I also experience most or my hand and crotch discomfort/numbness on prolonged climbs, with various bars.
A number of years ago, I built up my first fixed gear. I intended to ride off-road on it, so I geared it pretty low, like 50 inches. I had a heckuva time riding that bike without hand (and butt) numbness and discomfort, even after various riser stems/bars were installed, and I'd screwed around with saddle position. Nothing seemed to work. Then one of my friends invited me on a more road-oriented ride, and I knew I'd need a taller gear to keep up. I screwed on a smaller cog, which geared me up to maybe 65 inches. Suddenly, and with no other changes, the bike became amazingly comfortable. I attributed this to the weight offset of simply pressing harder on the pedals. Later I did back to back centuries on that bike, and lots of commuting, with no comfort issues. I also experimented with different stems and bars and positions, and all worked great with the slightly higher gearing. To bring this back to the topic at hand, perhaps having LOW gears on your bike allows you to spin too easily up hills. If your knees allow it, try to pedal a somewhat higher gear when climbing to see if that keeps the numbness away. Or consider a quote attributed to GP: “On steep hills, you have to get off. This is good for you. Rather than grunt like an overgeared fool, you get off and hoof it. It’s almost, but not exactly, like being a duathlete!” On Wednesday, September 19, 2012 12:26:51 PM UTC-5, Mojo wrote: > > Thanks for the replies guys. So this is an observation unique to me, not > others? > > My saddle position is now fixed after years of experimentation, and then > stems/bars adjusted to that. So I am not moving the saddle. > > I typically climb on the ramps or hoods but at times in the drops (one of > the revelations of higher bars- climbing in the hooks!). I climb out the > saddle - 10-20% of the time. Descent hand positions are similarly varied, > most often on the hoods. I don't think I grip the bars differently when I > climb unless its a super hard, short effort. > > I just went for a nice dirt ride with my son on flat bar fat bikes with > plenty of climbing. No hand numbness noted. Hmmm.... > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/_-QBlLT6KDkJ. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
