Braking from the hoods

[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.

[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:

[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! 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

Good Luck