Many thanks in advance to those that answer.

I have started riding again after a break of 7 yrs ! so taking it gently and riding into work 6 miles each way about halfway my fingers start to tingle and then go numb with pins and needles…so much so that cant even feel the shifter when changing gear ! When I get to work shake hands about and feeling comes back.

Any ideas ? Riding position ? (on hard-tail )

I cant reply for a few hours

Thanks for all received help.

pressure on the ulnar nerve (outside of your palm) and/or stiff neck and shoulders. Remedies by stretching and core strength exercise IME.

also gloves with ulnar nerve pads may help. Spesh BG ones are OK IIRC

grips with no outer lock ring also

+1 on Spesh BG gloves.

Also try different grips. Do you have some that are particularly fat or thin?

ergons

Specialised BG grips are very similar in appearance and performance to Ergon for 1/3 of the price, got them on all my bikes and ulner issues have all but disappeared. Still wear good mitts though.

I’ve suffered with the numb fingers too, in the past.
Mostly on my road bike though.

I tried the Specialized BG gloves, and they did’t really do much for it. I now ride wearing gloves with as little padding on the palms as I can find.
I even installed new bar tape with gel pads underneath.
Still not to much effect.

So in the end, I’ve adjusted my riding position to take a bit of weight of my hands, ie, moving my weight distribution more rearward.
This seems to have helped.

So, possibly adjusting your position on the bike first, before splashing the cash on new gloves and grips ?.
Just an idea.
😉

If it’s ur comuter bike try bar ends, just gives you that slightly alternate riding position,

Also the obvious moving hands on grips position etc
If it doubles up as ur XC or trail hack try carbon bars, this will ease some of the feedback felt thro the bars,

No doubt ur sit bones are informing u of their existence too :-0
As ur arms and shoulders strengthen ur grip will become less pronounced and before long u will ease back into it and not realise

supertsra ergon copies

I’ve had a lot of trouble with pins & needles. There seem to be all sorts of causes, so what works for me may not work for everyone.

I suspected carpal tunnel syndrome and had the tests at hospital. Although I’ve got “moderate” in one wrist and “moderate severe” in the other, my doctor didn’t think that was the cause, he suspected a neck problem.

I tried Specialized Ergon style grips, they made no difference at all.

I tried all sorts of stem and handlebar combinations. Sitting more upright helps a bit.

I’m fairly convinced now it is a neck problem. If I start to feel it coming on I make a concious effort to unhunch my shoulders and sit upright briefly while shaking one hand at a time.

It seems to come on mostly when riding easy flat tracks on the singlespeed. I reckon that because there is little resistance to the pedals I am transferring weight from my feet to my hands.

Bar ends help by allowing me to change my grip frequently.

I’ve got carbon bars on one bike and aluminium on the other. I can’t tell the difference.

can’t feel shifter implies index finger – that’s not so likely to be ulnar nerve is it ? Median nerve maybe (and even though marketing says ulnar proection I’m sure change of gloves or grips or raising the bar or any other means to take weight off the hands, or even sacrificing chickens might help with either)

carry on

What angle do you have the levers set to? They may be too high up causing pressure on your wrists. I’m guessing you’re not bombing it all the way to work, so I doubt it’s arm pump.

As I remember, when I started riding again I got similar – over time it just disappeared. Maybe give it a month and see how you go. Just regularly take a hand off the bar and give it a good shake, let the blood get back around.

Do you grip the bars quite tightly? Might be worth trying to ride with a slightly looser grip.

The feeling comming on whilst riding long flat tracks or commuting suggests that the same position is maintained for longer periods, whilst riding other disciplines the Weight change and shift in the saddle and on the bars will differ between shifting up down braking steering and all the other associated actions !

Sitting pedaling holding an object out front with upper body weight exerted onto the heel area of the palm will almost always cause discomfort,

If none of the above works try pedalling so ur legs hurt more than your hands,

And as for suggesting index finger ?
Why not also consider Thumb ?

Could that be Ulnar ?

And as for suggesting index finger ?
Why not also consider Thumb ?
Could that be Ulnar ?

OP said “fingers”
and ulnar nerve is fingers on the other side of the hand – towards little finger – and across the palm. don’t think goes up the thumb

Had a similar problem myself. A set of ergonomic style grips worked for me and I can thoroughly reccomend the superstar ones. A word of warning though, I know a few people who reckon ergon grips made things worse!

You wanna watch that, I don’t think they appreciate you riding in there 😐

IGMC …

(ergons BTW – ace. I’m sure the copies are just as good)

Drop bars are good as well – you double wrap them in buzz-killing tape, and you have about 10,000 possible hand positions, not just 1, so you can move your hands to wherever is comfy. I’m sure some of these more funky shape mtb bars may offer more hand position choice too.

What fingers?

I’d be taking a stab in the dark at a thoracic spine or neck problem.

Jesus – neck / spine problems! Don’t scare the guy – seriously, he’s been off a bike for 7 years. He’s bound to get a few aches and pains white getting back on it.

First of all, can you get any pics of your riding position? You could be slung too far over the front, with all the weight on your wrist.

When you ride, are you fairly stretched out, or are you sitting quite upright?

Are you wearing gloves when riding? Try riding without them and see if it helps at all.
Also look at your weight distribution on the bike. If you are putting too much weight on your hands as opposed to bum / pedals, that might cause problems. For example, if you’ve got your saddle run all the way back, forcing you to lean forward more, that would put more weight on your hands, which would be supporting your torso. Try moving your saddle forward slightly (check it doesn’t go too far forward – we’re talking 1/8th inch increments here) or raise the bars a little.

Alternatively, it may be that your upper body / core is a little weakened.

I had similar problems back in the day with my hands; I found adjusting my riding position (on the road bike) and, as said above, ditching grips with lock-ons on the end helped a lot. Generally, there’s plenty of adjustability to your current bike to try a few things before you lay out on new bits. Try bars (rotate to engage sweep etc) raise/lower stem, rotate brake levers and shifters (try moving them inboard a little, rather than butting up against your grips) seatpost and saddle up/down back/forth and all the rest. Change one thing at a time, and in small increments. HTH

[EDIT] The reason I ask about gloves is that I was wearing MTB gloves while riding to work on my road bike. The seams applied pressure to my finger tips, cutting off circulation.