Handlebar palsy (numb fingers)

[Phil Jones]

Anyone know anything about handlebar palsy? My wife has developed it on our last couple of rides. I've raised her bars an inch and changed the grips to soft hybrid ones. How long does it last and how do you cure it? She has numbness in her pinky fingers and pins and needles. Any advise would be helpful. Ta

 

[Kies]

Try and prevent it in the first place. Hand behind her back for 15 seconds, opening and closing fist at the first tingle.
I still get it on the roadie and just make sure I keep moving my hands about.
On your wife's flat bar, look at bar ends so she can move her hand position

 

[TissoT]

Um ...When she is on the bike sat on the seat/hands on the bars/grips are her wrist bend slightly !

 

[Louch]

I have had numbness in my fingers since last weekend where I sent best part of twelve hours on the bike. I had hoped rest would clear it, but still have a lil numbness

 

[amaferanga]

Poor bike set up with too much weight on the hands is a possible cause. You could start by having a look at saddle height, fore-aft position and angle. Raising the bars isn't necessarily a good thing to do.

 

[screenman]

I kid you not, I got rid of mine by dropping the bars not raising them. A bike fit took them even lower than I had them

 

[ste.pearson]

2nd that on ergon grips i used to get numbness a lot but since i changed to the ergon grips it takes much much longer for it to develop and its nowhere near as bad as it was

 

[nappadang]

seeing this thread has reminded me of problems I used to encounter and no doubt will again in the coming months.
I've only been back in the saddle for a few weeks after a long period of inactivity and weight gain. I used to do a lot of mountain biking in my younger days and suffered quite badly from finger numbness. I also have White Finger(Raynaud's syndrome) which used to compound things, though to be honest, this has improved since I gave up smoking.
At the time I'm referring to (early to mid 1990s) suspension forks were prohibitively expensive (for me, at least) so I bought a Girvin Flex Stem, which worked wonders. finger numbness quickly became a thing of the past.
I had a quick look on Evans Cycles website but couldn't see them so maybe they are obsolete. if they are still available or there is a modern day equivalent, I can recommend them.

probably not the most helpful post ever but it allowed me to indulge in a little nostalgia.

Mick