Originally Posted by
txags92
Of the 4 people I know who started out riding flat bar road bikes, 3 had severe hand numbness problems when they increased their ride distances above about 40-50 miles per day. One got a severe case of cyclist's palsy that took weeks to go away after a century ride. All 3 immediately stopped having the hand issues when they switched to drop bar bikes. If you can find enough positions on yours to not have any issues, good for you; but my experience has been that 3 out of 4 had problems with not enough hand positions on the flat bar bike on longer rides.
Fair enough..
I can't ride drop bars (and I've tried to adjust them to silly looking angels) because I have a bad back and after about 30 miles my back starts killing me..
Flat bars have plenty of room to move around on. I am constantly shifting my hands from side to side and when in cruise mode, I often just rest them on the front part of the bar extensions..
When I started out on flat bars years ago I would get numbing in my left hand but I have not had the issue in years now and flat bars are all I ride..