Do we have a winner? Sheesh... aren't we all humans in this forum? I mean... there are differences and all but in the end we are all bipedal (I hope) and subject to the same laws of physics. Whence comes so much divergent opinion? Advising someone to move their saddle back with no other proscription is irresponsible. There is a small range within which the leg and knee will be operating in the best relationship to apply power to the pedal. Fix that first, then go onto fix the hand pain. In general, people need to be more forward than they usually are. When you are reaching for the bars because you are too far back that is what will load your hands and knee's. Everyone knows too low a saddle will hurt your knee's. Did you know that a saddle too far back will do the same thing? The slackest seat angle and longest seat rails in the world won't put your butt far enough back that you can balance the weight of your torso. Unless you are sitting on a Dutch bike or work cycle with a bolt upright torso. If you have the usual 45* lean common to commuters, racers while up on the hoods or bar flats then you cannot possibly offset the weight of your head and torso by hanging your butt behind the crank center. Flat bars with 'L' shaped bar ends, bullhorns, trekker bars, etc. are all a step in the right direction. Bars close enough to the properly adjusted seat to allow the fingertips to reach the bars are another step in the right direction. Bars that are at least level with the seat or even higher, also going in the right direction to adjust hand pain. The o.p. is doing pretty good, after months of experimenting, I am just getting to where they are: numbness is only coming on towards the end of the ride. At the start of my commuting my hands couldn't operate the brakes or shifters by the first mile! By seat was way too far back and my bars too low and my stem too long. Adjustable stems are great for sorting out this kind of thing as are folding bikes. Why? Because folding bikes out of the box are designed to fit people from 5'2 to 6'4 and do it quickly. All the adjustments can be made by flipping quick release skewers... except seat fore/aft. That is handy when experimenting with different parameters. Then when its all dialed in you put the folder next to your other bikes (I have 5 in all) and see how they fetch up. FWIW.

H