Northern California - hand pain, blistering, & gloves

There may be a better place to post this on BF, but there isn't a clothing forum and I think I might get a kinder response here.

Long story short, I get some pretty bad pain in my hands when riding. It's especially bad on my mountain bike and always in the area at the base of my thumb, left hand is always worse. The pain is very minimal when riding my road bike because I have more options as far as hand positions and I change positions frequently.

Regardless, today I had quite a bit of pain in my hands. When I got home from a 20 mile ride I noticed that the fleshy part of my palms between my thumb and pointer finger were bright red and a little swollen. Very tender to the touch, enough so that I had a hard time washing my hair.

The redness has pretty much gone away, but they're still tender. On my left hand I have a small spot that's still red and the skin feels different. It feels like I burned my hand which I assume means a blister was forming.

The only cause I can think of is that the padding or seams on the gloves were rubbing and putting pressure on my hands. Is there anything else that could be causing it? I'm wondering if it is a chafing thing, then perhaps some cream or lotion in that spot before a ride might help. Anybody ever tried that?

I obviously need to pick up new gloves. Anybody have any suggestions for some with padding? I tend to look at gloves everytime I'm in a bike shop, but I never see any that seem like they'd work for me, or they're huge and won't fit anyhow. Moving into colder weather, I could probably do with some full fingered gloves too.

IMHO - most bicycling hand pain problems are caused by poor posture on the bike. In particular, riding with your elbows locked forces all your upper body weight on to your hands, causing all kinds of problems. If you ride with a good bend in your elbows (all of the time), your hand pain should go away. You may need to adjust your bike fit to make the bent elbow riding position comfortable. Improving your core strength also helps.

IMHO - most bicycling hand pain problems are caused by poor posture on the bike.

I wonder if it has more to do with the fact that I hadn't ridden in two weeks and my core strength has sort of weakened despite other physical activities. When I first started riding road, I had severe lower back pain. I don't get that anymore now that I've found a seat position that seems to work. Building up the right muscles certainly helps with correct positioning. However, I may have been putting more pressure on my hands due to lack of recent riding and loss of strength.

I also had a run in today with a driver that suddenly pulled out in front of me and I almost hit him. I may have tensed up after that and not realized it as well.

Move your seat back on the rails, it will shift your balance on the bike backwards and less weight will be supported by the hands; it will be transferred to the back/core muscles.

I wonder if it has more to do with the fact that I hadn't ridden in two weeks and my core strength has sort of weakened despite other physical activities.

Yes, poor core strength can lead to poor posture (using your hands instead of your core to support your upper body weight).

The Specialized BG line offers some good options with padding in places to help minimize hand issues.


Move your seat back on the rails, it will shift your balance on the bike backwards and less weight will be supported by the hands; it will be transferred to the back/core muscles.

I'd avoid moving your saddle around to change your position - that's a recipe for knee problems. I'd suggest raising your bars first if that's the issue. Since you mentioned that it happens more on your MTB, I'd be surprised if it was that though?

Thanks for all of the suggestions.

I'm going to avoid messing with the saddle since I finally have it in a position that doesn't aggravate my lower back or cause numbness. Also, when I bought the bike, they took very careful measurements of my leg position and angle then moved the seat back quite a bit.

I'm pretty sure that working on core strength will help my position on the bike. However, the area where I have the sore on my hand isn't part of my hand that I'm leaning on for the most part. When I ride with my hands on the hood, I'm not pressing the hoods into that spot on my hand.

And now as I type I just thought of something... could the reach for my brake levers be too far and be part of the problem? I don't use the brakes unless I'm stopping or need to slow down to make a turn safely. I also don't ride with my fingers on the levers, but I did have a lot of stops during today's ride (and one incident slamming on my brakes to avoid hitting a car that stopped suddenly in front of me). Reaching for the levers does push this part of my hands against the hoods.

The brakes are Shimano Sora and I have sort of small hands. Thoughts?

I'd avoid moving your saddle around to change your position - that's a recipe for knee problems. I'd suggest raising your bars first if that's the issue. Since you mentioned that it happens more on your MTB, I'd be surprised if it was that though?
If he had a perfect fit, then sure, it would be a bad idea to move things around. But then he wouldn't be having these problems, would he? It is certainly an issue of balance on the bike, and if the saddle is correctly adjusted it won't automatically make his knees hurt.
Having that much weight supported by the hands also requires many back and shoulder muscles to support the weight as well, which prevents them doing their proper job of breathing to their fullest.

Raising the bars is a very common error and is analogous to opening the brake caliper when the wheel is out of true. Why not just true the wheel and do the correct thing?

If you have never played with fit, then it can be a bit intimidating, but just make sure you know how to get back to your old fit (write down the numbers) then try something to see if it works.

BTW another possibility could be an unlevel saddle.

I don't agree with your comment about raising the bars being an "error". Why do you assume this?
Saddle angle could be a component, but you were suggesting changing fore/aft in your original post which changes the effective saddle height. I'll leave it to the OP to comment on prior fit issues, but I think she's been through a fit or two with a new road bike (IIRC). Every fit I've had has focused on saddle position first, then moved to positioning the bars.

My saddle is tilted ever so slightly foward. However, it's been that way for a while, long before the hand issue.

I just looked up on Shimano's site about adjusting the reach of my levers. I seem to remember the bike shop telling me that I couldn't do it with those levers, but I didn't know why. Believe it or not, the WSD I tried was even worse.

Anyhow, according to the Shimano site, the Sora can have the reach adjusted, but not with my round bars. Apparently only works for "anatomic" bars. Pahuh?

I know I'd be more comfortable with a shorter reach even if that isn't the cause of my problem. I so don't have the money right now!

My saddle is tilted ever so slightly foward. However, it's been that way for a while, long before the hand issue.

