Did the Twentyfour12 there at the weekend and using standard gloves after my fourth lap my wrists/hands were really beginning to hurt. I think part of it was because I fullly dismantled the bike and may not have used the same handlebar position when I reassembled it (On One Mary bars, so the position is pretty easy to mess up).

Anyway i'm looking for some nicely padded (preferably fingerless) gloves, especially for the area of skin between the thumb and forefinger as the skin was coming off by lap 5.

And no, i'm not getting a suspension fork! 😛

Don't hold on as tight?

I use normal thin gloves: 661 Raji or Sombrio Sultan.

I've done 12 hour solos on cheap Halfords fingerless gloves, the same ones I was commuting in every day.
I recently upgraded to some Fox fingerless gloves simply because there was one pair of size 12 (XXL, I think) left in the bargain bin on one of the trade stands at Mountain Mayhem.
The Fox velcro seems a bit better, other than that, there's not much in it.

Don't hold on as tight?

I think that is a big problem for me, admittedly this race was my first time on the MTB in a few months, and my first time at an MTB race so I guess my technique isn't great yet. But coming down the fast bumpy desents I was literally just holding onto the bike rather than riding it. Let's hope it just comes with practice.

As above – gloves not that important. Learn to relax and loosely hold bars. How about bigger front tyre (2.4?) and lower pressure, posibly tubeless.

"How about bigger front tyre…"

Good idea. I'd recommend about 3" bigger on the diameter. 😉

Yeah I was running the tyres at a pretty high pressure, i'm guessing more than 40psi my thinking was I didn't want to wear myself out so decrease the rolling resistance by keeping the pressures up. Still, it's all a nice learning experience.

Thanks for the replies guys, very much appreciated.

Bare hands! 😕

I'm thinking about riding barehanded for quite a while now to toughen up the skin in that area. But barehanded for 24 hours? You must be f*cking nuts!!! =P

I find Spesh BG gloves, full and half finger, to be the best gloves I have ever used.