Clydesdales/Athenas (200+ lb / 91+ kg) - Buyers remorse, any thoughts?

Hi,

I've been looking for a while for a new commuter bike, and I thought I'd found it in the trek 2010 7.2fx. It has a 25" version, which was enticing for me. I'm 6'7", with a 36" inseam. I did about 5kms around the bike store, and it felt pretty good, so I put down the cash and took it home.

So I did my first ride in to work today. Its around 10km and I get the dreaded numb hands/wrists. On longer rides, it feels like my hands are in no-mans land. Not low enough to be held up by the curve of my back, not high enough to sit back and put the weight on the saddle. Needless to say its a threadless stem, so height adjustments are hard work.

My dream was to get a frame big enough, with a nice upright riding position for traffic, and mounting points for all the commuting goodies. But I'm worried this whole wheelbase may just not be long enough for a guy my size. So now I'm facing a bit of buyers remorse. Have I bought the wrong bike? Do I just need to ride it longer? Can I make it better?

I figured I'd get you big guys to chime in. Make me feel better, or make me feel worse. Thanks for reading, sorry about the long post.

Are your wrists straight when riding? An extreme angle in the wrists can cause numbness. You'll know it's one of the nerves in your wrist if you only feel numbness in your two outside fingers or 3 inside fingers. Although if things are really screwed up, I guess everything could go numb. Different handlebars may alleviate this.

All hope is not lost on getting the handlebars higher either, your bike shop should be able to give you options.

I find good core strength to be helpful in alleviating discomfort. I tend to keep my bars at least level or lower than my saddle. If I don't spend time strengthening my core, I'm in for a world of hurt with that setup.

This is the exact reason that test rides are a waste of time. Even a 5km test ride isn't long enough to get a proper feel for a bike unless you are very skilled at what you're doing. Very few people are that skilled. You need to get fitted properly. Take the bike back to the bike shop and see if they will fit you. Maybe you can get by with just a handlebar or stem adjustment or swap.

I bought a Trek 7.2, I was fitted on a 22.5 bike, and I am 6'1. My hands do go numb, but on long (50 mile rides) rides. I agree with the above posters, take the bike back and get fitted.

Work through the problem. Ride and adjust and ride and adjust - there really are no magic bullets. Maybe after a few iterations try some ergon grips. I find extreme hand numbness intermittent.

Have I bought the wrong bike? Do I just need to ride it longer? Can I make it better?


Hard to say whether you've purchased the wrong bike. If numb hands/wrists are the only problem, you may be able to fix it by using a different stem or handlebar. On flat bar bikes, I've found that my hands get numb unless I have a bar that sweeps back toward me a bit more than standard. On my mountain bike, I was much happier once I swapped the stock bars (6-degree sweep?) for Bontrager Race Lite "Big Sweep" bars with a 12-degree sweep. The Big Sweep bars seemed to keep my wrists at a more natural angle, which helped to reduce numbness...

Excess pressure on the hands is often caused by having the saddle tilted to far forward... this caused the rider's weight to slide forward and the hands are what bears the most of this.

When viewed from the side the saddle should be close to perfectly level... or even possibly slightly nose up.

Most people don't think to adjust their saddle when their hands hurt, but it is often the solution.

The last year that I worked in a shop, every time someone would come in with a bike with the seat pointing nose-down (often) I would ask if they ever had pain or numbness in their hands while riding... I only remember two who said they did not..
... and fully half the people I asked said their hands did hurt or go numb and they were in the shop to buy gloves to fix it.

Not every person who feels there is too much pressure on his hands has his saddle pointing down, but just about every person who has his saddle pointing down has too much pressure on his hands.

Some good suggestions here but I would like to add that a set of bar ends might do the trick for you. I'm also going to second the advise to take the bike back to the shop and see if they will swap out the stem. Usually they will free of charge, can't hurt to ask.

Hey there;

I had almost the exact same problem on the exact same bike (well sort of, mine is a 7200 fx, same bike, just an older model). Anyway, here is what I did to cure that problem;

http://www.performancebike.com/bikes/Product_10052_10551_1033592_-1_400021_400002_400211

Adjust the grips so they completely support your hands, and the problem should go away.

Good luck,
D

If you just got the bike, and haven't damaged it your shop should allow you some time to trade in, or as others have suggested, it may just be a simple fit issue.

Sometimes it can be as simple as the angle the brake levers are at. My friend's new bike had his too high up to where his wrist was bent (he rode with two fingers on the brake lever) I told him it might bother him. The next day he noticed it was uncomfy and caused numbness - and I told him how to adjust it. He's happy as a lark now!

