Numb Fingers (2 Days Later)

[LessEverything]

Its been almost 48 hours since I last rode and my left hand, last two fingers are numb...still. Its really just the ends/tips of them. I don't wear gloves and I have bullhorns. Even during the ride they don't turn blue, so I sure its something with the nerves getting pinched. What can I do to combat this?

[cyccommute]

Its been almost 48 hours since I last rode and my left hand, last two fingers are numb...still. Its really just the ends/tips of them. I don't wear gloves and I have bullhorns. Even during the ride they don't turn blue, so I sure its something with the nerves getting pinched. What can I do to combat this?

Gloves, better grips (hard is not good), frequent hand position changes and relax the death grip. It called cyclist palsy. 48 hr is nothing. It once took 6 weeks for me to get all the feeling back:eek:

[Pinyon]

I concur. Softer bar-padding, and move your hands around more. On my commuter bike with a straight-bar, I have to move my hands around a lot to prevent tingly fingers. Especially the last two fingers on my left hand. Move your hands around to the bar-ends, and to different parts of your hands in general. I switch hand postions constantly between the straight-bar and the bar-ends between all of the different parts of my hands that can take the pressure (center-palm, hand-heel, side-of-the-hands, and one variation where I put my wrists on the straight bar and my fingers on the bar-ends).

Even with all of that hand moving, if I'm on a rough road, my hands will tingle no matter what. It is similar to riding a motorcycle that shakes too much, or mowing multiple lawns all day with a lawn mower with a big engine. Your hands were not made to take that much vibration.

[piper_chuck]

Its been almost 48 hours since I last rode and my left hand, last two fingers are numb...still. Its really just the ends/tips of them. I don't wear gloves and I have bullhorns. Even during the ride they don't turn blue, so I sure its something with the nerves getting pinched. What can I do to combat this?
Having any discomfort in your neck or shoulders? Pain, tingling, or numbness in the last two fingers could actually be a problem with something other than your wrists. I'm not a doctor, so all I'll say is that it might be good to check with one to confirm everything is ok.

[BeckyW]

This has happened to me too. It scared me really bad the first time - I was sure I'd lost feeling in those fingers forever! It does heal, though. Just takes a while. +1 on everything said above about gloves/hand position. You may also want to move your seat back or change the angle so the nose is level or pointed slightly upward (unless this causes other problems) to take some pressure off your wrists.

Ergon grips helped me too - they spread the pressure out over your whole palm, and keep you from bending your wrists too sharply. They make several models that have bar ends attached.

BTW, most of the time you can stretch while riding, or changing positions will be sufficient. But if the numbness starts to get really bad on a ride, STOP and shake it out/stretch/flex hand until it comes back. I tried to push through once, and it got worse until my whole hand went numb and I steered myself right into a curb. Fortunately had soft grass to fall on.

[zpl]

I've had the problem with the tips of my index and middle fingers on my left hand. I'd recommend seeing a Dr. just to rule out carpal tunnel syndrome. It should only take a short office visit to check that.

I had thought that my grip was relaxed and I changed hand positions enough when I first started riding. However, as the months of cycling experience added up, I found that the numbness only got bad on really long or really intense rides. Meaning, I really was using a death grip or getting tired and not realizing it.

I feel very mild numbness right now from the 72-mile ride I did on Sunday (which was an endurance breakthrough ride for me). But it improves pretty quickly, so I'm not too concerned about it.

Scott

[guybierhaus]

I have a cheap solution for the death grips and vibration. I've always liked fatter grips on just about everything. The Bike grips on my flat bar are just too thin for me. I'm certainly looking for something better; but until I find it I have been using a piece of 1 inch ID pipe insulation over the grips. Believe it's about $2 for a 4 feet piece at Home Depot. That's enough for 4 bikes.

[RayB]

You may want to try a set of butterfly bars. I upgraded my hybrid to these and have never had that problem again. On my first tour I used flatbars and it took 2 months to get the feeling back. Now I have tons of hand positions and its not a problem.

[joelpalmer]

Gloves, better grips (hard is not good), frequent hand position changes and relax the death grip. It called cyclist palsy. 48 hr is nothing. It once took 6 weeks for me to get all the feeling back:eek:

+1 . I've never had it last more than a few days, but when I was commuting on my MTB it happened often (~7 mi riding to work, ~20 mi home) until I got gloves and dug out a longer set of bar ends to use. Then it was gone and no returns. The other thing that really helped was learning to balance enough to ride long distances without holding onto the bars, like little kids do.

[mikefranktroymi]

My son had a similar problem and it was diagnosed to be a pinched ulnar nerve. The numbness went away in a three days. In addition to frequent hand locational changes also Look at tilting your seat back a bit, so you do not lean so much forward.

[mike]

two days of numbness after a ride is way too long. You might have numbness for a few minutes after a ride up to 30 minutes.

