I have just come back from three weeks mountain biking in Canada, two of which were in Whistler and I seem to have developed a problem with my left hand, which makes it very difficult to do things that require fine movements (keep it clean people – tying shoe laces, writing, playing barre chords on a guitar, changing to the big ring with the front derailleur). There is no pain as such, just a lack of strength and fine movement.

It mostly seems to stem from the base of my thumb, but I also seem to have bruised the bones in other fingers.

I had a few crashes but nothing that hurt my hands so I am assuming it stems from three weeks of hard riding.

Has anyone else suffered the same problem? If so, what did you do about it, if anything?

hi mikey,

this sounds a bit like the problem I've been having for nearly a year. I landed hard on a jump at the Pila DH course and my left hand came off the bars, leaving my right hand to take all the impact. Thought nothing of it at the time and carried on riding, but got painful over the course of the next week and left me with little strength in my thumb (really painful to shift to a bigger chainring!) and unable to move my wrist towards the inside.

Eventually went to the physio and they diagnosed tendonitis in the big tendon running from the thumb down into the wrist. Treatment started with massage/rest/stretching but various rounds of that didn't really work (can't really rest it completely as I'm a bike/snowboard guide plus have to look after a chalet in between!). Eventually got given a splint to immobilise the wrist and thumb, plus strong anti-inflammatories to calm the tendon down. Was supposed to sort it in two weeks, now into my 3rd month of riding with a surgical splint on my wrist and it's finally improved significantly in the last 2-3 weeks. Still not confident enough to ride without the splint though.

Hope this helps!

Stevo

Stevo,

Thanks for the reply. It does indeed sound similar, although I don't think mine is quite as bad as yours.
Might have to stay off the bike completely for a bit and see if it clears up.

I once had a problem with this while riding my ktm enduro bike,I suffer with poor blood circulation in my hands, and get cold hands/fingers very quickly.

In some instances I could not get my fingers to move from the bars to operate the clutch and front brake,not good when your chasing another rider on a fast hare and hound event!!

I later found out it was the Handlebar position (tilted slightly too far forwards)causing uneven pressure points on the hands, and the front suspension setting was way to hard for cold winter conditions.

I appreciate winter riding on a motorcycle are a world apart from whistler at this time of year,and in my instance is was mainly a case of holding on too tight,but it does illustrate how it can be resolved. hth 🙂

symptoms were exactly as you have, with bruises on the inside of thumb and Index finger,with white fingers from palm too little finger.

Thats interesting about the handlebar position: I'll have look at that.

For the first part of the holiday my forks were set up totally wrong (thanks for the poor recommendations TFT) and I was only getting about 100mm of travel out of my Lyriks, even in the bike park; so that could have contributed as well, based on what you experienced. Got them working properly but the damage could already have been done.

The odd thing is it was on one particular race,but after a 3 hour ride,I remember not being able to open or close my hands properly when I finished the event!

I never had problems with tendonitis after adjusting the bars and sorting the front end,but to be fair it was exeptionally cold. 😉