Mountain Biking - How to stop it?

I'm guessing all you guys have had calisus (not sure of spelling) on your hands where the knuckles are. Well its really starting to annoy me so does andbody have tricks or ideas to prevent them?

You could probably wear gloves to help with them. Or, just tough it out until your skin gets tougher.

Yeah i wear gloves but i still get them..oh well ill take your second idea.

5. How to deal with calluses?



The big trials problem: almost anyone riding enough (2-3 times a week for a few hours) will develop bad calluses (depending on gloves, grips and his specific riding style). It's a problem that no-one really managed to solve, but there are workarounds to make your life easier.

Let's list a few, with good and bad sides:

Manage calluses. Even if you won't use any of the following advices, don't ignore your calluses. In my experience, when I first start riding after a long pause, with nice soft hands, after two rides I develop blisters (bubbles under my skin). I don't puncture them, I pause for two or three days, and then ride carefully until the situation blows up, peels off and develops into hard skin (callous). Then it becomes easier if you ride regularly.
After a shorter pause, when hard skins just starts to peel off (or simply disappear), it's hard to start riding again because something very painful starts happening, and that's bubbles under hardened skin. I've found no workaround for this, except avoid shorter pauses or use one of pain-reducing techniques listed later.

Use pumice. In case you don't already know, pumice is a lightweight natural porous stone, sold for managing hardened skin or calluses, that by some chance even floats on water. There are few kinds of artificial substitutes, but artificial pumice-like materials work best for me, since it's hands we're talking about, and the one I've found is not as hard as natural pumice. Try different stiffnesses and see what's comfortable. Use it just to keep control over your blisters (soften them a bit), don't try to remove them completely.
Bad sides: hurts a bit, boring to do regularly (and you have to do it regularly).

Use crèmes. Using hand crèmes during night, applied to calluses in excessive quantities (white ponds of crème on your hands) usually make them softer, therefore easier to deal with. I've tried hydrating and fatty crèmes, and they both work differently, so I use them both, in turns. It's great to use combined with pumice.
Bad sides: if you're not careful, you can get the bed dirty. :-)

Use padding. The best callous-reducing way by far is padding in your gloves, but it can sometimes sacrifice your performace (especially if you get gloves with gel implants). You can try and get long-fingered padded gloves, but I always felt feeling of the grip/handlebars was not as direct, meaning not as good for trials -- I couldn't twist the bars as effectively since padding would always bend and twist etc.
Then I thought of impossibly stupid but simple idea, which was to try and wrap a piece of cotton cloth around painful places (or even before they become painful). This helped, and the feeling of the handlebar was still very good, so I use this trick for almost every ride.

I have really bad callouses right now :( I usually just tough it out, but since my bike was stolen I havent had anything to ride until I rode my friend's today.

I have callouses from weight lifting. I'm sure mael and konarider will chime in about this. But I feel that having callouses is a good thing, it helps build up the skin and make it tougher. I don't even wear padded gloves, they don't feel right and the callouses help because my hands don't sore.

wear gloves.

I have huge callouses from doing landscaping work and lifting weights(diamond pattern grip takes the skin right off). The bike grips don't bother me at all.

I still get callouses and i ALWAYS wear gloves when i ride. Learn to like them, callouses are your friends.

I've never had a callous that bothered me, blisters yeah, but callouses, no. If they do, I just cut them off, they're dead skin anyway, just don't go too low....

I've never had a callous that bothered me, blisters yeah, but callouses, no. If they do, I just cut them off, they're dead skin anyway, just don't go too low....
My friend's callous had a little bit sticking out, he caught it on something and managed to rip the whole damn thing off. It bled like hell and it left a hole in his palm for a long while.

sounds pretty nasty, I guess I've just been fortunate then

sounds pretty nasty, I guess I've just been fortunate then
Yeah, it was, I went green when he showed me his palm. I've got callouses aswell but I pretty much ignore them, although after a 2+ hour ride they do hurt bad.

Yeah, it was, I went green when he showed me his palm. I've got callouses aswell but I pretty much ignore them, although after a 2+ hour ride they do hurt bad.
You're hands would hurt more if you didnt have them. Calouses are there to stop your hands hurting.