Skinny Fred

When I ride, I get blisters/calluses on the side of my thumb knuckles, right above my half-finger gloves. They seem to be caused by my grip on the hoods. I think it's worst when standing and "sprinting" from red lights, when I wrestle the bars a bit. My STI 105 5600 (1 revision ago) hoods seem to fit my hands okay.

Any tips besides the obvious "be smoother" and "lose the death grip"? Of course, the true answer is to HTFU.

Commodus

Some gloves are higher.

It won't take long to get some calluses in that location.

gladiator13

I get one on my left thumb sometimes. I just move my hand around and change positions. Not that it will prevent anything but you should wipe the sweat off your hand and onto your shorts or jersey as often as possible. This will prolong how long it takes to get a blister in some cases. Otherwise I'd just try some different gloves. I don't wear mine for shorter rides since they don't seem to do that much for me. YMMV

Ikarios

Blisters are quite different from calluses. Which one is it? If it's a blister you could try talcing or chalking up your hand at the area of contact to see if that might help a little bit. No idea if it would work but it's probably worth a shot if your skin is coming off because of the hood.

tagaproject6

How long have you been riding? Once your blisters heal, your hands should start developing callouses and you will eventually HTFU and all will be well.


You could also lose the lotion during me time. That should toughen up your hands!

Sorry...that was just too easy

milkbaby

Could it be from the edge of your half-finger glove rubbing on your thumb?

lol headwind

I have these brifters and I think the cable coming out the side of the hood tends to make me set my grip badly when I'm low on the hoods. I tend to ride on the drops instead, but for the first time I am beginning to get pissed off by the cabling, namely when getting a comfortable grip on the hoods. I can get around it but when I'm in a good rhythm it throws me off enough to stimulate my upgrade gland a little.

hairnet

Maybe lower your gears before you come a stop and then spin up to speed so you're not wrestling your bars

andrewluke

I had the same problem on the Tiagra, 105, and Ultegra series with the external cable routings. Happened with and without gloves. I ended up switching to different style shifters but otherwise, I just loosened my grip and got some relief. I would just deal with slower starts and no sprints for the most part and slowed significantly while climbing.

WhyFi

I just developed calluses on the inside of the knuckle that protruded enough that I could practically type with them. They make nice hooks to hold on with. Give it time.

Skinny Fred

The first I noticed was a blister, a whole flap of skin peeled away on one hand, with the other not far behind. They are developing calluses now, but they still peel a little.

I switched to new gloves on the same ride that I started having problems. Without gloves is the same. I switched back to my old gloves almost immediately, which are a tiny bit longer and have thick terrycloth snot-wipe thumbs, and symptoms have improved, but not completely.

I think I'm fine with the exposed cables, and I have a Fredly optical gear indicator installed. I might try to play with the reach a little.

I'm just going to juxtapose these two quotes.