Mountain Biking - How to adjust bars to reduce hand pain?

I've got a Mongoose Cannan Elite XC bike, and the bars/grip cause pain on the outside parts of my palms after a couple of hours. The bars are no rise with some sweep back. Should I rotate the bars so the sweep is a liitle down, rather than just back. I've tried different types of gloves, without much improvement. Any suggestions?

Loosen your grip on the bars.

That too. And going to a riser bar may help a bit. Risers have more backsweep than a standard flat bar.

different grips may also help. Big fan of oury grips to reducesome trail chatter on my rigid. I've heard mixed reviews on ergons but have nvr tried them.

Groovy Luv Handles http://groovycycleworks.com/extras.aspx

After two hours, I think it generally gets uncomfortable. Could be normal. But, that said, usually hand pain is caused by your seat being too far forward, which causes you to lean too heavily on the bar. Could it be your seat position? How far behind the center of the BB is the front tip of your saddle? (Drop a plumb bob line from the front tip of your saddle and measure the distance from the line to center of BB--for most people, the line needs to be rougly around 3 inches behind the center of BB to get good weighting/balancing on the saddle.)

Comfort is more about finding a good spot and sitting on it, not grabbing it. Also, switch positions frequently. You can try different grip tape with some comfort strips underneath. Or you can play with you adjustment. Everyone rides differently.

hey I'll second the groovey love handles....many more out there

check out the Fubar under handlebars under misfit products..

http://www.misfitpsycles.com/
Misfit Psycles The Evil Empire



http://mtb.unrealcycles.com/catalog/Handlebars.htm
Unreal Cycles Catalog - Handlebars

ragley is putting one out now..the carnegie

several other manufacturer's......also titec h and j bar

I was having problems with my wrists and stumbled on a riser with a wide sweep back....no more problems and the really a nice natural position now

Ergon Grips get my vote!

Personally, I hate Ergons. They encourage you to set your hand position and not move or rotate it.

Loosen the death grip on the bar and keep your weight over the bottom bracket. Make sure your brakes aren't too high, though I'd think that would tweak out your wrists moreso than your palms. If you have large hands and skinny grips, you can try fatter, more padded grips like ODI Rogues. And I would think that more backsweep would put more pressure on your outer palms, though from the other posts here it looks like I have that wrong. Maybe try a DMR Wingbar. Nice bar that's wide with lots of backsweep, though it's a little on the heavy side.

i like my bars rotated downward slightly. just try a few options yourself. you will know what feels good or bad