I suffer from sore hands and wrists when riding the mtb. Has anyone else suffered like this and can I ask what you did to ease / stop it happening?

i have tried a few different rises and sweep of bars – by no means an extensive or exhaustive use of all the possible combos – but so far it doesn’t seem to have much impact!

Just saw some media info on the new vibro core bars which might be worth a look: http://enduro-mtb.com/en/first-look-spank-vibrocore-2015-handlebar-say-goodbye-to-armpump/

Is it because your stem length isn’t correct or seat position so you’re putting too much weight forward on to your wrists?

I used to suffer from that quite badly! I remember riding the Bontrager 24/Twelve last Summer – I was in real pain after one lap!

The solution for me was unexpected one – I discovered, that Manitou put a wrong sticker on my Marvel Comp forks: all air pressure guides were for ISO spring, whilst my forks have TS-Air. This means I was running my forks about 35PSI under-inflated (the sag settings looked OK, but these forks are not the ones that “go down very easily”).

I couldn’t believe the difference when test-rode the bike with firmer forks (according to the label I was running them set up for someone almost twice my weight…)! Comfort, control and speed – it was finally all there together!

Have you looked at the angle of your brake levers?

Your hand/ar/finger should be straight when braking – and if most of your braking is done going downhill standing up, then the angle of your levers should reflect that position.

“Your hand/ar(m)/finger should be straight when braking – …”

…if you want a ded-cert, cast-iron, copper-bottomed, guaranteed way to cause arm-pump.

try levers almost horizontal (ok, about 20 degrees down) – that way you can wrestle with the bars without gripping, it’s a bit like magic.

my hands like big-grips too, skinny grips hurt my knuckles.

I’d disagree with what george says above. I much prefer dropping the wrists slightly to give more control, but in line is going to be way better than brakes too low. It shouldn’t make much difference to loading as your hands should be very light (heavy feet, light hands). I’d say you may have your weight too far forward putting too much weight through your hands.

Have you got any riding action pics or pics of your bike set-up, ideally side on?

Sorry guys no riding pics at all for reference!

I have found it on 3 or 4 different bikes lately.

I do not think brake levers are the issue as this morning I went out for a casual round the block and decided to just cruise and leave the bakes alone except when absolutely necessary and still felt it.

I’ll have a look at seat position and maybe stem length to see if they help move my weight off the bars.

on my new bike i found that with a low front end and layback seatpost my wrists really hurt.

i`ve gone high rise and inline and its better but not cured.

I think the wide bar doesnt help either. i’ve run 720 ish for yonks and not really noticed. now i`ve gone 760 (feels great) my wrists seem to suffer more but I’ve gone wide at the same time as new bike so there are alot of variables.

I found sunline bars really made my hands hurt specifically. especially with lock ons. i think teh extra sweep worked on a pressure point in my hands.

Originally built my Soul with low rise 711mm havens, was agony! Swapped to 38mm Rise 685mm EC70’s and its perfect… v0v

Stand on your bike and drop your wrists then point your index finger
Brake should sit.there