New rider! Sore hands/wrists.

[crystax]

HI everyone !! I just bought my first road bike not long ago and have been on two rides so far. I did have a 'fit' when I bought it but I dont think he really knew what he was doing since when my fellow tri clubbers seen my position they picked it apart very quickly. I made a few adjustments and im finding that I am putting alot of pressure on my hands. And because of that I am getting pressure points causing a little numbness and my wrists are hurting. I mostly stay on the hoods because im not quite comfy in the drops yet. Is this just because I need to get used to t he position and I should be moving my hands around to stay fresh? Or should I actually be changing something else about my set up? Any help would be great !! thanks!

[Brandi]

Yea I would go get fitted again. YOu will be happier in the long run. I am very well fitted but still get numbness. It is what it is sometimes yu need to just move around a bit and work on posture and what not.

[Savra]

When I first got my bike I had the same problem. My LBS tilted my saddle up slightly and the problem was solved. That may help you but a fitter would be the best.

[Cataboo]

HI everyone !! I just bought my first road bike not long ago and have been on two rides so far. I did have a 'fit' when I bought it but I dont think he really knew what he was doing since when my fellow tri clubbers seen my position they picked it apart very quickly. I made a few adjustments and im finding that I am putting alot of pressure on my hands. And because of that I am getting pressure points causing a little numbness and my wrists are hurting. I mostly stay on the hoods because im not quite comfy in the drops yet. Is this just because I need to get used to t he position and I should be moving my hands around to stay fresh? Or should I actually be changing something else about my set up? Any help would be great !! thanks!

Partly you probably just need to build up your core muscles. once you do that, you'll be able to support your weight with your core/back instead of leaning and putting weight on your wrists.

Until you do build up your core muscles, you're probably going to be happier in a more upright position (which is probably not what your tri friends are setting you up to ride in, they probably have you in an aggressive position)

There's a ton of threads on here on this...

Here's some things to check:

Your gloves - are they too tight on your wrists? How much padding is in them and does it work for you? I have to rip the padding out of my gloves or get gloves with leather palms, because padded gloves make my hands go numb.

Handlebar tape - you can put gel underneath it to make it more padded (fizik bar gel)

I use carbon fiber handlebars to control the vibrations that go to my hands/wrists. I also use handlebars with a flat ergonomic profile. For me this helps a ton.

Wrist position... When you are holding your handlebars, you don't want your wrists to be bending back at all. you want them in a neutral position... You can move where your shifters are on your drop bars so that when you are leaning over using the shifters on the hoods your wrists stay straight and don't bend back towards you.

You can raise your handlebars so they're higher up so that you're not putting a lot of pressure on them. Changing to a higher angle stem helps with that.

Grip - do not keep a death grip on your handlebars. Hold them lightly. Move your hands around a lot. Keep your elbows slightly bent.

If you show us a picture of you on your bike, we can give you some advice beyond this... But you don't necessarily have to get a new bike. A fitting probably wouldn't hurt.. And as you get stronger, things will get a lot better.

[crystax]

Cataboo ! Thank you for your response! you really opened my eyes to a few others things I wasnt thinking!

[westtexas]

... Grip - do not keep a death grip on your handlebars. Hold them lightly. Move your hands around a lot. Keep your elbows slightly bent.

+1.

I got gloves, I strengthened my core, bent my elbows and relaxed the angle of my wrist. Still, I was getting numbness (especially on my right arm).

But it only happens occasionally - when I am pedaling for my life in high-adrenaline traffic situations. It's the death grip on the hoods. As soon as I relax my grip - the numbness goes away.

Check yourself every now and then. You don't really notice yourself clenching down on the handlebar, but it happens.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

For me it helps ease pressure on my hands when i push my saddle all the way BACK. Yes, BACK.

[TrekTheKaty]

What Cataboo said!

I had a spinning instructor who used to regularly say, "wiggle your fingers." I also catch myself with a death grip on hard and/or hilly rides.

[indysteel]

For me it helps ease pressure on my hands when i push my saddle all the way BACK. Yes, BACK.

Agreed or, in the very least, farther back than a lot of "fitters" are inclined to put it. It's all about balance. By moving the saddle back, you balance more of your weight behind the bottom bracket and you take weight from your your upper body. Now, there's a limit to this in that you ultimately want your knees to be happy. It also becomes a bit hard to spin at a fast cadence with a more rearward position, but it is something to think about when addressing sore hands or wrists.

Peter White has a good explanation of this under "The fore/aft saddle position": http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/fitting.htm

In my experience, hand pain can be sorted out with a variety of fixes including the one mentioned above. Gloves (either more or less padding is needed), the tilt and shape of the handlebars, stem length, rise, and stack, bar tape (again, either too more or less padding is needed), saddle tilt or the lack thereof, and core strength and posture on the bike. Because there are so many variables, I tend to think it's best to work with a good fitter, emphasis on good.

[nscrbug]

Yea I would go get fitted again. YOu will be happier in the long run. I am very well fitted but still get numbness. It is what it is sometimes yu need to just move around a bit and work on posture and what not.

X2! I too, was well-fitted and still experience hand pain and numbness. I personally feel that it is one of (if not THE) trickiest of issues to resolve. It requires a LOT of experimentation with saddle position, bar/stem position, glove type, bar tape thickness, hand/wrist position...not to mention intensive core strengthening and stabilization. All of these factors play a role (to some extent) in hand comfort on the bike...and it's difficult to get them ALL perfect at the same time.

[Cataboo]

That's another thing to look at - is your seat uncomfortable & tilted down to compensate for that - and causing you to slide forward and put more pressure on the wrists. if that's the case, flatten out your seat & measure your sit bones to find which saddle works for you.

I push my seats all the way back and keep them tilted ever so slightly down... if I tilt them up or put them flat, the nose presses into my tender bits which don't like that. If I tilt it down more than ever so slightly, it causes me to slide forward off the seat & put more pressure on my wrists - more pressure on my wrists means numb hands.

I think just getting my core stronger helped a lot for my hands - I still get numbness, but it's gradual over a long ride and I can usually move around or loosen my gloves or whatever to deal with it.


The other thing that helped a lot for my hands was when I stopped riding aluminum. carbon fork & carbon seat stays helped a lot for my wrists - but a steel, titanium or carbon frame just works a ton better for me. Carbon handlebars work better than aluminum ones which I confirmed the other day on a long ride on big red - I'd cheaped out and put flat aluminum handlebars on that bike and my hands went numb pretty quickly even though it's a steel frame.

Mountain biking, I use ergo grips.