I enjoy biking. I bike between 2-3 hours a day. Usually around 20-30 miles all told. I try to bike every day. I’d enjoy it more if I didn’t have to stop periodically and shake my hands around because of the tingling and numbness. It usually kicks in around the 45 minute period, regardless of the terrain. I know this can’t be normal, but I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong.
I have a 1998 Trek hybrid with regular mountain bike wheels (26 inches) straight handle bars and a normal seat. The seat is positioned exactly equal with the handle bars. The frame comes up to the top of my waste and it feels comfortable when I ride, except for the hand thing.
Anyone have a suggestion? Maybe biking gloves? Reposition the handle bars? It really can’t be good, right?
i mountain bike quite a bit myself and have the same problem. i find myself doing a lot of hand shaking to get the blood back to my hands, particularly on long flat stretches. my hands don’t get numb while i’m negotiating rocks and tricky mountain terrain, probably because there’s a lot of pulling up on the handlebars involved. i haven’t thought much about fixing the problem - i figured it was just my physiology and i’d have to deal with it. i wear biking gloves all the time and it hasn’t helped with the numbness.
I highly recommend bar ends. It allows you to change your had position and keep the circulation going. You can get stubby ones for $10. They are a nice break when in a straight away in the middle of a ride. They work great for me! good luck!
There’s a good reason for dropped handle bars, multiple hand positions that ease the pressure on your hands. Can’t do that with straight bars. Cosider a set or possibly “cow horn” type bar ends for the bars you have.
Yes - Padeye and wavedancer are on the right track. Contributing factors:
[ul][li]Too much weight on your hands while riding.[]Not enough variety of hand positions (do anything the same way long enough and whatever you are using will get numb.)[]No padding on hands/bars[/ul][/li]
Solutions:
[ul][li]Ride faster. The more power you put into your pedals, the less weight you need to place on your hands.[/li][li]Bike position. Fiddle around with it until it works better.[/li][li]More hand positions - drop bars or bar-ends or bull-horn bars.[/li][li]Padded gloves - gel is le plus ultra padding.[/ul][/li]
I’ve ridden for years, and never had a problem. My theory: I’ve always worn gloves and always had drop bars. Straight bars are for rough terrain where you often stand on the pedals and lightly hold the bars to absorb shock. Also, I like to ride fast and hard, and that helps. On days I’m really slow by design or fatigue, my hands get more tired and I move them around more - I can imagine them getting numb if I didn’t move them.
I think this also applies to crotch numbness - I’ve never had a problem on the road or trail because I’m constantly moving around. However, on my at-home trainer I feel precarious and don’t feel I can move at all, and I get numb in 15 minutes.
(1) buy padded gloves
(2) add padding to your handlebars
(3) switch hand positions often (top of the bars, front of the bars on the brake hoods, and on the drop downs)
(4) reposition your bike’s seat…a bike shop should be able to optimize the position for you…or check a manual for tips on this
(5) the seat should support most of your weight (which of course, can cause other nerve problems in some people)
(5) loosen up on the death grip of the handlebars (if you do this…actually this may be more of an elbow problem)
All great advise. In fact, I’m now motivated to go out and replace my gloves, because they’re geting kind of beat-up and crusty, and the tingling is coming back. I rode 30 miles yesterday and it was as bad as it has been for years.
I’m not going to mess with my seat, though. I’ve been riding for years, and I’ve never had that other nerve problem bikers get, which is the way I want to keep it.
FYI, the reason for the tingling is that the palm of the hand has a lot of nerve endings (ever slap a table top and your hand stings?), and riding semi-long distances can cause the numbness. Lots of great tips have been provided by the teeming, hope they work for you. Happy trails.
That said, Biker’s Palsy!?! I don’t think I’m going to run out and tell my friends about that one, ‘Hey guys, I just found out today I have Biker’s Palsy!’.
Anyrate, I think I’ll skip the gloves for now and invest in some bar ends, or whatever there called. I’ve seen others with them and they move between the positions quite a bit. I never really knew what their purpose was. I thought they were for extreme riding or something. Since most of my riding is on paved paths, it sounds like the logical solution to my problem.
The nerve that seems to be responsible runs right down the centre crease in your hand.
I find that when I change my grip so that the bars are on the fleshy part just below the fingers that helps but you will find you cant ride like this for long.
With some folk the problem is the way the elbows are bent.
You need to find plenty of variety in the way you hold the bars, and variety is recommended in others things too.
Try to hold the bars more loosely as well.
I have a pair of biking gloves made by a company (called shock-tek) that have thick chamois padding on the palms, but a cut-out space that correponds to sort of where your “lifeline” goes between the fleshy halves of the hand at the wrist, so that the ulnar nerve there doesn’t take as much pressure-- seems to work pretty well -better for my husband apparently (I think they are sized more for a larger hand, and a bit spendy).
Also relax your elbows and arms and use them for steering and guiding the front end, not for supporting your weight. Getting a bit more upright in porture might help this.
Make sure that your wrists are not bent greatly- that will tweak with your nerves-- keep them straight to your hands and adjust your arms accordingly. I guess this would look like your first knuckles point forward, not upwards.
(I have had this problem, obviously)
Good luck and keep the rubber-side down.
I used to get numb feet - solved the problem by ditching the Chinese mad Nikes and buying a $200 pair of genuine Italian shoes from http://www.northwave.com - now I have happy feet!
About 15 years ago when Spenco first came out with the gel gloves, I bought a pair and used them in my road biking adventures. After they wore out, I bought a cheaper pair of gloves with your standard thick, stiff pads, and I couldn’t tell a difference regarding hand numbness. However, on the very few times that I’ve ridden without gloves, I’ve found that there is an incredible difference between gloves and no.
I’ve ridden a mountain bike about four or five times in my 39 years, and found that the hand position is much more uncomfortable that on a road bike, and not just becuase there are fewer positions to choose from. On a road bike, your wrist is turned sideways so that it’s compressed on the side near your thumb. This position gets old very quickly for me. Why do they make those handlebars like that? I would design them with the handles angled backward so that your wrists would be at a more natural angle.
Oh, and finger numbness isn’t half as disconcerting as penile numbness.
I’m truly suprised by the response to this thread. I thought it was only me. The things you learn…
Not wanting to wait until tommorrow and buy the handle bar extensions, I went biking about two hours ago, 7:30 p.m. Central Time. Sure enough, not only have I been putting too much weight on my handle bars, but I tend to keep the same grip throughout the ride. A few minor adjustments in my posture, some changing of the grip periodically during the ride, and voila, no tingling hands. I’ll still get the extensions tommorrow, but I’m relieved it wasn’t something more serious. Thanks again for your suggestions.
–Stealing my own thread
About half and hour into the ride, around a lake, a minor shower broke out. Nothing major, just some light showers and, gasp, a few strokes of lightning in the distance. It was far off and moving away from me. I weighed my options and decided to continue. But that in turn got me wondering- how safe is a bike in a thunderstorm? Does the rubber protect you as much as a car?
I thought about starting a new thread over this, but I assume it’s a pretty straightforward answer.