I completely agree with indysteel on everything she wrote above! I have, what I would call, chronic "hand issues". I do believe that I have some nerve damage, so with that, it's very difficult for me to totally eliminate all of my hand pain/numbness. So now, my main objective is to "lessen" it as much as possible. I too, ride a Cannondale with a flat-top bar. I just had my hubby retape my bars (my tape had started to tear and unravel), and we used gel pads underneath the tape to make it a bit "cushier". I have also discovered during my ongoing experiment with various types of gloves, that my hands seem to prefer a glove with thinner padding. I've tried heavily padded gloves, I even have several pairs with the "U-bridge" padding which is supposed to keep your hand nerves "happy", but they seem to bring on the pain & numbness more quickly for me. I have to switch my hand position frequently (like every 5 minutes) on my bars, to keep my hands from going numb. I also have to shake them out every so often, to get the blood flowing freely again.

Linda