Numb Hand....

[Ian Watts]

It could also be that the bike is a little "long" for you, so you're riding with locked-out straight arms and a too much (proportionally) of your weight going through your hands onto the bars.

I have thought that - for my size I have short arms - would a longer (shorter) stem or raising the bars help in this case

 

[YIMan]

I have thought that - for my size I have short arms - would a longer (shorter) stem or raising the bars help in this case

Either or both could help. You can pick up stems very cheaply so try something shorter - as little as 10 or 20mm shorter can make a lot of difference. Usually with a stem you can flip it so rather than it being horizontal it will have a rise and be higher. If you have spacers above your current stem you can put them under the stem to raise it.

I've changed stems for something shorter several times as I'm tall and have long legs but relatively shorter upper body - so I get big frames which are often too long for me. I find it helps to sit on the bike and place my hands in an imaginary position where the bars would be with a shorter stem - you can then estimate what might feel more comfortable.