Originally Posted by
positron
I said properly set up.
you were compressing your median nerve which runs under the thenar muscle on the meat of your palm (base of thumb).
this happened because you were supporting too much weight with your hands.
raise your bars and move your seat back a bit. (or keep too much weight on your hands and add padding to spread out the pressure, thus alleviating the neuropathy you describe)
your solution is like telling people with numb testicles to get a squishier seat.
my solution is to set up the seat properly...
Just saying.
Sorry but the bike
is properly set up. Yes, I know all about not supporting too much weight with my hands, holding myself up with my abdominal muscles and my saddle is already as far back as it can go. The saddle is also dead level.
Compression isn't the only, or even main, cause of
cyclist palsy. It is also caused by vibration and inflammation of the
ulnar nerve which runs under the arm from the outer 3 fingers to the elbow. The inflammation occurs at the wrist or the elbow. Dampening the vibration goes a long way towards alleviation of the problem. Thin tape or thin padding on the bars does little to dampen vibration and you can't really hold your self up with your abdominals all day.
Yes, the adjustment is part of solving the problem but so is padding. Telling people otherwise...to use your analogy...is to tell them to get rid of the saddle to solve the numb testicles problem. But then numb testicles have never been an issue for me when riding. Numbness in the nether regions is usually further forward... at the end of the dangly bits.