Clydesdales/Athenas (200+ lb / 91+ kg) - On The Road To Better Health

So, I'm a clyde, am I? I just discovered this forum site today, and am impressed with the information and decorum found here.

Let me introduce myself, I am 29yo fast food manager, who's in school to change careers, married, child and am 380lbs. A month or so ago, I was looking out the window at work at the gas station next door and saw the rising gas prices. I blurted out, You know, I'm going to ride my bike to summer school and save money and lose weight at the same time. I posted this on a local newspaper forum site, and it kind of took a life of it's own. What happened was a LBS owner decided to 'sponsor' me in offering me $10 in store credit for every round trip I made to school (up to $300) in exchange for chronicling my experience on the local forum. With his help, I've transformed my Schwinn Sidewinder into a road-friendly commuter bike.

I started barley being able to bike 1/2 a mile, and am now up to doing 15 miles with relative ease.

My daily commute will take me about 16 miles roundtrip on roads with no bike lanes. I live in southern mississippi, and temps are already in the low 90's, so I'll be biking home in that heat.

I'm having a few issues, and they may have been addressed, but I haven't had the time to search through the pages of information here. The one that's bothering me the most is hand numbness. I've got a pair of gel lined gloves, and we've installed upright extenders on the bar to allow me to switch up hand position while riding, but I'm still having numbness in both hands. I assume it's from putting so much weight on my hands, but am unsure how to correct this. Any suggestions?

I am going to take the upright extenders off my older mountain bike and put them on the new one for that reason Conveyer... I was just planning on using some nice handlebar tape to cover everything up after I get done... so it was all padded... the tape also has "anti-vibrate" characteristics which I hope will help with my hand numbness... need to get a pair of gloves... I look forward to seeing other responses on this as it is a problem I face too...

My LBS guy installed a more V shaped bar as opposed to the original straight bar. That helped some. My hands were going numb in the first mile, now it's coming on in about the 3-4th mile. I'm going to meet with him this week and he may make some adjustments, but I was going to check and see if anyone had any sucess so I could make suggestions to him.

I was having trouble with foot numbness, but a pair of cycling shoes has taken most of that away. I'm thinking of going ahead and having the clipless pedals installed in hopes that that will help with the rest of the foot numbness.

I have a whole section on fitting threads in my sig - I went through a horrible time trying to dial in both my mtb and road bike. Almost there I think... The biggest point is that you need to be able to support yourself without the handlebars. If you can't rest your hands on the bars from that position then you need to do something to allow yourself to. Now the stronger you get the lower you'll be able to get, cut down on wind, etc...

Your hands and arms will be sore as you are just starting out. Despite what it may seem, your hands are holding up a lot of weight.

Is your bike LONG enough for you? Were you fitted for this bike? You may be cramped. You can try moving the saddle back and forth to adjust.

hand numbness

I have a similar problem; there's a good thread (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=295925) about hand/wrist pain in the Training and Nutrition forum. I got a lot of good advice there, but for me it boiled down to: Keep as much weight as I can on my butt (sitting a little further back helps), keep my elbows bent a little (i.e., not locked) and general good posture. Of course, saddle height is very important. Mine is a little too high off the ground for my taste, particularly when stopped at a red light or whatever, but it's very comfortable when in motion.