Braking from the hoods

[rij73]

Hi ladies,

I find that if I descend a hill where I need to brake a lot, I get incredible hand pain. It's really hard to brake effectively from the hoods for me. I get pain especially badly in the joints where the thumbs meet the hands.

I guess the solution is to descend in the drops, but I feel nervous in the drops. I'm getting a coaching session on Monday, and this is one of my issues to cover, but since the coach is a man I definitely wanted to ask here first.

Any tips for more comfortable braking from the hoods?

I have the Shimano R700 short-reach levers, and a Deda Piega handlebar.

[mimitabby]

it sounds like the bike is still not fitting you even with the short reach stuff.
that's the kind of trouble i was having last year before i got the bianchi set up for me better.

[rij73]

Mimi, what kinds of changes improved that aspect? I thought that maybe it is weak hands or that you're just not supposed to be able to brake well from up there. If you had improvement in this issue, I'd love to know how!!!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

When i am going down a STEEP hill, my weight is more forward. More forward weight means more pressure on the hands.
If you brake on the hoods going downhill, try to scoot back a bit in your saddle and put some of your weight back further on your pedals instead of onto your hands.
Ideally, you should be braking in the drops on very steep downhills-- because you have better steering control in the drops, you have a better grip on the bars, and generally your hands on the hoods are further forward than when in the drops thus making the weight forward issue worse.
Try sitting further back in the saddle and transferring some of your weight onto your pedals. Shift your weight backwards off your hands.

[Trekhawk]

Hi ladies,

I find that if I descend a hill where I need to brake a lot, I get incredible hand pain. It's really hard to brake effectively from the hoods for me. I get pain especially badly in the joints where the thumbs meet the hands.

I guess the solution is to descend in the drops, but I feel nervous in the drops. I'm getting a coaching session on Monday, and this is one of my issues to cover, but since the coach is a man I definitely wanted to ask here first.

Any tips for more comfortable braking from the hoods?

I have the Shimano R700 short-reach levers, and a Deda Piega handlebar.

As you get more confident with descending you will find you dont brake as much and you wont hold your handlebars in a death grip. Relax and enjoy the descent. Before you know it you will be descending from the drops and feeling really comfortable there.

[silver]

Do you have apicture of your bike?

ARe your handlebars horizontal on top?

like where my hand is resting.....the part that extends to the shifter. it doesn't really look that way in the picture but I can put a tiny bubble level there and it is horizontal.

I'm no expert, but I wonder if this could be part of the problem.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y169/etsterling/uniform2cropped.jpg

[rij73]

Thanks for the replies, and keep the ideas coming! So, I guess it sounds like I should get used to the drops, but if I must brake from the hoods try to keep my weight back.

Silver, yes I see what you're saying and my bars are level like that too. I'm still wondering if there is anything that can be tweaked, though...

Here's the bike:
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m226/rij73/IMG_3626.jpg

[Starfish]

Do you have particularly small hands? Are the brakes still a real reach for you, despite the short reach levers?

[silver]

yes, it does look to be adjusted similar to mine.

Are you just getting into riding and increasing your mileage?

I find that as I increase my mileage I get little aches and pains all over my body but then my body adjusts and gets used to the longer miles.

[RolliePollie]

I have this hand-pain-while-braking problem as well. I really can't brake effectively in the drops because the reach is too far (another adjustment to add to my list). I'm trying to make myself ride in the drops more, but it's not a comfortable body position for me and I don't feel confident with the steering (probably another adjustment to add to my list!). So I always brake from the hoods. If I'm braking hard on a long downhill, my hands start to hurt like crazy. But, as mentioned above, the more comfortable you get going down hills, the less you will be using the brakes. On my typical training routes, I hardly use my brakes at all anymore...with the exception of a couple of very sharp hairpin curves that happen to be at the bottom of steep hills! One thing I try to do is sort of feather the brakes...brake for a few seconds, then let up, brake again, etc. When I'm in the not braking part of this routine, I try to completely relax my hands. It does help some.

[DirtDiva]

The idea of not being in the drops on the sort of downhill that requires lots of braking scares me! :eek: Getting your weight back a bit further will definitely help with balance and control on the downhills, and you can always practice getting in and out of the drops on some flat, traffic-free spot until you're comfortable enough to give it a go on the hill.

[Mr. Bloom]

Have you considered different gloves? Could it be that the pain exists from another stimulus, but is more prominent when you brake?

I have extreme hand pain unless I wear gloves that have 3 very thick gel-pads in them. Almost unable to ride without them.

