Thank you all for making it possible to ask a question from my base of complete ignorance. Please forgive me if I’ve missed it, but I’ve searched all of the threads without finding an answer that seems to fit. I’m 57 and coming back to a bike after 25 years. I’ve just bought a Trek 45-cm 1000C WSD, fitted by a well-respected LBS guy. He says he’s flummoxed by my problem, but realizes he’s probably had more than one bike returned by a woman (especially) in the same situation.

I have small hands (6.5 in. wrist to end of middle finger, 5.5 in. tip of outstretched thumb to outer hand edge, if that’s important), but not particularly weak ones. Although I can brake, I can’t reach around the hood to grip the brake lever firmly, and I can’t easily shift gears (which requires an inward push with my middle finger on the brake lever). It’s as if the hood itself is just too big around for my hand. The LBS fitter says he can see the problem—I have to turn my whole wrist out to shift. The combination makes my hands hurt even riding around the parking lot. I can imagine what it would feel like after a couple of hours. The LBS suggests switching out the dropped handlebar to a flat bar to change the shift mechanism. This will obviously limit my position options and probably efficiency. I’m not a snob about the look of the thing.

It just doesn’t seem like the width of the handle bars, and the bike itself seems the right size. Has anyone else had to cope with this? How did you deal with it? Is it really the hood, and if so is there a small or WSD solution? Or is it my inexperience, and would stretching exercises (for which thanks to the forum) help? Thanks for any help you can provide.