is there a proper posture for a mountain bike? mine’s a normal one without suspensions. after a long ride my palms were kinda numb. i had spent most of the ride leaning slightly forward. if i sit upright my fingers could barely reach the handles. my seat has been adjusted upwards, my handlebars are not.
If you were otherwise comfortable, stay that way and get some padded gloves. Helped my numb hands the first time out.
A normal posture for any kind of bike places some load on the hands. I second the recommendation on the padded gloves. Numbness after a long ride is a common malady for road biking too and I deal with it by padded gloves and trying to change hand/wrist position often.
Theoretically on a mountain bike, you’re supposed to be putting your weight on the pedals, not on your hands and seat. (pause for snickers and guffaws)
Yeah, those of us in the real world wear padded gloves for this. Changing position periodically will help, also.
If you have other comfort issues, or this one becomes a major problem, you could also try a new stem, riser handlebars, bar extensions, or other tricks to move your weight back off of your hands a bit.
gloves :blink: didn’t occur to me. will try that, thanks!
In addition to the above suggestions, you should look at how your seat is positioned. If the front of the seat is too low, you will be transferring weight to your hands. Too high, and your crotch will bear that weight. :eek:
Also, the seat can slide forward or backward a little as well - this can also help, but be careful not to mis-align your leg stroke. Finding the right balance will help minimize hand/wrist pain. Check out your local bike shop to get fitted properly.
Another recommendation for the padded gloves! I never ride without them. I also have a padded seat. I’m a girl and that damn seat makes my crotch hurt. I don’t know how you guys do it or where you put your boys.
My seat is pointed down to relieve pressure on The Boys. The back of my pelvis carries my weight.
I have a long running fight with my mechanic, who sets the seat level every time I take my bike in, which gets me POed and we wind up shouting at each other. Every. Damned. Time. He won’t listen that I have stubby legs, and the seat in that position is comfortable for me and it is optimal for my pedaling style. He doesn’t get a lot of business from me anymore, because I can do most things myself.
Yeah, the saddle angle puts pressure on my hands, but that’s why I have gloves.
Stems come in a variety of lengths and rises, and as long as we are talking about a threadless stem then the stem is extremely easy to change. Go to a bike shop and tell them your concern.
You could also add bar-end grips, which provide an alternate position for your hands. Not necessarily more comfortable, but alternating your hand position can help remove numbness.
(Or you could switch to a recumbent bike…)
Forgot about this! I had huge problems on one bike until I realized that the seat was sloped nose-down just a bit.
What trail were you riding? A rigid mountain bike is hard on the body if you’re taking it out on hairy-arsed trails, even if it fits you perfectly. If you’re talking about just spinning along on the bike paths then your hands shouldn’t get numb - the changes suggested should put that right.
mostly bike paths with a lot of uphill climbs and downhill ones that goes by too quickly.
On most mountain-bike rides you should find you spend a large part of the time out of the saddle, with the weight supported by the pedals and handlebars. As others have said, padded gloves are a great help. You might also want to look at shaped handlebar grips like this kind of thing (either with or without the bar-ends as pictured). The grips have a kind of padded “platform” that your palm rests on, which greatly improves comfort in my experience.
Make sure you are not riding with your elbows straight. This prevents your arms from absorbing shocks and also contributes to squeezing the bars too tightly. You may need to make some adjustments if you can’t reach the bars with your elbows slightly bent.
You sound like you’re saying pedal standing up. This is exhausting. Keeping weight off the bars is good strategy for going over obstacles or riding in gravel/sand/snow. Changing position and using bar ends that allow for different grips is probably the easiest solution.
i got the gloves but they didn’t seem to help much, then i got the grips (without the bar-ends) and together with the gloves, i have had no issues so far. thanks!