees for better wrist angle. I should do it a bit more. I put the end in a bench vise and give it a good tug. Then flip and do the other end.

zeeway

We should hold the bars the way some golfer described holding a golf club...hold the bars as you would hold on to a little bird...tight enough to contain it, without holding it tight enough to kill it.

GerryinHouston

Let me start by stating that this is my personal case. Yours might be different.

I've been biking short distances with my 99 Diamondback Parkway, well, since 99. I always got 'pins and needles' in the fingers of both my hands and had to 'shake them off'... In '14 we joined the Houston Bicycle Club and we did their 20 mi. Sunday ride, every Sunday, and various aches and pains developed, the 'pins and needles' in the fingers being the most persistent.

August last year I bought a hybrid (Trek Verve 2) with all the right characteristics (raised handlebar, new Serfas saddle, appropriate fit). The various aches and pains slowly went away as I was making the bike a better fit, BUT... The 'pins and needles' became persistent, even when I was not biking.

By that stage, I tried everything, carpal tunnel brace, Ergon grips with bar-ends, longer stem to promote less weight on my hands. All of these worked, but the situation got worse... I had this numbing 24/7. Chiropractor sessions seemed to work, for a while. My doctor diagnosed (correctly) that it is a posture problem (while sitting in front of the computer, in a very ergonomic workstation. Bike riding brought it to the surface.

About this time, a friend suggested that I try a drop bar bike, not for the many hand positions, but rather because riding on the hoods or the drops, your forearm is rotated 90 degrees compared to flatbar or riser bar hand positions. He said 'the crook of your elbow should be pointing towards the sky'.

I rented a Trek 520 and tried it for 20 mi. No numbing!

I am now riding a Novara Randonee with no or very little numbing (in rides over 30 mi.).

I cut the flatbar on my Trek (I installed a flatbar) so that the width between the bar ends is about the same as the width between the hoods. I get less numbing, but the brakes are not readily accessible. I relegated the hybrid to 'guest bike' status.

fietsbob

Take 1 hand off the bars , let the circulation return, Alternate hands .. do similar with the other hand..

[Sing the Hoky Poky , and shake it all about.. ]

andr0id

The majority of numb hands issues are that saddle position and/or tilt are wrong and rider weight distribution on the bike is wrong. Fix the basic bike fit and the numb hands will go away.

badger1

This.

TampaRaleigh

Work on your form and core strength. Keep your elbows slightly bent, and use your core muscles to reduce the weight on your hands. Your handlebars should be used for steering, not supporting your upper body weight.

tcarl

When I started reading this, the very first thing that came to mind was "too much weight on your hands". We've already had a number of good comments, but I'll reiterate a few. Being able to move your hands around on the bars can help. Personally I find drop bars much more comfortable because I can move around. For me flat bar bikes are just hard on my hands, wrists and arms. A too-tight grip could also be a cause. I'd check your positioning on the bike - seat height and tilt, bar height and reach - all the things already mentioned above.

VegasTriker

This question has come up a lot of times on this forum. Take a look here Cyclists' Palsy - Elite Sports Therapy - Calgary Physiotherapy or search on "cyclists palsy". There are a bunch of suggestions in this article as well as others that appear if you do the search. The more you ride, the more likely this will catch up with you as you age. It's the second most common reason to switch to recumbent bikes and trikes, particularly with underseat steering as there is NO pressure on your hands. Of course the first is that we got tired of sitting on the picket part of a picket fence (saddle). OK, here we go with a flame war.

rs23

worked

RandomEncounter

The above comments about fit and position are right on, but I'd also like to toss out considering your gloves. In many cases the gel padding that claims to reduce pain actually makes it worse by concentrating pressure into small areas instead of more-evenly distributing it over your whole palm. The concentrated pressure causes pain and loss of circulation.

I had this and ended up throwing mine out in frustration on mile 150 of a two-day ride. My physical therapist (who specializes in bike issues including fittings) told me that it's not unusual and he doesn't use them for this reason, instead using flat gloves that protect against abrasion if you fall but don't have the gel that causes the pain.

canklecat

Yup, that's how I adjust mine -- to keep the hand/wrist aligned with the forearm. Only problem is my ergo grips are cheap friction fit, so I have to readjust them often as I'm riding. But I like 'em so well my next purchase will be locking grips.

canklecat

Gloves are trickier, especially padded and gel gloves. If you read reviews some folks will report loving and hating the same glove. I've been using the summer weight Louis Garneau Biogel RX gloves with gel pads over pressure points for a few weeks and find them very comfortable -- but some Amazon reviewers didn't care for 'em. My winter gloves were Bontrager Thermal RXL, which were warm in cool weather but lacked any padding, so occasionally I'd experience some wrist ache even with the ergo grips.

RandomEncounter

It does seem personal. I wonder if it's a fit issue with they way some people's hands are structured. I have small hands and I suspect the proportions on the gel bumps aren't correct for actual hand anatomy when the size is scaled down. That can happen with any size glove, since no one is really "average" for any given size.