Hi all,
I have noticed that after riding for around 2-3 hours I am starting to get bad cramp/aching in my fingers when riding downhill. I thought this was due to the spring in my forks being to stiff, I now have the correct spring and the same thing is happening. I was advised by my LBS to try thinner grips and this has also made no difference. What could I be doing wrong to cause this ?
I am riding a hartail with 140mm forks.

Thanks for any help,

Bert.

Vulcan Death Grip on the bars?

140mm forks could be the source of your woes, the front wheel must be tiny to accomodate those!

140mm of travel 🙄 .
I have been trying to hold the bars as loose as possible so pretty sure its not because of that Obi_Twa.

could be the brake lever position? If they're pointing down a little too much it causes stress on the palms and thumbs when your stretching for them on the downs. i have mine set so that when I'm over the rear whel in the downhill/tech positionthe levers just touch the underneath of my extended fingers (Roughly either 4 or 8 O'clock depends how you see it)

Thanks Carlos, will try that.

Of course for a truly trivial answer…

What do you expect doing 2-3 hour down hills?

Brake lever position, grip size and material, handle bar shape (try rolling them forwards of backwards as a start), saddle position and stem length (ie how much weight is on your hands), lack of bar ends (or something else to give you a change of position on the bars every so often), fettle your brakes to need less hand power or even thinner or thicker gloves – the possibilities for spending money are endless in the pursuit of a solution; some of them may work.

no masturbation beforehand (excuse the pun, it wasn't intended)

or a regular and vigourous regime of it to build up strength…….

Too much compression damping on the forks? learning to relax is main one though.

Poor blood flow to the hand, maybe try to execise more.

Oh.. I hear bananas are good for preventing cramps.

Maybe try 1-finger braking, therefore 3 to hold on with.

APF

Having your hands under pressure with an open grip is well known to cause cramp. Windsurf booms have gone as narrow as possible to cut down on cramp, and you rarely see windsurfers in gloves in cold weather because of cramping.

So you could try thinner gloves, Ergon style grips (with a paddle to rest your hands) or simply keep your fingers off the brake levers until needed.