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Went out today inthe Chilterns. Beutoful day for my regular 20 mile loop.
3/4 through there a rapid loose descent (crashed there on Saturday due to too low pressure in tubeless front tyre - trying to roll off rim).
Taking lessons from Saturdays too quick an approach to shocking kink in track with attendant bramble bushes and barbed wire on the other side I went to apply brakes earlier this time......except I couldn't tell how hard I was pulling - totally sensation free hands.
Long story short, averted another sky ground sky ground scenario but now thi king seriously about some of those Ergo bar grips. Has anyone used them and if so how do you find them ?
Also do you use them with bar ends ?
Any other suggestions to avoid dead mans hands more than welcome.
thick grips + brake levers 20degrees down from horizontal*
(means you can relax your grip)
(*not 'inline' with your wrist)
* You need to 1 finger brake with a powerful set of brakes.
* Relax your grip
* Try a bit more bar rise
* Try thinner grips
* Try gelled pads
* Try rolling your bars forwards or backwards and setting your brake levers in a different place.
I'd only bother with ergos if you're into long distance XC rides and don't care for control on descents.
😐 With thin grips you just lock your fingers round instead of actually gripping them hard to gain control.thick grips
I was given this tip years ago and use it a lot.
At the first signs of 'dead mans hands' stop your bike and shake your hands just like you would if you were shaking water off them until they feel 'alive' again.
Hope this works for you.
I can pretty much check most of those suggestions off. I haven't tried rotating the bars though and thicker grips are an option - mine are very thin at moment.
More rise in bars. I see where you're coming from but if anything I want to keep as much weight over the front as poss due to a fairly slack seat angle (70 degrees or so).
FWIW I am due to do some longer rides this year starting with Red Kite 82k in Élan Valley.
Try non lock ons, renthal soft compounds...wire them....if not some ESI silicone grips...
More rise in bars. I see where you're coming from but if anything I want to keep as much weight over the front as poss due to a fairly slack seat angle
Just try 10 to 20mm or so...
The Shaking the hands thing is all well and good until half way down descent going like the clappers - especially when your a hard charging young buck like myself (46 is still young right ?).
From a roadie point of view, numb hands along with arm pain, shoulder pain and so one is usually attributable to a position which puts too much weight on your hands, normally associated with a saddle pushed forwards.
For a long term fix I would suggest looking at your position on the bike from scratch; aim to get your saddle back so you are riding with a minimum amount of pressure through your hands; think of your hands as steering rather than supporting a large amount of weight.
The telling feature of this scenario is that you get problems towards the end of rides; as you get tired, you end up resting more on your hands...
What Crikey said. I had exactly the same problem trying to use my downhill cockpit setup for enduro/all-mountain.
It was far to slammed, it gave good control but at the expense of arm and back fatigue.
Crikey, yes I can see that. I've recently been changing the bike around to provoke the weight forward thing to help with climbing. It has worked big time. I've been pretty pleased so far.
As you have divined though, changes have included moving seat forward and changing spacers around lowering bars by 10mm. Hmmmm.
Ergon grips are great, and not at all an issue in pretty technical terrain ( ok I'm not a dh rider but I reckon I ride more than a lot of people do). Really stopped the pain in my arms and hands at about the 3hr mark.
The long term expensive solution is a set of Talas or Dual Position Air forks....as crikey said you shouldn't have lots of your weight being supported by the bars all the time. You need to be loose and comfortable on them and only leaning on the bars when you need to drive the front wheel into the ground for grip.
Already have the Talas thing going on. And yes they do help.
To sum up the bike is now just I want it. It's just a cure for my hands I need without reverting to previous geometry.
What fork length? Well in that case you're just bonkers and have gone way OTT with the whole slammed bar thing. 
Try the ergon grips but I doubt they'll do any good in this case, it sounds to me like you did the same as me...death gripping because the bars were to low.
90 - 130 and yes you could well be right about the bonkers thing, though what I would say is that be ause I'm a short arse I don't have my seat way up. Probably only an inch or 2 above the bars.
Hmmmm....try the ergons in that case.
The problem is that all bikes are a trade off, an all out XC machines cockpit setup is going to fatigue you much more quickly on the downs whilst more downhill oriented setups are going to do ones back in on the ups.
It depends which you prefer doing, racing up hills or blasting down them.
Wide risers with road style drops would work well but they'd also look incredibly daft.
You mean I may need another bike. Interfereswithbadgers, you need to speak with my wife.
But yeah I know what you mean about trade off. I want to do it all on one bike. If numb hands are the worst of it then I don't have it so bad. 😆
Heh about the new bike I'm actually wondering if the top tube is to long for you....
If you can, post us up a picture of you on the bike in your normal riding position. Get someone to hold the bike up for you, then we can troubleshoot the fit.