Hand pain/brakes?

[kristinek]

I have a women's trek but I'm still really struggling with hand pain by the end of long rides from braking. Does anyone have this problem? What can I do about it? Maybe I should also post this in the mechanical section...
thanks!

[ny biker]

You might need to adjust your handlebars. Changing the tilt on mine took away almost all my hand pain.

[OakLeaf]

Where's the pain? Does it feel like bruising, like muscle soreness, like cramping? Does it go up into your wrist or arm? Fit is almost certainly the answer, but that's a very broad category, it could be a lot of things.

[kristinek]

good question. sorry for the ambiguity.
oddly, it's not arm pain. it hurts right in the crook of my thumb/palm of my hand. basically, where the pressure on my hand while they're on the brake hoods and i'm braking with my fingers.

[OakLeaf]

Have you been fit to the bike? It's time and money, but well worth it with a good fitter.

Still, just stabbing in the dark, I guess maybe the first thing I'd look at is unfortunately the most PITA, which is moving the levers up on the bars (if they're not already at the top of the bend). You want the hoods and the drops pretty much parallel to the ground, but you should have some leeway as to where the levers are set within the bends. Where they set them if a bike is built without fitting you seems to be kind of a matter of fashion, but lately I'm seeing them about in the middle.

Tilting the bars up is a quick and dirty way to bring the hoods closer to you and to flatten the space where the bar meets the hood ... but that can often mean you have to tilt your wrists at a weird angle to reach the brakes or to ride in the drops, which is NOT good; it can make it hard to reach the brakes at all, and can lead to a lot of elbow and wrist problems. (Even if you don't like being in the drops as a matter of routine, you need to be comfortable in them for descending and cornering.) But a small change in tilt could definitely help.

Two things that make it easier to move the levers than it could be are (1) you don't have to unwrap the whole handlebars, only as far as the brake hoods, and the hardest part is getting it started on the drops. Pay attention to how the tape is wrapped around the lever brackets, and put a rubber band or a piece of masking tape around the handlebars below the hoods to keep the tape from unwrapping any farther than necessary. Also (2) since you'll only be moving the levers a short distance, you shouldn't have to shorten the cable housings, just re-tape them on the bars.

Just a stab in the dark, but HTH.

[kristinek]

i did pay for and have a bike fit, but i think you're right. the fit needs tweaking. back to the drawing board.