Touring - Lasting numbness in Hands

Well, after 400 or so miles, I haven't had many problems with numbness in my hands while riding. This was a problem that had plagued me during training for this trip.
I did everything from get a riser bar, bar ends, aerobars, wrap my handlebars and bar ends, use gloves, and change my posture. These things helped.

However, during my time resting up here in Fairbanks, I've noticed some residual numbness that seems to be isolated to my pinky finger area. I've been poking around on my palms to try to locate some sensitive areas and can feel the nerves in my palm on the opposite side of my thumb feel sensitive when I rub them. It kind of feels like if you were to try to stimulate that nerve in your elbow associated with the "funny bone".

Obviously there are still some things I have to correct to remedy this. I am not sure what though. Better gloves?

Has anyone had any kind of lasting tingling or numbness in their hands or fingers and what have you done to fix it?

I hope this periodic pressure on my hands doesn't to any permanant nerve damage!

Dave

Try wrapping some tape to change the profile rather than just pad the bars.
If you make the grip contact the palm of your hand more than the outside edge you may take some pressure off the nerve. I reprofiled my brake hoods to do this. A few winds of tape around the middle of your bar ends and the grips should do the trick.

I think I can help here, my dads a doctor in the UK and he says its a thing called Carpel Tunnel Syndrome (probably spelt wrong). It happens from squashing the nerves in the bottom of your hand marked on the really crap picture I drew below. :D

It is common with motor cyclists apparently and the best way to get rid of it is to avoid pressure there at all.

Crap diagram to help explain: :eek:

Hand, arm, neck pain. I couldn't stop any of it, so I bought a recumbent. Now, only my eyes hurt (the view, the view, it's awesome!).

Tom

I had simlar problems during my tour. I noticed it more when I had a hard time tying my shoe laces. My numbness was more in the thumbs and index fingers, but that's where most of the the pressure was. About 900 miles into it I wrapped bubble wrap on my bars. It looked weird but it did help a bit. I saw a dr. halfway through at my friends medical school and he said it would not be permanant and to just keep switching hand positions. The numbness lasted until a little while after the ride. I just learned to deal with it. One of the tougher things was trying to clip my finger nails. I could not apply enough pressure to the clipper with my thumb.
How long is your tour? I would say just keep moving your hands every few minutes and after awhile it becomes natural. The numbness should go away after the ride. Good luck.

Hi there

When we were in Germany we noticed that just about all bikes had Biogrips. These are a special handlebar grip which forces your wrist to be straight. We bought some and they are quite comfortable. Perhaps they might help?

Have a great trip!

I will say this only once. Buy a recumbent.