HOLY SPECIALIZED GRAIL!

10 years of SEVERE hand numbness lasting over a month after long trips, money thrown at professional bikefitters, half dozen bikes swapped (2 custombuilt)…

then I got a pair of Specialized GRAIL and -boom- no more numbness

the trick was to pad the plam to evenly spread the pressure, so easy I never thought about it

I wonder how this kind of gloves are so niche, I can list only another model from Pearl Izumi on the market

Did your other gloves have padding at all?

I’ve had a few pairs of gloves with random pads here and there – and they seem to cause more issues than benefit they bring.

YES! It sounds like you’ve had a really rough time of it, but I had a similar experience over a much shorter time period. The idea of padding the *rest* of the hand (not the heel) seems counterintuitive, but absolutely made the difference for me too. Glad to hear it worked for you!

I like them on the road bike, but always feel like theres something in the way on the mtb. I’ve got the grails and the pearl izumi ones in long and short finger.

I agree with what MOAB says though about other padding causing more issues and actually ended up preferring gloves with no padding at all on the mtb and using ergon GA3 grips. Although I do have some ION gloves at the moment that do have some padding in other areas but it’s minimal so ok.

my other gloves were Specialized BODY GEO, plenty of thick padding everywhere but on the palm, basically the reverse version of the Grail

tried also less padding without luck, this is the brilliant idea that seemed obvious in retrospect

can’t believe how in cycling little things make a world of difference

Interested in these but the Grail is no longer in production – which Pearl Izumi ones are there?

I like the grail gloves on drop bars as I tend to move my hands around an appreciate the support being in the middle of my palm.

On the MTB I prefer Ergon grips, find they have a similar effect and I no longer get numb hands compared to regular straight grips.

Ergons made little difference for me.  Currently using Syncros Ergo grips which have made things more comfortable albeit, I think that’s a lot to do with the built in bar ends.

Had given up on padded gloves as they always seem to be padded in the wrong places.

Years ago I suffered with numbness. Bucking the trend for oversize this & that, I ended up with a non OS carbon bars & Lizard Skins slip on North Shore grips. The additional flex certainly helped.

@Nobby

Not sure what model mine were but the Pearl Izumi expedition glove has the palm padding like the grails. On sale @ £18 https://pearlizumi.eu/en-gb/collections/mens-gloves

Thanks @ads678

Interesting, might look it up. My drop bar bikes always end up giving me numb hands if I wear padded short finger gloves, so unless its cold I just go bare hand. Not had hand road rash yet but I do feel like it is in the mail…

I found I suffer almost the opposite issue to the OP, the thicker/more padded the glove the more hand/forearm cramping and pains I get. Wear thin gloves or ideally no gloves and I have zero problems.

I suspect it’s either me instinctively gripping tighter due to the vague feeling you get with chunky gloves and/or the fabric between my hands and the bar squirming and just making me unconsciously keep adjusting my grip and hence fatiguing my arms/hands.

I love spring/summer because I can ride without gloves any time by default.

Interested in these but the Grail is no longer in production – which Pearl Izumi ones are there?

How do you know they are no longer? Bought from their own store.

PI models are “Attack” and “Expedition”: the first with strap closure which I’m not fond of, the latter with weird bronze lining

This thread has reminded me I had a pair of Specialized BG mitts years ago with the padding in the counterintuitive place (I believe it is over your ulnar nerve). Loved those mitts, but long worn-out now.

then I got a pair of Specialized GRAIL and -boom- no more numbness

the trick was to pad the plam to evenly spread the pressure, so easy I never thought about it

I wonder how this kind of gloves are so niche, I can list only another model from Pearl Izumi on the market

Yeah, similar, though only on drop bars. They are brilliant. They come up on eBay occasionally and a very few shops still have new, old stock if you’re the right size. I’m off to have a look at the Pearl Izumi gloves in a minute.

I had a pair of the Giro Elastic Interface gloves – padding by a chamois manufacturer, supposedly really good – and found them utterly dreadful for hand numbing and tingling. Sold them after one short ride.

Also a fan of the grail gloves, filling in the gaps instead of adding extra padding to and raising the highpoints just makes so much sense.

If not the grails then my preference is no padding.

I found I suffer almost the opposite issue to the OP, the thicker/more padded the glove the more hand/forearm cramping and pains I get. Wear thin gloves or ideally no gloves and I have zero problems.

I don’t think it is the opposite, the grails padding isn’t much, it just fills in the palm rather than padding the pressure points.

A recent bike swap has done a good job of sorting the numbness for me, part of the fitting process (not a full bike fit) was going from a 42 to a 40 bar which I think may have been part of the issue for me.

Grail gloves are excellent. The specialized BG stuff is generally good in my experience.

I don’t think it is the opposite, the grails padding isn’t much, it just fills in the palm rather than padding the pressure points.

right, it’s hardly a padding, seems just a bit of flat hard-ish rubber

tested only on gravel drops so far, but I had same identical numb issues on the MTB

How do you know they are no longer? Bought from their own store.

From the Specialized UK website – Only one size left & no longer available to order.

Most places are sold out of the long finger version with no date for re-stock.  Lot’s of online Specialized dealers no longer even list them.  Some even say “No Longer Available”

What’s the sizing like? I need XXL on most brands (long hands rather than fat) except Troy Lee where XXL is both too long and wide

Googling seems to suggest some are still obtainable (including XXL).

Yeah, that’s what I was looking at. Just checked against the BG gloves I have, with the ulnar padding (which has done zero for my numb left hand) and they are XL so will have a Google for those

@Nobby

I’m afraid it’s a UK issue, I bought on italian website but it’s available on several EU shops like bike-components

@davosaurusrex

deffo go XXL

I use XL on other gloves but these were way too tight, had to swap for XXL

Including specialized?

I only had Specialized and GripGrab

you better reference to their table size