Numb hands

ride4him said:

I've been riding bikes for about 4 years now, mostly road, I recently purchased a Trek 6000 mountain bike. After about 30 minutes of riding my hands go numb, on one ride it got so painfull my hands stayed numb for rest of the day. Should I cut the width of the bars? I'm a very string bean type of build and the bars seem very wide to me. specs: me 5' 10" all legs and arms, bike size 19" with a 90mm stem, the saddle and the handle bars are about evenly level.

No problem cutting the bars to the width you want, either with a hacksaw or a pipe cutter. It's very easy to do. I used to do this with every new handlbar when I was riding mtn and hybrid bikes. I doubt that alone will affect numb hands much, though.

If you don't need the extra width for handling reasons, cut the bars to shoulder with, but leave some extra width for barends. Put some barends on the bar for more hand positions. That's the most common cure for numb hands.

longfemur said:

No problem cutting the bars to the width you want, either with a hacksaw or a pipe cutter. It's very easy to do. I used to do this with every new handlbar when I was riding mtn and hybrid bikes. I doubt that alone will affect numb hands much, though.

If you don't need the extra width for handling reasons, cut the bars to shoulder with, but leave some extra width for barends. Put some barends on the bar for more hand positions. That's the most common cure for numb hands.

Thanks, I'm going to cut the bars for sure and I will put some bar ends on it.
I'm still worried about the numbing pain, hopefully this will help.

I have the same problem between my road bike and Mountain bike. Like longfemur mentioned, bar ends help move your hand position around the bars.

One other thing I might mention, buy a more padded glove. I use PI's on my road bike and Specialized Body Geometry on my mountain. Thant helped me out a lot.

If you still end up with the kind of numbness you describe, then you must have a problem that goes beyond the actual bars you are using. Your saddle might be too forward, or your saddle tilted down, or your bars too far, or something like that -- anything which leads you to put too much pressure on your hands for the intensity of your riding.

Are your wrists bent in any exagerrated way when you ride?

Since you are using mountain bike bars, another thing you can change is the grips you have on them. Some are better than others.

Thanks for all suggestions, I'll make some adjustments and try it out. I'm going to buy some gel gloves as well.

I've had the same thing once, after a 100km singletrack/firetrail event. It left me with both hands quite weak for about a week and some hand numbness that lasted over 2 months. I saw a neurologist and was advised that it results from compression and shocks over the palms. It can sometimes lead to permanent injury, and a small subgroup of the population are at particular risk due to a genetic variation in their myelin formation.
Having said that, numbness coming on over 30min sounds like a bike fit problem. I would be concerned that you need to put your weight further back so that you load pedals and saddle more, and bars less.

Experilment with lower pressures in your front tire, too. bk

Well I cut my bars down to 60 cm, put on some serfas grips, and moved my saddle back a bit. I'm snowed in at the moment but the trainer is a better testing ground than nothing. If I still have the numbness I'll switch to a shorter stem.

Thanks for all of the suggestions.