Originally Posted by
calv
Today I went on a short 3-4 mile ride with the lady. She said her hands/palms hurt and get numb.. Can't really tell what the problem could be. Maybe I could try shorter stems? She tells me she rests the bottom of her palms on the flats of her bullhorns. Is that a sign that the stem is too long perhaps?
tell her to vary her hand positions as much as possible while riding. try to teach her to "float" above the handlebars.. just lightly holding them as opposed to death gripping. some of that will improve with time as her core gets stronger
as far as stems, get one so that she's not leaning too far forward and holding herself up with her hands. also make sure the saddle is tilted properly so it's not pushing her towards the bars
i get wrist pain really easily so i pay close attention to stuff like that