I’m getting pins and needles in my left hand after maybe an hour or so on the road. If I take my hand off the bars and give it a shake and a squeeze it comes back to life. I think its exacerbated by hard braking too.

I guess I’m resting too much weight through it. Short of a bike fit, what should I be trying setup wise to see if I can sort it myself first? Saddle back and/or angled up a bit?

As likely to be a wrist/elbow issue or even the brachial plexus.
Try moving around more and/or a subtle change in bar/hood position to change weight distribution

I get this a lot, more so in summer when I ride more. Mine is classic carpel tunnel syndrome and it sounds like this is what you could also have. The most classic symptom for this is that it bothers you more at night (because you sleep with your hands curled forwards which puts more pressure on the carpel nerve). There are treatments ranging manipulation, which will provide you temporary relief, a strap you wear at night or surgery, which is a bit extreme because it might not work and might make it worse. The best solution is to stop cycling……oh hang on that can’t be right.

Try this – imaging yawning/stretching when you raise your arms as if you were showing the “guns” off.
Do you get any pins then? Any change in sensation?
Which fingers?
Brachial (radial) will give the issue along the top of the hand thumb-second finger.
Ulnar will give it in the little/ring finger.

If it isn’t affected by either of these then its quite likely not carpal. Caprla tends not to go away only worsen/lessen depending on activity/position.
From my own experience, pain, symptoms, etc I’d say its an impingement aggravated from the position/weight rather than carpal as you’ve only found it on the bike.

I cured this by raising my bars around 15mm and having deeper drops. I think it is carpal tunnel and less weight on the wrist helps.

Oh and this bar tape!
http://m.evanscycles.com/products/specialized/phat-wrap-padded-bar-tape-ec012114

Sad but really good!

I get this sometimes in my left hand on long rides because of pressure on my palm/thumb.
It doesn’t seem to happen with thicker palmed gloves, but I really like thin gloves. I get it far less since moving to carbon rims.

If you want to try to spend your way out of it, I cured mine with carbon bars a few years ago.

Back on alu bars now but suffer much less frequently.

Bike fit might have helped too. If you don’t want to pay fit one, just post a snap of you on the bike for the stw massive to critique your position.

I thought pins & needles on the road bike were just part of getting older?

You can make the bars more comfortable by investing in a Specialzed Phat bar tape kit, which gives you the shock-absorbing gel pads and tape, which is soft and squidgy, and you end up with a broad, padded bar top.

Here: http://road.cc/content/review/3828-specialized-bar-phat-bar-tape

This works well if your bike has the plastic corner thingies that use the cables to broaden the bars.

Cheers (sorry for the late reply, I’m in the sunny hemisphere)

It’s only ever on the bike, no other time so I don’t think it is carpal as described above. I will try spinning the bars back a bit, and then on to some cushioned tape.

I expect I’ll regret this but here is a photo

Handlebars are too far away, you need some bend in your elbows. You might also need to move your saddle forward slightly to balance your weight more through your legs. Do you ever ride on the drops? If not then you need to move your bars UP as well.

Properly set up, you should have relatively little weight on your arms. I can ride on the drops for about 1/3 of the time, manage a saddle to bar drop of 7 cm and am an inflexible 48yo, and don’t use padded tape or gloves. Position is everything.

double post

FWIW i had a bike fit and i still get pins and needles, had them ever since i started road riding. There may be a cure but i haven’t found it, just shake your arm every few miles and enjoy the perverse pain/pleasure that is road riding :D.
That said, how tight are your gloves?

Sounds like too much pressure on your ulna nerve, I find Spesh BG gel mitts help but as has been said a lot can be down to your position on the bike

I’d recommend raising your handlebars until there’s as much pressure on the bars as you’d experience with your hands on your car steering wheel.

Normally you could do this by fitting one of those ‘delta’ brand steerer tube extenders, the kind that clamp to your steerer and add an extra two inches of handlebar height.

However as you’re on a Specialized with a carbon fork there’s no way you could add one of these without ruining your warranty or potentially the fork itself. They’re pretty sniffy about what you can do to the front end of the bike.

So, it’s new fork time (maybe you can find a nice cro -mo one), leave it uncut, add the delta stem raiser, add spacers to suit and possibly an angle-adjustable stem until there’s no pressure on your arms/ wrists.

It’s not a lot of work and it sure beats nerve damage.

The gloves are snug, but I’ve had it when not wearing them too (I think… I’ll check though!)

I do use the drops on descents and sprinting. I could use them more I guess, and that would help with flexibility by getting down more.

If anything I thought I was going to be told I was too cramped so it’s a surprise that it looks like the bars are to far away.

I got some Giro Grail gloves after getting this for the first time this year, that coupled with thicker bar tape helped me

I’ve written lots of posts on road bike fit stuff on here, CBA doing it again. But here’s a few posts that might help with general position and helping you relax your arms a bit more. Or use forum search.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/is-my-bike-too-long-for-me/page/2

If it’s just in one hand aswell; you may not be sitting very square on the saddle.

I get it occasionally but try to flex my arms, roll my shoulders and wiggle my fingers to help. Good gloves will help and how solid are your tyres? I had mine rock solid at 120 psi, but was murder on some of the surfaces I rode on, so dropped some psi.

What I found has helped the most was advice I found on here or road cc. Hold your bars like you would hold your pint or when carrying multiple pints back form the bar. It has to be firm enough to keep hold of the pints obviously, but not too firm that you will break the glass with a vice like grip.

I find if my fingers are tingling or my shoulders are getting tight on a ride, I mentally picture myself loosening my clasp of a pint, and that helps. Try it first, before shelling out on a bike fit.

Bars are too far away (and too low) for your flexibility. As said, there should be relatively little weight on the hands and buying fat padded tape and gloves is no substitute for a proper set up. In that position your elbows have no bend and you are using them as a truss to support your body. Having a bend in the elbows is a sign that you are not leaning down on your poor hands.

Some riders with better hip rotation (DT is one) will be able to have a much flatter back and still take weight through their legs. They still don’t put a lot of weight through their hands.

In that position your elbows have no bend and you are using them as a truss to support your body. Having a bend in the elbows is a sign that you are not leaning down on your poor hands.

Yeh; that’s it. Your arms do look locked out. A truss is a good way to describe it.

Before raising/shorten your stem though; try the hip rotation thing as it could solve it all.

I solved this but did a few things. I tilted the bars back very slightly and also slid the shifters up a fraction I also double wrapped the tape and bought some spesh gloves all little things but got rid of it completely

Also; if you don’t ride much and aren’t really arsed about how your bike handles/performs then you could just try some different gloves (doubling up the bar tape probably won’t matter if it only occurs on the hoods).

Front tyre pressure makes a difference; if I pump to 100 psi I get tingling but if I pump to 95, especially with my smooth Veloflex tyres with latex inners, the problem doesn’t happen.

I was on the bike for 14 hours last week so I’d like to be comfortable.

Hip rotation – basically get lower? I’m losing weight so this is getting easier as there’s less paunch getting in the way.

I was tryign to be conscious of what I was doing with my hands this morning and I think there is some death grip going on. I like the pint analogy, I’ll try and bear that in mind