Hands Falling Asleep

[sjsart]

Hello all,

I am a new cycler and am learning daily how to be a better one. My problem is my hands tend to fall asleep and there does not seem to be any rhyme or reason as to when this happens. I have spoken to a doctor and my circulation is not a problem so I am wondering if anyone here can shed any light on this. Is there a different way to set up my bike or different grips or gloves or something?

Any input will be appreciated-thank you,
SJSART

[Irulan]

Ride "light".. do not support your body weight with your arms.

Are you riding drop (road) or upright? For upright... check your stem length and the angle of bend in you handlebars. Do not lock your arms when you ride. I had this problem all the time when my stem length/cockpit length on my MTB was too long.

Irulan

[sjsart]

Thanks! I have gotten some other suggestions too and they are all helpful...Let's see, I am not up to date on the lingo but I ride on the street and pretty upright---Does that make sense? A few others have said the same thing you did about the relationship between hands and seat and I am going to speak to the bike shop experts about helping me set up in a comfortable position...

Thanks, SJSART

[sempre]

It's been suggested that numbness in your hands can be due to pressure on the ulnar nerve. The best way to get around this is to get some decent cycling gloves (there's an earlier thread on this forum that also recommends this). Personally I can recommend the Specialised Body Geometry range - they've got nice padded bits on your palm that ease the pressure and the numbness... Check out the women's section on this web-site http://www.specialized.com

[DoubleLori]

Numbness in your hands can also mean you've got a herniated cervical disc. This is especially true if the hand numbness gets worse for a few days AFTER a ride (due to inflammation in the spinal cord).

[goddess1222]

i ride drops and i brought my handlebars closer and that helped some. i went riding today with a friend and he suggested raising the seat about 1 inch.