Broken arms
 

I broke my right forearm and left elbow about 20 years ago. Bought a bike after I healed and did after lot of riding. Have always had an issue with my hands falling asleep after being on the bike for a while. I got to the point where I stopped riding. I want to get back to riding and am looking for some way to keep my hands from falling asleep it has also started to be a bit painfull. Just wondering if the fit of my bike might help this or changing my handlebars. Right now they are drop down on my road bike (Giant OCR1). Any suggestions that will help to get me back in the saddle?

Yes, get a bike fitting. Your reach, the height of the bars relative to the saddle, the position of the brake levers can all affect this. How is your core strength? Are you supporting a lot of your weight with your arms? Do you ride with your elbows straight or flexed?

We've discussed the issues involved here many times so a search my uncover a lot of information.

Given your circumstances I suggest that you want to move the saddle BACK as far as you can which may include a seatpost with more offset or even a new frame/bike.

Consider the BB (bottom Bracket ) to be the centre of gravity on the bike. The more weight you have forwards of the BB the more weight you have on your arms/shoulders. The less weight you have forwards of the BB the less weight you have on your arms shoulders.

The quick and dirty way of assessing the fore/aft balance of your bike is the seat tube angle. A 73 degree seat tube angle is kind of neutral for a performance road bike. Bigger numbers (74, 75 degrees) are steep which places more weight on your hands/shoulders and smaller numbers (72, 71 degrees place less weight on your hands/shoulders.

Now that was an over generalisation yet in your case where taking the weight off your hands /shoulders is paramount then finding a bike with a slack (low number) seat tube angle is where you want to look.

Reach to the handlebars is an issue too yet the seat tube angle is far more important. A short reach but steep seat tube angle is still surprisingly uncomfortable. A long reach can be surprisingly comfortable if the seat tube angle is relaxed.

Numb hands is due to cut off blood circulation (usually), so find a riding posture that minimizes bent wrists and weight on your hands.
Sometimes, a good bike fit can fix a bunch of issues. Sounds like you have too much weight on your arms and need to place more of your body weight on the pedals.
Perhaps consider a more upright riding position by raising the bars a spacer at a time until the problem goes away?

Thank you everyone for your responses. I will look in to getting fitted and see if that helps.

It will be worth the expense.