c0dyrl

My hands get really sore while riding no matter what the distance. Ive tried a couple cheap fixes, new bar tape, and new gloves. That was no good. The bike is a bit to big for me seeing as how the previous owner was a couple inches taller. Its ONLY my hands that hurt. My back and arms and neck all feel fine. Please help me out!

HIPCHIP

A bike fit may help. Different stem, bars, etc, may put you in a better riding position. If the bike is too big, there may be nothing you can do.

Depending on where your hands hurt, it may be carpel tunnel syndrome or similar. I'd go see a Doc to see what else might be wrong. If you have one, try wearing a wrist brace in the evening and at night to release the pressure on the wrist, and some wrist stretching and strengthening exercises may help too.

Just some of your options.

Roll-Monroe-Co

Recumbent.

reptilezs

try shorter stem and higher handle bar height. obviously you are putting too much body weight on your hands

Poppaspoke

Your trunk muscles should be supporting your weight, not your hands. Try lifting your hands slightly above the handlebar, without changing your body position. Can you comfortably support your upper body weight without leaning on the bars? If not, you need to reconsider your current bike fit adjustments.

LarDasse74

Most hand-comfort problems are a result of saddle adjustment... if your saddle is tilted nose down, you will have to brace yourself from sliding forward with your hands. Saddles should be perfectly level when viewed from the side (or very slightly nose up - nose down causes problems). If the saddle is uncomfortable then other adjustments are necessary... changing the saddle perhaps...

But, as said above, get th bike fitted. But adjust the saddle angle before you do anything... you might be surprised at the result.

Roll-Monroe-Co

I think these guys have got it.

Given the size of the frame, there will be a limit within which you can adjust until you shift the weight too far back. But a small adjustment may make a difference.

If you have a local bike co-op (or can afford just to buy one), get ahold of one of those adjustable stems. Within a range, you can get just about any height or reach you can imagine. Experiment with different positions until you're feeling good (if stem adj makes the dif), then measure the height and reach and get a new stem.

It couldn't hurt to use go through a simple set of instructions (for every conceivable variable except frame size) for getting the right position. This one is a little condescending, but it's OK: https://www.jimlangley.net/crank/bikefit.html

Panthers007

Regards adjustable-stems, the Ritchey ones are so tight and slip-proof that they can easily be used as your stem for keeps. They really are that good.

nitropowered

It could be shifter position. I ride many people's bikes that I could not imagine riding for more than 10 minutes because their shifters are in a weird position and puts too much pressure on the hands.

DannoXYZ 

Where does it hurt on your hands?

c0dyrl

It hurts on the meat below my thumbs (thumb muscle?) Ill try adjusting my seat so it is slightly nose up and then check out some shorter stems. Thanks

surfengine

the answer lies within your own question. the bike is too big for you, therefore you are putting too much weight forward and not enough on the butt.
I had the same problem. solution? new frame.

DannoXYZ 

Don't worry about the reach of the stem as much as the height. Contrary to popular belief, the longer your reach to the bars, the less weight you have on your hands. Imagine if you had your hands fully forward and horizontal, there'd be hardly any weight on them at all:



Now the main issue with your hand-pain is how you position your hands on the bars. Imagine drawing a line extending your forearm bones past your hands. That line should land on the bars or hoods to carry your upper-body weight. You want to bend your wrist and rotate your palms inward so that the weight is on the heel of your palms instead of on the thumb. There can be multiple causes of numbness, but I think in your case, it's primarily with how you position your hands:

1. HANDLEBAR HEIGHT - the lower the bars, the more weight you'll have on your arms and hands. Also too short of a reach will also tend to have your arms be vertical with the bars too low, your elbows will be locked and all road shock will pound your hands, arms and shoulders with every road irregularity. I prefer to ride with no lower than a 2" handlebar drop and recreational riders might want to have their bars even with the seat or even higher.

2. HAND-POSITION & GRIP probably makes a significant contribution as well. Don't grip the bars so tight! Gripping the hoods/bars tight is compensation for unbalanced positioning. The weight-bearing spot on your hand should be on the heel of the palm:



To really find this spot, do some push-ups and hold yourself up. Notice where the weight is... note that you do not have to grip the carpet to prevent yourself from falling over. Note that you can wiggle all your fingers. The weight-bearing spot is on an imaginary point directly where the forearm bones would extend through your palm.

Now on the bike, place your palm on the bars/hoods so that this spot is directly centered inline with the forearm bones. This spot is not directly over the bars, but rather 45-degrees behind it so that from the perspective of your shoulders looking through your arm-bones, the bars are inline with the bones.

Good way to test is this to release all your fingers, all your weight should be passively supported by the heel of the palm. If you slide off the back of the bars, move your hands up and forward a bit. If you slide off the front of the bars, move your hands back a bit. Finding this perfectly balanced spot will allow you to ride with all fingers loose, try wiggling them all at once. Like this:


Another variation on this is to curl in the fingers and resting the nails on top of the bar.

Couple different ways to rest on the hoods:


You can lightly wrap the fingers over the tops of the hoods or around the side, but no gripping necessary if all your weight is on the heel of the palm. You should be able to freely wiggle ALL your fingers, including the thumb.

With no muscles clamping with a death-grip on the bars or hoods, your hands will get more circulation and they'll feel more comfortable. With your hands on the drops, you want them splayed out about 45-degrees like that last photo so that all of the weight is on the outside heel of the palm.

One thing you want to be careful about is positioning your weight in the valley in the middle of the heel. The median nerve and flexor tendons runs through there and putting weight on it will pinch and cause numbness and pain. I can ride a hundred miles with bare handlebars and no gloves without any problems. It's just a matter of balancing your weight on parts of your hands that's tough and avoid the tender spots. Here's some other riders with their hands positioned for no-pain riding (notice the bent wrist and forearm bones aimed at the hoods or bar):

sunburst

Besides the stem, you can try different bars. So-called "compact" bars have a shorter reach and shorter drop, which I like. I've got two different Easton drop bars with this geometry. I raise my stem also. I never spent any time in the drops until I got all this sorted out.

Btw, one of my bikes is technically too large also - I can't even straddle it properly. With the raised stem, the drops actually feel better than the tops of the bars.

Vibration can cause problems too. My hands are sensitive to it (a typical aggravation for carpal tunnel). I've got "buzz-kill" bar ends from Bontrager on my alum bars, and I bought a set of carbon bars for my other road bike.

DieselDan

Wow, all that and everyone missed the fix: saddle angle adjustment. In the OP's case, he needs to adjust the nose of the saddle up to alter body weight distribution. If the saddle nose is pointing down, then the rider is pushing his body weight up with his hands.

You can adjust the handlebars and stem all day, but if you are sliding off the nose of the saddle, your hands, wrists, elbows, and shoulders will suffer. Level off the saddle before making any other adjustments.

DaveSSS 

Actually, saddle angle was already mentioned in repsonse #6. I always use a seatpost with a 2-bolt rocker style clamp to allow very fine angle adjustment. Not all saddles should be level. Some are curved from front to back and there is no flat surface to measure "level" from. I this case, I gradually tilt the nose up until I start feeling excessive pressure at the front, then lower it a little. With the Fizik Gobi, for example (not the new XM model), I set the nose 1cm lower than the kicked up tail to create a lowest spot somewhere near the middle. If the saddle was adjusted to a level position from nose to tail (with the level touching only at the front and back, the nose would most be too high for most users.

Saddle fore/aft position is also important. With a too-large frame, some people move the saddle forward to reduce the reach to the bars and that puts more weight on your hands. Even the most often used knee over pedal position may be too far forward for many riders.

JSellers

Picture of you on the bike and picture of the bike would help with speculation. With out these everyone could just talk all day.

DaveSSS 

Every time I've see a picture posted, the respones include: the saddle is too high and too low, too far forward and too far back, the bars are both too high and too low and the stem is both too long and too short. Everyone has an opinion that's different. Pick the opinion that suits.

c0dyrl

Good cause im not posting a picture just yet. Too much work Ill try adjusting the seat with the nose up and work on my hand position when I ride tomorrow and post how its feeling tomorrow night. Again thanks for all the advice

Panthers007

I had a similar situation going on after I'd swapped saddles & seatposts. First I tried leveling the saddle more - with a slight tilt-up to the nose. This helped a bit. But then I slid the saddle back a bit on the rails so my tailbone was directly over the seatpost (and the groovy open slit down the saddle's middle). This did the trick!

Good luck, Man. Tell us what works that we may add it to our bag 'o tricks!

AEO

aside from angle, move the saddle backwards. If it's slammed up forward all the way, it puts even more weight on your hands.

JSellers

Yes but that is from the people that don't care they just want to comment. And just for the record on the people posting angle of saddle it should be level in the seating area where your tail bones hit if it is nose up it puts pressure on your blood vessels.

froze

I agree with others, your putting too much weight on the bars thus raise the bar, you need to move your hands more often while riding using different positions, try using cork bar tape-don't go with thick foam tape, your seat may be too low in the front causing you to slide forward thus constantly pushing yourself back on the saddle adding weight stress on the hands, try thin gel padded gloves like the Trico Sports gel gloves if your still having problems.

LeeG

I think you and dannoxyz are on to it. I wonder if there's a description problem here though regarding weight support. The arms AND trunk support upperbody weight but also provide a dynamic anchor for power output. Your torso isn't suspended statically by torso muscles or statically by bent arms. When spinning or accelerating the lat muscles keep you seated down on the seat and prevent any upper body hobby horse like bobbing. While the upper body isn't moving a lot the muscles are all dynamically providing support for efficient power output AND control on the bars. There is weight on the bars AND a torso suspended above the bars.

I'm thinking of kayaking where loose hand grip allows for good alignment of the little forearm bones to move a large mass efficiently and allow for rhythmic release of compression on hand nerves, or slight movements in the lower body help transmit power through the upper body and reduce nerve problems on the sit bones. Little dynamic movements on every pedal stroke help to relieve potential nerve/tendon problems.

Grand Bois

A frame that's too small is more likely to put too much weight on your hands than a frame that's too big. Saddle height relative to the BB is fixed. If the frame is too small, the saddle will be too far above the bars. The solution is to get the bars up higher, but that can look silly.