Hand numbness cures?

Your stem may be too low relative to the height of your saddle, resulting in leaning your weight
down onto your hands. JAZ

"Slider2699" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Bought a new frame because my old road bike was the wrong size. Top tube

was

Quoted message said:

too long and I always felt too stretched out. My new top tube is 2cm

shorter

Quoted message said:

but I still get numbness in my hands. Would I be on the right track by thinking about a
shorter stem?

Mike

Mike, the answer might be some good gloves. I was using lightly padded ones, but last Xmas was
gifted some gel-padded gloves. No more numbness! I think the gel does a better job at soaking up
road vibes.

John

Slider2699 <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Bought a new frame because my old road bike was the wrong size. Top tube

was

Quoted message said:

too long and I always felt too stretched out. My new top tube is 2cm

shorter

Quoted message said:

but I still get numbness in my hands. Would I be on the right track by thinking about a
shorter stem?

Mike

When I had the problem I did a few things that took care of it: 1) better gloves with more padding
2) Moved my hands to different positions on the bars more often. 3) adjusted my saddle. If you
aren't fit right you may be leaning more of your weight on your hands.

I think #2 had the most benefit.

Good luck.

"Slider2699" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Bought a new frame because my old road bike was the wrong size. Top tube

was

Quoted message said:

too long and I always felt too stretched out. My new top tube is 2cm

shorter

Quoted message said:

but I still get numbness in my hands. Would I be on the right track by thinking about a
shorter stem?

Mike

A nose-down saddle will increase pressure on your halds. Lay a straightedge along the saddle and
check that it's level or slightly nose-up.

Mike Yankee

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[email hidden] (MikeYankee) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Along with suggestions made so far, also look at your wrist position -- make sure your arms are bent
and your wrists are straight (rather than the reverse).

Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky substitute earthlink for yahoo and .net for .com for more sure delivery Home of the
meditative cyclist: home.earthlink.netWelcome.htmOpen ↗ Singing with you at:
tiferet.nettiferet.netOpen ↗ Books just wanna be FREE! See what I mean at:
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In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Bought a new frame because my old road bike was the wrong size. Top tube was too long and I always
felt too stretched out. My new top tube is 2cm shorter but I still get numbness in my hands. Would
I be on the right track by thinking about a shorter stem?

That's one possibility. Do you have cycling gloves? Also try raising the bar, moving your seat
forward a bit, and make sure the seat isn't tilted down at the front (at least not much).

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REAL programmers write self-modifying code.

MikeYankee said:

A nose-down saddle will increase pressure on your halds. Lay a straightedge along the saddle and
check that it's level or slightly nose-up.

Mike Yankee

(Address is munged to thwart spammers. To reply, delete everything after "com".)

Do you mean "lay a carpenter's level on it" ? Works well. Start at dead level and adjust up or down
in really small increments. Fore and aft of the seat position comes into play as well, but - one
thing at a time - avoids confusion! Best regards, Bernie

Give this some thought:

Stand with your heels against a wall. Bend at the waist as if to touch your toes. You will notice
that you don't have to bend very far before you find yourself falling forward. Now if you were on
your bike in a similar position, your arms and hands would be needed to hold yourself up.

Now try this: Stand with your heels about about three inches from the wall and try to touch your
toes. You will notice that you can bend over much farther. If your were on your bike in this
position you would need much less support from your arms and hands to keep you from falling forward.

Try this: Stand with your heels six inches or more from the wall. You should be able to bend over
easily. If you were on your bike in this position, you would need very little help from your hands
and arms to support your bent over, cycling position.

Notice that every time you bent over to touch your toes, your butt wanted to move back in order to
balance the increase in weight moving forward.

If your saddle is in a "generally" proper position and you have a "generally" correct stem length,
you will have a proper balance of weight that will not place a lot of load on your hands and arms.

Maybe your seat is too far forward.

Slider2699 said:

Bought a new frame because my old road bike was the wrong size. Top tube was too long and I always
felt too stretched out. My new top tube is 2cm shorter but I still get numbness in my hands. Would
I be on the right track by thinking about a shorter stem?

Mike

MikeYankee said:

Quoted message said:

Do you mean "lay a carpenter's level on it" ?

Sure, you can do that. But I just use a straightedge (yardstick) on my bikes, as all are road bikes
with level top tubes, and I can easily discern and set the amount of saddle tilt.

Mike Yankee

Yeah, that makes sense. Bernie

Bernie <[email hidden]> wrote:

: Do you mean "lay a carpenter's level on it" ? Works well. Start at dead level and adjust up or
: down in really small increments. Fore and

Can you do that on most saddles? The saddle on my Nishiki hybrid knows little about "really small
increments".

--
Risto Varanka | helsinki.fihpv.htmlOpen ↗ varis at no spam please iki fi

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Bernie <[email hidden]> wrote:

: Do you mean "lay a carpenter's level on it" ? Works well. Start at dead level and adjust up or
: down in really small increments. Fore and

Can you do that on most saddles? The saddle on my Nishiki hybrid knows little about "really small
increments".

Sounds like my old bike. My new one has a "Micro adjust" seat mount (not sure of the correct term
for the mounting doodad). I found that even 1/2 of a turn on the adjusting bolt made a significant
change in the feel of the seat, and it took quite a bit of fooling with to get it just right.

--
Dave Kerber Fight spam: remove the ns_ from the return address before replying!

REAL programmers write self-modifying code.