Originally Posted by
dregsfan
I ride for about an hour a day pretty vigorously and I'm pretty comfortable in general except my wrists and considerable numbness in my fingers (index, middle and thumb mostly).
My nephew, who rides, said maybe I'm putting too much pressure/weight on my hands, which is a logical suggestion.
I noticed one day from just looking at my wrist (the angle of) in relation to the, about a 6 degree back sweep, flat handlebar that it just didn't seem to.....well.....look right.
Found this, which is interesting:
Painful hands – SQlab (sqlab-usa.com)
So since I'm not that uncomfortable during and after the ride everyday, I thought it a good idea just to get that back sweep angle changed, and maybe I should consider a little upsweep as well.
I wasn't considering the upsweep at first but the more I think about it, that may be a good idea as well.
Thanks for the great reply, Wildwood. Very helpful.
(note: I did get around to mentioning the type of bike but not until post #8)
I have another suggestion, if you decide that the Trekking or Butterfly handlebars aren't for you:
https://jonesbikes.com/h-bars/
When I first tried the stereotypical flat and wide mtb bars, my wrists were extremely uncomfortable. A 25 degree backsweep on my Trek 1120 was an improvement, but I found the 45 degree backsweep on the Jones H-bars was even better. They have a model with some rise, if you want that.
However, I had great riding hand positions with the Trekking bars on my gravel bike. Some Grab On Grips, wrapped with bar tape, gives you a wider surface area to lean on and completely solved my hand and wrist soreness for 4-5 hours on the bike.