Numb hands on MTB
 

Road bike with bull horns has many hand positions so numb hands are rare for me. MTB only a couple places. After less than an hour my hands are so numb I have trouble with thumb shifters - so I am looking for alternatives. What have you added for longer rides. Pic's would be great.

Look up "Cyclists Palsy" which is the medical term for what you have described. There are some suggestions for coping with it at most articles. For me it eventually got so bad that I switched to riding recumbent bikes and trikes. No more cyclist palsy.

Inboard bar-ends and an aero bar.

BobbyG I have seen bar ends online. I don't understand the angle on the end - that's why I requested pictures. I like the bull horn - arm rest looks like doubles as another hand position. Thanks. Time to shop.

Ergo bar ends!

These work for me, but there are many other styles.

+1 on ergo bar ends. I don't use them on my mountain bikes, per se, because of the terrain and having to reposition hands to get to brakes and shifters, but they are great on a flat bar bike; "almost" like riding on hoods. Keep in mind my flat bars are around 600mm wide and not 3ft.

John

Wow! Lots of stuff to impale yourself on if you do an endo! :eek:

Ergon grips or something similar made a big difference for me. You then put most of the pressure on the parts of your hand that would be pressured when you do a pushup.

http://cdn.ergonbike.com/img/png-583...5_detail_1.png

There are just about any style you could want. Look at the mountain bike or touring series.

Produkte ? ERGON BIKE

Made a huge difference for me.

J.

^^ Ditto..

Many, many, many, many possible causes for this. Is your seat/handlebar/pedal relationship balanced well so you don't have undue pressure on you hands? Are you gripping your grips too hard? After that, I would look at ergo grips to spread the pressure away from the ulnar nerve.

I've been riding my mtb for a while getting ready for a longish gravel bike. I find bar ends do the job for me. But I've been wanting to try out the ergon grips as well.

After a couple weeks of discomfort, I replaced the MTB style bar on my new bike with a swept bar. No more pain. Just a small rotation of my wrists made a big difference. All of my bikes are equipped with swept bars. There are even some that are reasonably sporty looking, such as the FSA Metropolis.

I'm not a fan of flat bars at all, however I did commute from three years on a Frankenbike that had flat bars. The Ergon grips were the best solution for me. I found the set up to be rather subtle so carry allen key with you for adjustments on the road (for some reason, I changed bars a couple of times) but once dialed in, they're magic.

Another thing to check in your setup is whether your brake levers are angled correctly so that your wrist does not have to twist up or down for your fingers to rest on the levers.

Same here -- best improvement I made to my mountain bike was to add straight bar-ends, oriented to give me a neutral (handshake) wrist orientation and rotation. I use them with motorcycle-style 4-finger brake levers that I can grab by the ends, as needed.

I got some for my wife a month or two ago. They seem well-made, and you can get small or large. Another benefit is the ones we got (GP3) are carbon-bar compatible, and don't slip.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....wL._SX522_.jpg

It hasn't, however, solved her problem.

Thanks for all the ideas. Sometimes just getting back to the basics is best. Two things that helped me: standing while climbing and hands free on flats. Did 17 mi yesterday with a lot of both and less numbness. Ordered cheap bar ends for testing should be here today. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Interesting. I’m only now getting into gravel riding, and I’ve found that some roads absolutely beat me up – especially my hands. I recently stumbled across an article on ‘Hand and Arm Vibration Syndrome’; nerve damage caused by excessive vibration. Usually attributed to power tools, it can affect cyclist too. And since I’ve had never issues for years, this is something I want to guard against aggravating. So far, I’ve put on larger, 40c tubeless tires (35 psi), but I may need more.

My newest bike to me came with Ergon GP5 & absolutely love them.

OP here with follow-up to the cheap grips with bar ends. Reason for low price is casting flaw that can be fixed in minutes with a round file to remove excess material. Once installed they are tight and do not move. Getting grips in good position only took a couple rides. Ended up with flats just slightly below horz. Bar ends - a different story - still working on the angle. As mentioned natural handshake position is good starting point. I have tried everything between horz and vert. So far nothing feels best so I just left them in handshake. Currently riding about 2.5 hours and combination of new hand positions, some standing, hands free with hand shaking and slightly lower tire pressure has helped a bunch. Not gone but century on MTB is beginning to look doable. Still thinking about prof fit by Tad Hughes. He did my road bike - amazing difference. Thanks for all the help.

Ergon grips and swept bars will help if it is positional...if it is vibration, ergon grips and a bar snake will knock most of that out.

Are the Bars Aluminum or Carbon? If they are Aluminum try switching them out to a Carbon set. I am not a big fan of Carbon Framesets but Carbon Bars and Seatpost can really make a difference in dampening vibration.

Glad it's working for you ctpres. Sometimes you're chasing shadows but it's good when it starts to come good. :thumb: