Back in the 70s I would experience some hand numbness after about 50-60 miles, for quite a few years the standard fix was to put the effected hand behind my back, squeeze my fingers several times and the problem would be gone. At the same time I started playing around with both saddle and brake position and found that a slight upward tilt of the nose took care of most of the of the problem. After getting saddle tilt correct I started moving the brake hoods slightly up and down until my wrist was straight when on the hood. Both adjustments pretty much took care of the issue.
A few years ago I mentioned the issue to my neurologist...the issue of hand and finger numbness stems mostly from pinching the nerve canal that takes the nerves through the wrist into the hand and fingers. Keeping that channel open by not riding long with the wrists bent helps to reduce the numbness. However, as we age and get more arthritic those channels naturally narrow making it easier for the nerves to be effected. I spent a lot of time this year on my mountain bike this year using it as my main errand vehicle and nothing seemed to reduce the hand and finger numbness. I tried the Ergo bar ends changed handle bars saddle height etc. nothing made a difference. I don't have that problem with my Sam or my other road bikes. the straight handlebars combined with frame geometry would not allow me to decrease the wrist bend enough to keep the wrist nerve channel open. Apparently the problem is similar to other repetitive injuries caused by joint position. So maybe play round with both saddle and handlebar positioning, and because we each have unique anatomic issues works for one may not work for another. On Tuesday, September 18, 2012 3:03:57 PM UTC-5, Mojo wrote: > > Recently over on the Surly Long Haul Trucker list, there was a thread on > bike setup and comfort. The original poster was complaining about hand > numbness and most folks wrote in with the advice to raise the bars and move > the saddle aft to take pressure off the hands. I didn't have any good > further advice for the OP. But I do have an associated observation. > After riding low-handlebar racing type bikes from 1976-2001, I have been > riding more Rivendell-influenced bikes ever since, with my handlebars very > near saddle height and saddle now set back 1-2cm behind KOPS. I have always > had very minor numb hand issues. I just usually shake them out and they are > fine for several more miles or even hours. But I have observed over the > last few years that my numb hands seem to occur most often when climbing, > less so riding the flats, and never descending. This observation seems to > run counter to the idea that it is the extra weight on the hands that > creates numbness. > > Again its just a minor problem for me. I nearly always wear gloves. My > bars are all thinly wrapped in cork/fake cork. My reach is fairly generous. > Now of course on a loop ride I will be spending much more time climbing > than descending and maybe the most amout of time overall riding on mostly > flat roads. But if the theory that more weight on the hands leads to > numbness, why am I not feeling it at the bottom of my descents instead of > on the climbs? I really don't even have an hypothesis at this point. > Thoughts? > -- 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/-/a9nfBBL77SQJ. 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.
