Oh, the pain...
My Trek 520 is causing severe wrist pain. I conquered a lot of nerve compression pain with my new Specialized gloves and new Cinelli cork bar tape. Then I found out I had another simultaneous problem: the weight on my wrists is really, really hurting. I'm limited to about 45 minutes of cycling before the pain gets too much to bear. I've had typing/mouse related pain for years which ergonomics mostly fixes, but I wonder if I am more sensitive to weight on the wrists due to long-term problems there. I've been having so much fun getting back into cycling that I've been trying to ignore this problem, but I must deal with it. I want to start commuting but I think the wrist pain after a few days of 2x/day rides would cripple my hands! Speaking of which, I need to call my doc, methinks.
I test rode a pair of recumbents yesterday, a Bacchetta Giro 26 and a Tour Easy. Wow, no pain (or saddle chafing, another issue entirely) there! I'm pretty certain a 'bent is in my future, but the cheapest path-of-least-resistance is to try to fix my 520 first.
I have a new 75mm stem (profile design boa) mounted on the bike that I haven't tested yet - the old one was 90 mm. I will be moving the seat back once I use liberal amounts of Liquid Wrench on the corroded seat clamp. The seat is level with the handlebars.
If these steps don't relieve the pain, am I right that the next step would be to try different handlebars like moustache or albatross-style? I'm hesitant to do that since my bike has Dura-Ace STI shifters (the prev. owner splurged a bit) that would require replacement with bar-ends, adding more to the cost. I don't want to be throwing money down a pit here, you know? I could also get fitted to the bike, but I'm not sure how much more they could do. Perhaps the frame is a bit too large for me. That would require selling the bike...