akiva

I am unable to relieve the wrist pain and neurological symptoms (tingling in the wrist and fingers) I'm having on my 59 cm. Specialized Sirrus Comp with flat handlebars. To relieve the symptoms, I was advised to use an extended handebar stem (130 mm.). I've also tried the handlebar stem angle at both its highest and lowest positions. And I've got the seat way back, as suggested for my 6 ft., 175 lb. body. I use Pearl Izumi gloves with maximum gel padding. I try to keep pressure off of my wrists when riding to the extent possible, but this can prove challenging. Any suggestions are appreciated.

gpelpel

I used to have wrist pain until I installed the Fizik Gel pads on my handlebars. I also switched to the FSA carbon K-Wing bars from the FSA aluminum ProWing. Both are flat bars but the carbon helps a bit at reducing road vibration.
Anyway the gel pads made a difference, much more than the carbon bars, so I highly recommend them.
Aside for the pads there are two things I would work on: First the bars orientation and second making sure your grip on the bars is relaxed.
With the FSA bars I found that the drops have to be parallel to the road otherwise the flat part of the top is too perpendicular to your wrists resulting in more vibration going up your arms.
One tend to hold the bars too tightly, keep your hold relaxed and change hand position often.

farrellcollie

I use this AX50 Adapter from

Yellow Jersey at https://www.yellowjersey.org/ax50.html
- It is the only that I have found that keeps me from horrible pain and numbness in my right wrist. It brings the handlebars in more than any stem I found

Yen

I have wrist problems galore due to anatomical anomalies in both wrists. After a very bad ride during which my right hand was almost completely numb, I've learned to relax my grip and move my hands more often while I ride, while also using my core muscles to support me instead of resting my weight on the grips. I now have very little numbness (usually none at all) even during 20+ mile rides.

In addition, I am trying to get these grips from Ergon-Bike.com through my LBS. They were recommended to me by a couple of folks in these forums. I ordered the GC2 because I want bar ends for an additional place to put my hands.

George

Besides the grips that Yen told you about, you might want to play with the angle of the bars. I had numbness in my ring finger and the small one, I tilted the bar up about 1/4 of an inch and that did for me. Good luck.

europa

Flat bars are horrid things. Fit some bar ends so you can move your hands around, or look at trekking bars (those ugly things that come back on themselves - they offer a lot of hand positions). A long distance tourer I know has also suggested to me that having the grips/gloves too soft can also cause problems so if all the padding doesn't help, try going the other way.

Richard

bkaapcke

Wrist pain finally drove me to a LWB recumbent. The new ride cured seat problems, low back pain and sore neck problems. I tried it out of desperation, and now I love it. bk

Yen

What about these North Road bars at the same web site given above? It says you can flip them for a 60mm rise. In what direction would they be flipped for that? I'm trying to picture that orientation. What about flipping them so that the ends are upward like bar ends?

George

If you can't get down, or you do not want to get down, then I think the trekking bars would serve you well. If not using the drops the trekking bars give more hand positions, but I don't know how they would look on your bike. Some people don't like the looks of them, but there are others that do. Good luck

MarkAJ

This thread has good points to heed. I want to re-enforce not to hold the handlebars with a death grip and move your grip around when riding. Also, on your road bike you want to ride with your elbows bent most of the time. This was pointed out to me by several shall I say advanced riders after they watched me riding. It is harder to do then you think. The benefits of bent arms are more power delivered to the pedals (forget about this when climbing) and you get better circulation in the arms and hands, less or no numbness. Will my points relieve your wrist pain, probably not, but I am recommending you work it in with your other adjustments.

jazzy_cyclist

I used to have wrist problems a couple years ago. One thing that I don't understand - you mention (if I understand you) that you are using a *longer* stem. In my case, I got a shorter stem which took more weight off my hands because I wasn't reaching as far (and therefore not "leaning" on the bars)...

Some suggestions:

1. What I did was buy some Dr. Scholls gel insoles, and then cut out circles that I put in my gloves. This worked pretty well before resolving the fit issues

2. Also, I found that in my case I was putting my hands such that the corner of the bar was resting in the groove in the heel of my hand. This is where several nerves are located, so it means that you're compressing the nerves. Now I try to rest my hands on the non-thumb side.

3. I have been riding harder since then, and the problem has moved to my feet But the point is that if you are riding hard and applying force to the pedals, it's keeping weight off of your hands that might be there if you were just coasting along.

4. I didn't do this, but I considered trying to weigh me + the bike, and then weigh me + the bike on the front wheels only to see what the weight distribution is between front and rear.

5. The core strengthening will help, but only to a degree.

6. I still think that fit is the issue that you need to focus on unless you have an issue in general with your wrist(s). Have you tried going to a fitting specialist?

Good luck.

stapfam

Have ridden flat bars for 17 years and I did not realise how over the years I have found certain things to help on the Hand numbness and tingling. Moving the hands around BEFORE the pain gets too much helps a lot. Bar ends give different hand positions- Raising the bar (Or maybe lowering for some people) or as I have done- Changing to riser bars may help. Couple of things though- Those trekking bars may look wierd but they Offer a multitude of Hand positions. The thickness of the Bar grip- I always use a fairly thick but firm one made by "Yeti"- and I have small hands. On Gloves- Just because it has gell in them- I will not recommend them. The gell compacts down after a short while and offers no padding to the hand. and also- I have small hands but always buy a Large glove so that nothing restricts circulation in the hand. My hands swell up after a while and if I used a small glove- They would be tight after 10 minutes.

Then as someone else mentioned- Death grip with the hands. I tried it on one ride and it works Don't hold the bar firmly. You still have bar controll and the fingers get better circulation.

bobkat

Get a bent and throw away those boxing gloves and the pain and numbness will be gone. Throw away those biking shorts with the built in diapers, too. Heh!