Anything more than that and you body is trying to scream a message to you.

Any other strange symptoms like numbness in toes or anything else that could suggest heart problems or diabetes?

For a simple mechanical guess, it sounds like your bike might be very small for you or the handlebar height is way too low. Let's hope that you are a BIG fellow on a small bike and you put a lot of weight on you carpal tunnel on some flat bars with thin grips. Still, two days is way too long to have numbness.

[mike]

I have a cheap solution for the death grips and vibration. I've always liked fatter grips on just about everything. The Bike grips on my flat bar are just too thin for me. I'm certainly looking for something better; but until I find it I have been using a piece of 1 inch ID pipe insulation over the grips. Believe it's about $2 for a 4 feet piece at Home Depot. That's enough for 4 bikes.

Hey, man, the bike world has their version of the pipe insulation material. Go to a bike shop and get some nice foamy grip tubing for under $10.00. It will look a lot more snappy than the Spartan version you are using.

[BigBlueToe]

Once after a 3 week tour it took about a month for the numbness to go away. I use gel gloves (why don't you wear gloves?), put gel pads on my bars, wrapped the bars with the foam tape that came with the gel pads, then put another layer of cloth tape on top of that. I haven't had much numbness since I did that.

I used to use Grab-on foam tubes, but they break down quickly and have to be replaced all the time (which is a hassle) and I don't think they are that great anyway.

[cyccommute]

two days of numbness after a ride is way too long. You might have numbness for a few minutes after a ride up to 30 minutes.

Anything more than that and you body is trying to scream a message to you.

Any other strange symptoms like numbness in toes or anything else that could suggest heart problems or diabetes?

For a simple mechanical guess, it sounds like your bike might be very small for you or the handlebar height is way too low. Let's hope that you are a BIG fellow on a small bike and you put a lot of weight on you carpal tunnel on some flat bars with thin grips. Still, two days is way too long to have numbness.

I think you're going a little over the top on this one. Riding a bike puts pressure on lots of places that result in numbness. Numb hands are very common and result from inflammation of the Ulnar nerve. Thicker padding, gloves and moving your hands around go a long way to helping with the problem. As I said previously, I've had this happen to me before...more than once...for much longer.

It's not a carpal tunnel problem either. It's an inflammation of the nerve caused by the constant pounding that we put our hands through. Here (http://www.sportsinjurybulletin.com/archive/cycling-injuries.html) is a pretty good article on the problem. LessEverything is probably riding with stiff arms, thin grips and white knuckles. Get thicker grips, bend your arms and hold the bars less tightly.

[mike]

I think you're going a little over the top on this one. Riding a bike puts pressure on lots of places that result in numbness. Numb hands are very common and result from inflammation of the Ulnar nerve. Thicker padding, gloves and moving your hands around go a long way to helping with the problem. As I said previously, I've had this happen to me before...more than once...for much longer.

It's not a carpal tunnel problem either. It's an inflammation of the nerve caused by the constant pounding that we put our hands through. Here (http://www.sportsinjurybulletin.com/archive/cycling-injuries.html) is a pretty good article on the problem. LessEverything is probably riding with stiff arms, thin grips and white knuckles. Get thicker grips, bend your arms and hold the bars less tightly.

Well, cyccommute, you are probably correct that other bicyclists experience the same problem, but that doesn't mean it is OK, of course. 24 hours of numbness is an indication of some kind of trauma or damage.

My guess, as is yours, is that the geometry isn't correct for our heavy rider friend. The poor fellow is probably straight arming a large upper body weight down onto a flat bar that is probably too low - in fact, it MUST BE too low, if it is causing this problem, no matter what the textbooks say about bike sizing and geometry. SUUuuuuuuure, I have experienced this too. Not happy, not good.

Thicker grips, padded gloves - all kinds of padding help, but are not the final or best solution. The solution is to releive some of the weight off of the palms of your hands.

Ah well, I hope we have provided enough suggestions here so that he can make some adjustments and ride in comfort and good health.

Cheers!:)

[LessEverything]

You may want to try a set of butterfly bars. I upgraded my hybrid to these and have never had that problem again. On my first tour I used flatbars and it took 2 months to get the feeling back. Now I have tons of hand positions and its not a problem.

Are butterfly bars the same as communting bars (figure-8's)???

[LessEverything]

How can I raise my handle bars they are as high as they go? I wrapped a hand towel around the left grip and that didn't help any.

[Gingergin]

For my first year of riding I would get numb fingers only after 15 minutes. Now I am up to 2 hours without any numbness. I tried everything mentioned above plus a couple other things. What finally worked for me was learning to relax - something someone here posted actually. I relax my hands, wrists, arms, shoulders, neck and face. The nerves that cause finger numbness can come from any or all of those places. It helps to use your abs to achieve a more relaxed position for these parts!