Numb Hands?

Putting your hands in a different position might help, if you can. I can't, I just have straight bars 🙁 Also, how's your seat angle? Is it forcing you to put a bunch of weight on your hands? It it's tilted forward, try it flat and see how that goes.

diromero said:

I went for a 40 mile ride and my hands were numb, I do have a pretty good pair of gloves but the only section that doesn't have gel is in between your thumb and index and I almost got a blister in there, is this normal? what can I do? will it just get better with time ... 😕

Please advise,,,, thanks

Are your gloves loose? There should be no movement between the mitt and the hands - they should be bordering on 'snug'.

Try riding without gloves and see what happens. It may be that your woes are cause by your gloves.

You are putting too much pressure on hands and this could be as stated because of your saddle tilt, height, stem length wrong, bars too wide or maybe the bike is just the wrong size.
If your saddle is uncomfortable you will tend to lean too much on the bars.
Evaluate your bike fit first, if it is good then look at your technique.

Are your arms sore after the ride? Especially in the joints? This is a sign you are grabbing those bars too tightly or leaning into them too much as well.

One thing you can do is simply change up your grip as often as is possible and even shake your hands occasionally to get some life back in them.

As others have already mentioned:

Is your bike fit correct?

Do you have decent gloves and do they fit you properly?

Beyond that it's just a matter of moving your hands around on the bars so you don't constantly stress one area, and do shake them out every once in a while. That should take care of the numbness.

You shouldn't be getting blisters at all....

Again, bike fit may be the key.

randochap said:

Again, bike fit may be the key.

My left hand goes numb but I think I may have a carpal tunnel issue!

Ride without your gloves to see if that helps. If it does... Problem solved.

If not the take note of where you put your hands the most (hoods, drops etc) and make a point of not riding there at all and see what the result is. Try the other two common positions - ie if you ride on the brake hoods, ride on the drops for a while (raise stem if required) and ride until you notice problems. On your next ride try the other bar position.

You could have a nerve or a blood flow issue. While the latter is uncommon its not unheard of. You wouldnt be the first person to tighten up there gloves too much so thag when you angle your wrists when riding blood flow is reduced.

Do you have your saddle positioned fairly far forward on the seatpost? You could be putting too much weight on your hands. I personally find that a more stretched out position suits me better than a shorter but lower bar setup.

Put your bars somewhere such that you can ride on the drops. It's a great starting point - not the brake hoods. A good position on the drops will naturally place the wrists straighter and bent arms will absorb road shock better.

See a good,'well recommended' physio. If you're in NorCal i cant help you with that one...

You shouldn't be leaning forward too far, or keeping a ton of your body weight on your arms/hands. When on the saddle, keep your back arched a bit and your elbows should be slightly bent. It could be a poor riding posture that's causing you issues.

Lots of variables to what can be causing your discomfort. As the others have said, it could be a matter of the saddle being tilted too far forward, the stem being too low, the bicycle being the incorrect size, etc.

no not normal. As others have mentioned this is most likely a fit issue. Specifically I am guessing you have your weight too far forward.

When riding your should be able to place both hands an inch or two above the bars not touching them while riding.

Some people are big on KOPS which dictates your saddle fore/aft position based on femur and tibia length. Others like me think your saddle fore/aft position should be set for optimum fore/aft balance on the bike. Assuming your are using good technique as far as your body position and you aren't running with a huge amount of saddle to bar drop you might want to try moving your saddle rearward in very small increments (.25cm). Remember that if you move your saddle rearward you will need to lower it as well in order to keep your saddle to bottom bracket distance the same and you may need to swap out your stem for one that is shorter if you discover moving your saddle back is your fix.

i found the solution to this problem was the way i had the tape, for me it worked better to have a bulge where the weight was concentrated above the hoods, it took some fiddeling with til i got it right but now i dont get numb at all however far i go.

Related question,

I recently bought my first road bike and I have never worn gloves before, after the first few days of riding the bike my left index finger is numb and has been numb for 3-4 days now.

What's up with that? Will gloves fix it? I thought it was gonna be gone by the first night.

🙁

All great advice which pretty much covers it. You need to ensure that your bike is set up right for you. If it isn't right then unneccessary stress will fall onto certain parts of your body, in your case your hands. If the bike is not set right for the rider it could be the back or any other part of the body. It's really worth while getting someone with the knowledge to help set your bike up to fit you.
Once you've done this once you will know how to do it yourself.. Taking the time to set your bike up right is well worth it and will prevent you suffering from aches and pains.

aldocg said:

Related question,

I recently bought my first road bike and I have never worn gloves before, after the first few days of riding the bike my left index finger is numb and has been numb for 3-4 days now.

What's up with that? Will gloves fix it? I thought it was gonna be gone by the first night.

🙁

You will certainly need a good pair of gloves, as weight is everything you will have as little tape as you can get away with, the gloves provide the rest of the padding, there is a lot of good advice on this page, get some gloves and see other posts, good luck