I just looked up on Shimano's site about adjusting the reach of my levers. I seem to remember the bike shop telling me that I couldn't do it with those levers, but I didn't know why. Believe it or not, the WSD I tried was even worse.

Anyhow, according to the Shimano site, the Sora can have the reach adjusted, but not with my round bars. Apparently only works for "anatomic" bars. Pahuh?

I know I'd be more comfortable with a shorter reach even if that isn't the cause of my problem. I so don't have the money right now!

I had some issues when I first got back into road riding... here's what helped... leveling the saddle to make sure my weight wasn't shifted forward so much... my stem is flipped up (my situation was that I needed to keep the weight off of my right wrist but the idea is the same) at one point, my stem was actually up 16 degrees... now its at 8 degrees. I also have little spacers on my brakes to decrease the reach, that was relatively inexpensive and helped a lot.

Is there a significant difference between your setup on the two bikes? Sounds like there is if you have a problem on the mountain bike but much less so on the road bike. First step might be to try to get your mountain bike fit closer to your road bike fit.

Fit is the most likely source of the problem-probably putting too much weight on your hands like others have said. Consider going back to the shop who sold you your bike and explain your issues. You might have to pay for a professional fit but if you hand problem is significant, might be worth it.

Other possible ideas to reduce hand pain is gloves (I really like Specialized BG gloves, too) and adding gel padding under your bar tape. Specialized and fizik make gel pads that go under your bar tape. The padding really takes the road buzz out of your handlebars and helps for numbness.

Good luck.

Assuming it's not a fit issue, I'd recommend trying the Ergon grips. I'm not using them myself but have heard great things.

http://www.ergon-bike.com/us/en/home

+1 on making sure your saddle is level (not nose down). If your saddle is nose down it will put undue pressure on your hands, arms, and upper back. To level your saddle, place a clipboard on the saddle and then a level on the saddle. Many times, because of the design of various saddles, a saddle may appear level if you eye-ball it but might actually be tilting down.

Try riding without gloves. You should have a very easy grip on the bar, and from your OP I would guess that you are gripping the bar with a bit of pressure. If you ride without gloves (even for 15-20 minutes), you'll get valuable bio-feedback about your grip and be able to adjust to the correct stance.

+1 on core strength. If you're not able to support your riding posture with your core, you will definitely put too much weight on the bar in an attempt to support yourself.

If your reach is incorrect, moving the saddle fore/aft is not the solution. Instead, consider stem length and height. Could you go with a shorter and/or higher stem to decrease your reach?

Is your bar too wide? If your bar is too wide this will also increase your reach and cause you to ride with your shoulders up (and the muscles in your neck/back contracted). The side-effect of this is that you'll lock out your elbows which will affect your grip and your bike handling. A good rule of thumb on bar width is that your bar should be no greater than 2cms wider than your shoulders from AC joint to AC joint. To test this, your hands should be just about in front of your shoulders when you're riding on the hoods.

Regarding your brakes, while you may not be able to shim the Soras, you can adjust the tension of the brakes. For small hands, I recommend riding your brakes kinda soupy (yes, that's a technical term) rather than super-tight. This allows you to have a more relaxed hand position, especially in the drops. The braking power is the same, but you will engage the brakes (ie the pads hit the rim surface) at a point that is closer to the bar.

Since you mention having the same issue on your mountain bike, I would guess that core strength + a relaxed hand position will resolve the issue for you (but don't ignore the other elements of bike fit I've mentioned).

HTH,

Lorri

+1 to what Lorri said.

Here is a graphic of where the reach adjustment on Sora STI levers is located.

123827

My saddle is tilted ever so slightly foward. However, it's been that way for a while, long before the hand issue.


Saddle tilted forward is often a sign that your saddle is too high, which can lead to poor posture on the bike.

If there's a blister, or a pre-blister, it sounds like you have rubbing, which means movement, maybe of the glove relative to your skin. Do the gloves fit tightly? They should be almost like a second skin, IMO, because it they move they'll abrade the skin they're supposed to be protecting. I also have found that the padding in some gloves, especially if it's thick, has edges that flex, and those can cause irritation as well.

BUT, I'd say consider leveling the saddle. Whenever I've had the slightest nose-down tilt to my saddle, i feel like I'm being thrown forward onto the bars, and I spend the whole ride pushing back. Result? Hands and arms tired at the end of the ride.

Thanks everyone! I'm starting to think that I need to ask my mom to pay for a full professional bike fitting as my Christmas or birthday present.

Okay... so what I'll do is plan on adjusting the angle of my seat and see if that helps any. Also, I'm going to try a ride without the gloves, if it's not too cold.

Seems like there are far too many factors. I want to try one thing at a time to see which it is. It'll probably turn out to be a combination of the gloves rubbing when I change positions, shift, or break and too much weight on my hands.

I guess time will tell.

I also noticed this evening that on the left side the hood cover doesn't have a smooth transition from the bars. On the right side the way the tape is wrapped, the cover and tape meet so there is no bump. Not the same on the left. I wonder if I had my hand rubbing on that part at any time when changing my hand position on the bars. This could definitely irritate my hand and cause a blister too.

Ugh.

Only rode a short bit this morning. Went without the gloves for the first few miles, but man alive it was cold! Seemed to be no issues.

Put the gloves on and noticed an immediate difference in hand comfort level. Became very aware that each time I changed hand positions, the glove rubbed on my palm and irritated my hand. I've determined that the gloves are too big, which causes the seams to rub, particularly on the left hand which is a little smaller than my right.

I did also make a slight adjustment to my seat angle to make sure it wasn't tilted too far down in the front. It's level or nearly level now, but I didn't notice much difference in my position or how much weight I was putting on my hands.