my lay off the bike has seen a surge in a arthritis flare up, and a serious stiffening of all my joints.
my right wrist is now almost fused, the left not much better.
using flat bars with ergon grips on my tourer, but the pain riding and afterwards is terrible.

without going to the expense of jones bars, any other ways of easing the pain and making riding a bit comfier?

anyone struggle with bars and painful joints?

I’m currently in exactly the same boat, having had a few weeks off the bike. I have a set of jones bars on my singlespeed, they work really well with some ESI chunkys. My commuter has a set of “alt” bars with a 20 degree sweep, again with ESI grips and they do the trick. I’ve been through about 50 different bar and grip combinations to find my happy place and it seems it lies between 20 and 50 degree back sweep with the option of different hand positions. Tried ergons for a while, but they did nothing for me but make my hands numb.
After time off the bike I find I have to go through the pain for a few rides to see any improvement.
Best of luck pal, I (literally) feel your pain.

Have you looked at the stooge moto bars, not as extreme as the Jones but interesting.

Cart before the horse?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Curing-Arthritis-Drug-free-Margaret-Hills/dp/0859699137/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

^Worked for me. It wasn’t easy as was an all or nothing route/regime. But it did work after 6 weeks militant daily observance plus (weekly) hydrotherapy. Standard disclaimer – I’m not a doctor or snake oil salesman. Still in remission 18 years on.

PS I had a lot of referred pain in neck/shoulders/wrists from excessive (manual) wheelchair and crutches usage. Once I got the swelling/pain down and crawled back on a bike I then found Mary bars and riser stem helped on the road back to health. Do you benefit from changing grip position frequently? If so consider high-set drops or butterfly bars?

Other wobbly bars include various on-ones, OG, Mary etc.

NC17 Trekking Bar is work a look too. Cheap and good. big riser, which might also be helpful. I bought them when I did my shoulder in, to get the bars higher and weight off my arms and shoulders. They might be on the narrow side for you, but somehow this doesn’t matter so much with swept back bars. Worth a try for £24 from crc.

Forgot to say – (at the very minimum) pre-ride contrast baths for your joints will help treat the symptoms:

http://hubpages.com/health/Arthritis-Relief-for-Hand-Pain-with-Contrast-Baths

But get the arthritis under control*. I know (that you know) you wont fix it with handlebars, that’s like asking which steering wheel is best for a car that has gone into limp-mode. Time for an overhaul, ton.

* ie F*** it off!

The northern winter must contribute, i know people in spain who were in pain with arthritis in the uk and are now a lot better due to the drier climate. I broke my foot a few years ago and it only hurts in uk winters. I put it down to the climate and humidity.

Bars with more sweep. A straight bar puts your wrist at a strained unnatural angle – the grip needs to point back and down( a bit) to put the wrist in a natural angle.

Mary bars suit this well

Don’t Planet X do some flexible carbon bars.. think they’re called Chewy? Dunno if they’d help?

Edit.. these ones

all noted gents. bit to far gone to ease the pain with hot and cold water baths I am afraid.

jones bars on their way.

bit to far gone to ease the pain with hot and cold water baths I am afraid.

[epic nag] just be clear that was the *bare minimum required* for me to even be able to grab some sleep, stand up on crutches/get off the floor/operate a manual wheelchair. I was at the point of bilateral surgical (foot) joint fusion (recommended by osteopath) which I flatly refused. The change was brought about via a militant elimination diet, nutrition therapy, dose of yucky molasses and cider vinegar daily (as per first link). Add in full (v hot) epsom-salt baths, hydrotherapy visits and more hardcore drive and discipline than I’d ever muster were I not at the point of having joints irreversibly fused and also getting maybe 1-2 hours fitful sleep a night because of the pain. F*** horror show – I was often laughing manically at the pain levels so maybe my motivation to get rid was super-human?

Six weeks after beginning the course the arthritis was in remission and it (and the flare-ups) never came back. I lost a shit load of weight too which helped further reduce pressure on problematic joints. I can now eat anything without ill-effects, but if it ever came back (it’s been 18 years now) I’d drop everything and get back on the treatment.

Tell you what, why not just try disciplined contrast wrist baths, twice a day for a week as per link? If it’s no help then discontinue after 7 days? Deal?

And good luck with the bars, I mean it, but I seriously don’t think you’ve thought it through – it could be just an excuse for some shiny different kit? Even in the many years following treatment/remission I was having a hard time going through rehab and I bought/swapped a LOT of bikes/bike stuff and changed my needs almost monthly – it was a cycle of denial/distraction I can see that now. I even bought a recumbent bike to ‘ease the pain’ but then realised was too fat and inflexible to even clear the f**** bars! Of course I hated the bike and bought something else that got no real use. If had time again I’d put all that money and effort into (post-remission) physio and hydro and podiatry – ie fixing long-term damage and getting more flexible and fitter first. Pain-free and svelte on a BSO is still infinitely better than tooth-grindingly painful on the latest bling.

Please do read the reviews of the treatment I first linked. It worked for me when nearly all hope was lost. At least now I feel I fully tried to help, and, although it may not be what you want to hear please do know it’s well-intentioned in the best way that I know how. [/epic nag].

Afterthought – If you’re in remission then please ignore half of this! Onwards and upwards!

Malvern rider, it sounds like you were a far worse case than I am. thing is I don’t have much pain at all. just lack of movement and motion range. the pain only shows after riding with flat bars.
obviously my ankle was fubar hence the fusion operation. no pain from that now, and back riding.
I will give the week thing a go and see how I get on.

below is a photo showing you the full bend on my right wrist.
the left wrist has a tad more range.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/PY4Qx4]2016-12-12_03-09-25[/url] by 20ston, on Flickr

Woah that looks like near zero degrees extension? What does physio/doc say? I can see how straight bars are shit for this. How are you on hoods/drops/flares as they don’t require hardly any extension, just rotation? Loop bars could help some, I didn’t have wrist probs but Mary bars in general felt more naturally comfortable than straights/risers by far.

I will give the week thing ago

(thumbs up!). I put the bowls on a table with folded towel – and because you do one joint at a time it’s perfect (and hazardous to tablets!) to browse/catchup on STW/FB etc over a coffee 🙂

http://www.mccallphysicaltherapy.com/education/hand-wrist-pain/

(3rd paragraph)

What does physio/doc say?

physio said that I am a lost cause, and she needs to work on learning me to walk correctly again. then hopefully she can have a go with my wrists.

jones loops work fine, got some jones bends on the way. we will see.