Takes adjusting, tweaking, look at all the contact points, seat, feet and hands. Adjust them, one at a time.

Excess pressure on the hands is often caused by having the saddle tilted to far forward... this caused the rider's weight to slide forward and the hands are what bears the most of this.

When viewed from the side the saddle should be close to perfectly level... or even possibly slightly nose up.

Most people don't think to adjust their saddle when their hands hurt, but it is often the solution.

The last year that I worked in a shop, every time someone would come in with a bike with the seat pointing nose-down (often) I would ask if they ever had pain or numbness in their hands while riding... I only remember two who said they did not..
... and fully half the people I asked said their hands did hurt or go numb and they were in the shop to buy gloves to fix it.

Not every person who feels there is too much pressure on his hands has his saddle pointing down, but just about every person who has his saddle pointing down has too much pressure on his hands.

Related to the above, even if your saddle is already flat, you may want to also move it slightly rearward. This may seem somewhat counter-intuitive, but moving the saddle rearward can reduce the weight you are placing on your hands.

One basic method for checking if your fore-aft saddle position is about right is the KOPS "method" - knee over pedal spindle. (with the crank arms horizontal, a plumb bob hanging from the front of your lead knee (hold the string on the bump that is just below your knee cap) should point right at the pedal spindle, under the ball of your foot.

(Even if this is already the case, note that this rule of thumb may not make sense for everyone, since the relative lengths of femurs and shin bones isn't the same for everyone.)

Another kind of check on saddle fore-aft position is to see if you can "unweight" your hands from the bars (or even lift them slightly off the bars) and maintain that position for a little while without struggling. If you can, then you probably have a pretty good, balanced position.

Also note that if you move your saddle rearward or forward, it also effectively changes your seat height by some amount, so you may also need to tweak the seat post height a bit.

I have to think that between the saddle adjustment, and possible stem changes (longer stem, or a different stem angle), you are going to be able to get a good position.

Thanks so much for all the replies. There's some great advice there. It seems to come down to the following ideas:

Wrist angle: it is the outside of my hands getting numb. I can see that my wrists are angling outwards slightly to match the flat bar. Definitely something to think about there.

Sweep back bar: This is interesting. Might fix the wrist angle problem. I've seen heaps of bar types on this forum, Mary bars, albatross, trekking. Maybe one of them is the right bar for me. Expensive to experiment though.

Core strength: Should help (but new gear is more fun than leg lifts). Due to my height I've never had my handlebars higher than 1" below the seat. This is alright for road & mountain bikes, but I think the hybrid bike geometry doesn't work as well with the drop. It doesn't feel long enough, if that makes sense.

Get a Bike fit: This seems to be the consensus. The bike store that I bought it from offers this for $85. I'll book in a session and see how I go.

Ergon Grips: I'll look into these after the fit. I think the problem might be too much weight on my hands, which hopefully will be fixed by the fit.

Saddle tilt: It's about bang on flat. Sensible idea though.

Bar Ends: I've got some lying around. Easy to try, I'll put them on and report back.

Brake lever angle. Once again, easy to try. I'll report back.

Trade In: Unfortunately, I've got the biggest bike in the shop. And they had to order this one in especially for me. The range is very limited in Australia. So there's nowhere to trade.

Thanks again for your help. My remorse is fading, and I'm looking forward to getting this bike fit right and comfy for the long haul.

...
Get a Bike fit: This seems to be the consensus. The bike store that I bought it from offers this for $85. I'll book in a session and see how I go....

That's a fine idea just make sure that when they are done fitting you that you are completely comfortable on the bike. If not, make sure they do the job right or give you your money back. One would think they would have done that for you when you bought the bike...

Excess pressure on the hands is often caused by having the saddle tilted to far forward... this caused the rider's weight to slide forward and the hands are what bears the most of this.



Not every person who feels there is too much pressure on his hands has his saddle pointing down, but just about every person who has his saddle pointing down has too much pressure on his hands. +1 Nose tilted slightly up ...and drop bars cured this for me

I blame vibration as the biggest cause of numbness and tingles in my hands. That bike you got is an aluminum unit, very rigid, all the vibes from the road come through both wheels, I eventually figured this out, put a good steel fork on the bike with trekking bars, worked much better. What realy smooths it out is when I load it down for touring, numbness isn't even noticeable when I get all that weight one there,
My Carbon bike never numbs my hands,

Buyer's Remorse:

I just bought a Secteur Elite compact. I like it enough but am starting to think I should have gone for the Surly LHT.

Buyer's Remorse:

I just bought a Secteur Elite compact. I like it enough but am starting to think I should have gone for the Surly LHT.

Ride it until you forget.