Touring - Numb finger issues.

I want to share my apparent solution to my numb finger experience. I have been experiencing numb fingers on tour to some extent for years. I have tried many different options with limited results. My latest handlebar set-up has been very comfortable in every regard except for periodic numb fingers. (mostly the pinky finger of my left hand)

Even though I had been changing handlebar set-ups and types of padding, I always wore cycling gloves. So lately I have been riding without gloves, and no numbness. I'm not sure why, but I have been testing this for about a month and it's all good.

Has anyone else experienced this?

I have treking bars and I have my brake levers on the lower straight, flat sections. I find that laying my fingers out across the levers, rather than a simple tight grip around the bar alone, reduces numbness.

The other thing that I work on while I'm riding and when my hands start to numb-up is trying to reduce the burden on my arms by trying to bear the weight of my upper body using my abdominal muscles. I'm not able to maintain that for very long but it's something to do when my mind gets restless. (I alternate between that and trying to focus my mind on delivering power through every part of the crank rotation).

I have treking bars and I have my brake levers on the lower straight, flat sections. I find that laying my fingers out across the levers, rather than a simple tight grip around the bar alone, reduces numbness.

The other thing that I work on while I'm riding and when my hands start to numb-up is trying to reduce the burden on my arms by trying to bear the weight of my upper body using my abdominal muscles. I'm not able to maintain that for very long but it's something to do when my mind gets restless. (I alternate between that and trying to focus my mind on delivering power through every part of the crank rotation).

I'm using the same kind of bars, except I added a flat area to rest my hands on. This helped but until I stopped using gloves I still would get some numbness.

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/journal/page/?o=as&page_id=17715&v=4w

I've had this problem with one particular set of mitts. When I changed the mitts the problem disapeared and I reckon it was caused by overtight construction cutting off blood flow.