Hoping someone can offer some words of wisdom as my rides are becoming a real chore!

My issue is basically that my fingers and hands become numb fairly quickly, I’ve messed around with my saddle height a fair bit and now have a comfortable position and as a result my hand/finger problem has subsided slightly, but, I cannot eliminate the issue completely without constant hand position changes, these being;

1. Hand placed on bars and fingers gripping around the bars, weight even across the base of my palm
2. Majority of my weight on the inside of my palm between thumb and forefinger
3. Weight spread evenly across the top of my palm, effectively using my thumb and little fingers as guides – this sounds odd but hopefully explains well enough.

I’ve not been riding for too long and have followed guides on how to setup the bike correctly. I’m happy with everything else just the numbness is causing me a headache.

Oh, for the record I ride a standard Boardman Pro Hardtail and wear thin MTB gloves.

Cheers

New bike.

Look at Ergon type grips.

Try and get your weight more on the heel of your palm rather than between thumb and forefinger.

What’s the drop from your saddle height to bar height?

Never thought about where the weight is on my hands, but thicker grips can make a difference. There’s a recent thread recommending some.

You won’t be popular on here when they* work out your username…

*the PC nutters.

Thicker grips and/or thicker padding on gloves may help. How often do you ride? I’ve had this problem periodically over the years, usually when I up the frequency /distances of riding, most recently a couple of years ago when I did the coast to coast so for me it’s an ‘overuse’ issue that settles down. Specialized do some gloves that pad out the sensitive nerves in your palm and I’ve found that helpful

Look at Ergon type grips.

Had a look, cheers, I’ll hold off buying some until I’ve exhausted all other possibilities in case its something else.

What’s the drop from your saddle height to bar height?

I’m fairly sure I’ve set the saddle to bar as level, I’ll double check when i get home tonight

You won’t be popular on here when they* work out your username..

Its a name originating from a bygone era when the internet wasn’t inhabited by PC warriors 😉

Thicker grips and/or thicker padding on gloves may help. How often do you ride?

I commute 5 days a week, ~20miles a day so not that far. Numbness sets in after about 2-3miles usually. I also get wrist ache but I’m attributing that to snowboarding a few years ago and just ‘coping’ with that!

It sounds counter intuitive but moving the seat back can sometimes help better weight distribution also check the angle of the seat with a spirit level and maybe tilt the nose up a very small amount small adjustments are better than large and I do mean SMALL.

Have you tried rotating the bars slightly?

This changes the pressure distribution on your palms and the angle of your wrists. (Unless you have dead straight bars.)

You have to set the saddle height to suit the length of your legs and then bring the bars up/down using spacers/different stem to fit you.

Shorter stems are generally good for allowing weight to be put backwards on the bike, so reducing stress on hands.

You should not ride with your elbows locked out, they should always be bent a bit.

Saddle angle makes a difference too if it is tilted forwards then this throws your weight forwards onto your hands

Thicker grips and/or thicker padding on gloves may help

But if you go for Ergon type grips then don’t use gloves with thick padding too – the extra support from the grip means the padding becomes an uncomfortable obstruction. Theres a bit of trial and error getting Ergons into a comfortable position too.

I commute 5 days a week, ~20miles a day so not that far.

On or off road? Its not that far but on road its far enough for the lack of hand positions available on straight /mtb bars. Off road you moving your weight around much more but on road far less so. On road the solution might be drops or (whispers) bar ends

I find on long road stretches on the mtb I seem to keep moving my hands about all over the bars without intending to – I seem to spend as much time holding the end of the grip as if I had bar end (ergons a quite comfy to hold like that) or inboard of the grips over the shifter / brake clamps as I do holding the grips themselves.

My commuter routes comprises Sustains routes primarily. To answer the question on what drop I have from seat to bar – they’re level.

Might be worth doing a bit of core strength work. A weak lower back causes slumping and causes extra weight to go through the hands.

I’m going to give saddle advice counter to those posting above. I found by tilting the saddle nose down by about 5 degrees virtually eliminated hand numbness. I’d tried:

new grips: going from ODI lock-ons to Ergons.
raising the stem
shortening the stem
lengthening the stem
Fit B+ tyres

No matter what, after about 150Km of riding my little fingers would go numb and occasionally the ring finger as well. I was also getting quite bad saddle rash and, shall we say, genital numbness. It was in an attempt at solving the latter that I tipped the seat forward a few degrees. My reasoning was that the constant pounding/jarring over long distances started the saddle problems so in an attempt to ease the pain I’d shift more weight to my hands. A level saddle combined with a posture that might best be described as slumping forward exacerbated the pummelling of the crown jewels.

Tipping the seat nose down means that my weight is now on my sit bones but it also means I’m recruiting the muscles in my lower torso to counteract the slight tendency to slip forward. It also allows the upper body to relax a little so there’s less tension going through the shoulders and arms down to the hands. A side effect of all this is that I also don’t get any lower back pain which on 200Km and 300Km rides is pretty good going.

A couple of months after trying this saddle position I read a piece in the Guardian about the Women’s British Cycling team who were having similar saddle complaints. Some research led to BC making a technical representation to the UCI to change their ruling on level saddles to allow up to a 9deg slope towards the saddle nose.

Thick grips can help (I like Lizard Skins Northshores) and perhaps think about some bar ends (if you’re looking at Ergon grips they have integrated bar end options); most folk consider them unfashionable but I’ve always used them (just stubbies) and think that changing hand position every now and then is a good idea (just like shifting about on the saddle occasionally to avoid a numb bum). Sometimes I move my hands inboard with my thumbs under the bars and fingers draping over the brake reservoirs.

I also like a very slightly nose down saddle and a saddle height just low enough so there’s a little bit of lift when pedaling hard (support through the legs/pedals as well as through the saddle and bars).

It might also be worth thinking about carbon or Vibrocore bars.

<Edit> Didn’t read maccruiskeen’s post before replying, but alternating hand positions seem to work for him too.

I have arthritis in my hands, thumbs being the worst, and Cane Creek Ergo bar ends have made a big improvement.

Sorry thought I’d posted on this thread before.

I’ve had issues with sore hands and particularly the joints.

thread

Might be worth a look.

I’ve found a change of gloves and no wedding ring while riding has helped but may also be trying the saddle angle too.

It *may* have been a combination of things I’d tried earlier but having subsequently changed some of them back (like stem length) and the symptoms not returning does lead me to think it might be the saddle.

Also don’t assume what works on one bike will work on another especially if things like sweepback of your bars is different, inline vs layback seatpost, etc.