My 9 year old son complains that riding his bike hurts his hands and to be fair as it seems to rub skin off of his thumb I think he has a fair point. My problem is I cannot understand how this happens so have no idea what to do to stop it.

He rubs the skin off on his thumbs, just below the joint. I have tried various short finger gloves but these do not help and may make it worse as the fabric ends just at the rub point. The original grips were apparently fine, but I changed them to something a little softer, but has made no difference. The problem sets in pretty quick, about 30 minutes into ride yesterday.

Any ideas what is going on and how I can sort this, its putting him off riding.

Nobody else got any ideas either then…

brake lever position / clamp rubbing hands?

grips with donuts?

Handlebars too low?

Get him nice soft squidgy grips like lizard skins chargers, odi longnecks that will be a bit easier on his hands. Decent full finger gloves will be solve it ultimately. Plenty of glove options

If he's got gears, check where the tips of the levers are; it's possible his hand position means they're rubbing. Also, be careful choosing the long finger gloves, as a lot of them have seams about there too…

I dont think its gear / brake set-up as it sets in too quick and does not seem related to his use of them.

Just ordered some chargers and some gloves to see if these help.

What are donut grip?

My 6 year old complains about sore hands too. After trying various grip / glove combos, riding without gloves seems to have sorted it. Its not ideal of course, but he's not heavy enough and riding fast enough for a serious had injury just yet.

The original grips were apparently fine, but I changed them to something a little softer, but has made no difference

If the original grips were fine, why not put them back? It would seem it has made quite a difference, the softer grips rub his hands!

grrrrrr, shonkytrackworld tonight, clicked post again thinking I must have missed it it was going so slowly…

Sorry tracker, me not being clear.

The original grips seemed fine to me, but rubbed. Changed them for some old ones I had that seemed softer, but no improvement.

Used to happen to me when i was about the same age, it was the disc bit on the inside of the grip that would rub (i think that would be the donut referred to above?).

Dont remember anything being done to help but the problem went away after a bit – i guess after a while my skin toughenedd up where it was rubbing

riding without gloves seems to have sorted it. Its not ideal of course, but he's not heavy enough and riding fast enough for a serious had injury just yet.

I'm heavy enough and ride fast enough, yet somehow I also seem to survive without gloves.

Ah, that makes more sense. Might be a huge faff but as a temporary measure could you tape the offending area with micropore tape? Hell, if you really wanted to in for it, tape up then put different coloured marker on grips, shifters, brakes, whatever and see what is rubbing? Big faff, but likely to protect thumbs and/or diagnose a tricky problem?

Or put the Micropore/plasters on his thumbs?

Ahhh, now I see what I did there, I meant the offending areas of his thumbs, then the colour would rub off onto his thumbs, thanks for pointing that out tthew, I really should be up longer before going on the internet 🙂