You might experiment to see if different gloves help:confused: :confused:

Good Luck

[rij73]

Thanks for the ideas. I have very padded gloves, but I could experiment. My hands aren't particularly small for a woman and I can comfortably reach the brakes in the drops. It's just on the hoods that I feel I have no braking power and I get the thumb pain. Also, I am totally new to road biking. I've only had the bike for one month.

So I'm still hearing that getting used to the drops is key.

How do the rest of you feel when you brake from the hoods? Do you feel like you have good stopping power?

[Veronica]

I have good stopping power when braking from the hoods, but I prefer to be down in the drops on a long descent. I feel it gives me better control of the bike.

V.

[SouthernBelle]

I have much better braking power from the hoods as well. I have very short fingers, so sometimes I come up off the drops to brake from the hoods, even with my shimmed brake levers. So I guess I just find it odd that braking from the hoods is difficult.

Is it actually physically difficult, or is it a mental thing?

[rij73]

Wow, your braking is *better* from the hoods? No, it's definitely harder for me to brake from the hoods. Maybe cause the Shimano hoods are so bulky?

[SouthernBelle]

No I've got Shimano. But I have very poor reach from the drops. Stubby fingers.

[mimitabby]

I repeat, if her body is not fitting the bike right, there could be extra stress on the hands.
It's not necessarily the size of her hands; but gloves might help too.

I wish Triskelion was reading this thread; she could be very helpful.

[rij73]

Mimi, what kind of changes helped your hand pain?

[Triskeliongirl]

I agree with Mimi, it's probablyabout fit. Do you get the pain only when you train to brake, or is it persisstent from riding in the hoods? If your weight is too far forward on the bike, that can lead to handpain (which sometimes can be fixed by pushing the saddle further back). If the angle at which your hands contact the hoods is wrong, that can too (which can be changed by adjusting the bar angle). You want your hands to contact the hoods in a neutral hand-shake position, while being flat on top may be optimal for someone, haveing the hooks parallel to the ground is optimal for others. I don't think any of this can really be troublepshoot it over the internet. Why not ask an expert (i.e. is the shop that sold you the bike nearby) to look at you riding and see if they can see an obvious reason for the problem. If that's not possible, post a pic of you sitting on your bike trying to brake on your trainer, taken as parallel as possible to you, and we'll see what we can do.

[batsheva]

i had the same issue-- the LBS slackened off the brakes for me, so the levers were easier to engage and also put shimano 'shims' (little rubber wedges) in between the lever ends and the hoods to bring them closer to the hoods so i could use them easier as my small hands did not have the power otherwise to engage the brakes-- the slackening of the brake tension and the shims has worked quite well for me-- and i am developing also the hand strength.

batsheva

[Kathi]

I have small hands too and have less strength braking from the hoods. At first I was uncomfortable with braking from the drops and I did what Dirt Diva said practiced on flats or easy downhills. Using my drops on long downhills has become so natural to me that I don't even think about it anymore and now being on the hoods is more scary.

For me it was also a matter of getting the correct fitting bar. Ideally, I need a 34cm handlebar bar but had 38 cm on my bike. Because my bar was so wide my elbows angled out instead of straight and also required my hands to angle at the wrist. I'm sure this put a lot of stress on my arm muscles because braking from the hoods or drops was painful on long descents.

Getting the correct width bar with drops that put me closer to the brake levers made all the difference in the world for me, no more odd angle of the arms and wrist. I still brake from the hoods on flats and for quick stops.

When I built my last bike my LBS wanted me to use Shimano levers instead of Campy. My fear was the Shimano levers were to bulky to brake from the hoods. From what I'm reading here I'm so glad that I stayed with Campy.

If they haven't done it have your bike shop measure your shoulders and verify that the width of your bars are correct.

[rij73]

This is all interesting. It's making me realize that perhaps this isn't just something I have to live with!

I'm meeting with a cycling instructor on Monday who also does fitting. I'll definitely ask him what he thinks, but this all gives me some good ideas for starters.

I bought the bike online and haven't been impressed with the service at any of my local shops. Hope this guy I'm meeting is good!

[rij73]

By the way, I forgot to mention that I'm a professional pianist, so hand pain is an extra-big issue...

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I find that if I descend a hill where I need to brake a lot, I get incredible hand pain. It's really hard to brake effectively from the hoods for me. I get pain especially badly in the joints where the thumbs meet the hands.

I guess the solution is to descend in the drops, but I feel nervous in the drops.

When you descend a steep hill with your hands on the hoods, you are putting all your weight on that very spot where your thumbs join you hand.
With your hands braking in the drops, the pressure changes more to the heels of your hands.

Your should practice riding in the drops on downhills- start with less steep ones. Also practice shifting your weight back OFF your hands onto your feet and butt more when descending.