is it my posture or riding position?

[kedab]

on the longer road section of my commute, often I find that my left hand is a bit stiff and needs some 'shaking out' to get rid of pins and needles.

does this have anything to do with my riding/posture or is it about set-up as many things are? My right arm/hand is never a problem. would a broken left collar bone 4 or 5 years ago be the reason and therefore something i simply have to get used to?

many thanks for any advice as always CC

 

[ttcycle]

Possibly the old injury or it could be an imbalance in the way that your body is made up- there might be a slight assymetry on one side.

However, if you're riding drops it might be worth adjusting the tilt of the bars upwards a fraction to see if that makes a difference and the obvious thing to ask also is are you using some good cycling gloves to dampen the vibration out from the road surfaces. Give those a go and see if it improves things.

 

[coffeejo]

No expert but I second the gloves thing. Once the weather warmed up, I ditched my gloves and suffered from aches and pains in my left wrist and arm, often for hours afterwards. I read somewhere about gripping the handlebars too tightly and this made sense, so bought a pair of well-padded summer gloves. That was two months ago and I've not had any problems since.

 

[kedab]

cheers peeps, i went out and got some gloves a week or two back - for exactly that reason, the vibration off particularly shoddy surfaces was really annoying and uncomfortable - the gloves have helped a lot.

don't ride drops though i think my hybrid is nicely - i'm not being pained anywhere else really so i'm thinking that it may be that old injury causing a bit of imbalance.

ooh yes and...i'm doing the incline on my road section to work 3 gears bigger than i was 3 weeks ago...i even congratulated myself as i crested it this morning - sad little man that i am

thanks again for the thoughts and advice.

 

[coffeejo]

Ha, you should hear me cheering (in my head, no actual breath left to waste!) every time I get to the top of a hill!

Try different postures or adjusting the height / position of your saddle etc, just to see if that makes a difference. Someone said on a thread a while back that just a mm or two makes an incredible difference.

 

[kedab]

i'm the same jo, there is always a little conversation going on with myself while i'm cycling - sometimes in my head sometimes out loud! i was grinning like a mad man as i crested the hill this morning, said something like 'well done mate' and then set off down the descent where, after being hit by a head wind which made my eyes water my mood changed quite quickly!

i've done some tweaking with the bike's set up over the past few weeks but i will have a little tinker on my day off tomorrow and go for a rideaboot just to see if i'm missing something by fractions as you say

 

[ttcycle]

good luck kedab - try only to shift it in small increments at a time - it's hard to say without seeing you on the bike - try bringing the height of the handlebars up a very small fraction we're talking mm's here first and ride that for a week and see if it makes improvements. Depending on your bike sometimes you can rotate where the bar is held to bring the tilt of it towards you- this is even more significant if you have brakes to squeeze at the front as that could be the issue on one side. If not then try bringing the saddle forward a few mm's though I suspect if it's in the reach issue then you'd feel sore on both sides. Unless you have a -significant imbalance in the body.

Hope you get it right and good to hear about the hill victory celebrations!