numbness in hands

[jeff1959]

i have bean having problem when i am out riding with numbness in my hands and fingers after about 30mins of riding.have gel tape on bars and wear gel fingerless gloves , does any one else suffer with this problem and if so how or what do you do to cure the problem
cheer jeff

 

[Arch]

Yeah, I get numb/sore hands sometimes, and it was worse when I had drop bars and more of my weight was forward on my hands. I just shift my hands about as much as I can so that I'm not resting on the same point all the time - sometimes it can help to sit up a bit more and take the weight on your backside, and just steer the bars with fingertips, if you can (best not to do in traffic when you may need to steer quickly).

The bad bit is when your hands, feet and bum hurt equally, so what ever you do to relieve one, hurts the others....

 

[ACS]

I have in the past. I found that it was caused by an incorrect saddle position and the saddle was set to high, this resulted in a lot of pressure on the palms of my hands. I did some on line research re-set my saddle height in line with the recommendations then it was down to some experimentation using very slight height adjustments coupled saddle positioning (forward – backwards) until the issue disappeared. This may not be the cause of your issue but may provide a pointer to a possible remedy

All I have to do now is find out why my left knee is tender (cleat position) and I am made. :?:

 

[palinurus]

Bike set-up and position, first things to look at are probably whether the bars are too low or too far forward leading you to support too much weight on your hands. What type of bike? road bike/ drop bars or other?

 

[Banjo]

I used to have to flex my hands all the time to keep the blood flowing then I changed my slightly knobbly hybrid tyres for smoother more road orientated tyres.Without making any other adjustments to the bike the numbness virtually disappeared instantly.

I occasionally get it slightly now usually due to gripping hand grips too tightly but its nothing like as bad as before.

 

[John Ponting]

Jeff, have you considered taking your weight on your elbows for a change ?


Serious suggestion - tri bars or even butterfly bars ?

 

[montage]

Wouldn't recommend tri bars if you will be cycling with alot of traffic.

When having your bike sized there are two crucial measurements.
Saddle height and saddle-bar reach.

First of all, make sure you saddle height is correct, there are some GREAT posts around here for finding you saddle height. Ride and see how this feels... if your hands still hurt then raise the stem a little - either borrow/buy a stem with a rise...possibly even a shorter stem...put spacers from above the stem below the stem...etc etc..

There are many variables....so just keep adjusting and fiddling with things

 

[jeff1959]

my bike is a specialized road bike with drop bars , i have tried moving my hands about sitting up riding one handed (not in traffic) till the feeling come back ,i had the bike fitted at brian rourkes were i bought the bike only thing i have changed since is the saddle so may be need fine tuning though i was having this problem before the saddle change .as satin budgie said i all so have a cleat problem which needs sorting ,i have lifted the stem up and altered the bars to bring the closer to me still no joy .thanks to all who replied
chers jeff

 

[gwhite]

Try lowering the pressure in your front tyre. This can make a difference.

 

[Garz]

I have this problem but only in the cold weather. I thought it was down to poor circulation, I guess I do grip quite tightly. Now im thinking maybe the saddle/bar positions could enhance the problem.

 

[garrilla]

@ the OP

Are your elbows locking? When you ride, do you have straight arms with your arms locked into 180degrees? This can encourage the weight of the upper body to rest on the bars with the hands taking the strain.

If this is an issue, correcting your cycling position might help. Check how the arms are positioned in this diagram

 

[MacB]

I suffered when I started riding, to the point at which it took over a week for full feeling to return to one hand. Not a problem now and the changes reasons were:-

death grip - I really did grip too hard, a lot of the time now I'm barely gripping, just laying fingers on bars

saddle height and position in relation to pedals - this made a big difference I'd had too much of my weight on my hands/arms

bars - I switched from flat to butterfly bars and the varied positions are nice, though tend to ride on sides most of the time

stem - fitted and adjustable stem along with the new bars and this allowed me to experiment with height and reach.

I've now ridden nearly 14hrs in a 24 hour period and not even a tingle in my hands. But it was a lot of trial and error, I found it best to work forward from the saddle. I could now take my hands off the bars and not fall forward.

 

[HLaB]

When I first put drops on my Sirrus I had a bit of numbness in my right hand, in between the thumb and fore finger was red raw (damn Sora levers) as I mainly ride on the hoods and braking is not quite as responsive as the Bianchi. My theory is that whilst the area toughened up the numbness started to go away .

 

[stoofer]

With bare hands i have had no numbness at all from riding with drop bars the past few weeks, but I picked up some gloves a few days ago and while they fit well, after about 20-30 minutes i start to get numb fingers and feel significant tension across the palm near the thumb joint. So far I'm keeping my (numb) fingers crossed I'll "break them in" otherwise it's a-shopping I go once again...

 

[Fab Foodie]

Most people suffer hand numbness caused by too much weight on them. The proper solution is to move the saddle rearwards... the body will be better balanced and you should be able to ride with your fingertips on the bars. Read this for a full explaination:

http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/fitting.htm