bkaapcke

In my never ending quest to find a solution to pavement induced vibration that drives the nerves in my hands nuts, it's time to seriously consider better padded gloves. Foam padding seems to do better than gel pads. So, who makes the thickest foam padded gloves? bk

knobster

To answer your question, the biggest gel padding in gloves that I've ever seen is the Novara Touring gloves. I have some. To give you a different answer, I think it's a mistake. I think thicker padding is going to make the matter worse. You may have better luck getting padded gel inserts under your bar wrap. Check out the thick Specialized Bar Phat. I love it. Without it, I wouldn't be able to ride since my right wrist is trash.

Garfield Cat

There might be a different thing going on. I'm not sure of your circumstances. On road bikes, the geometry tends to make the rider's upper body tilt forward. At first the rider will use the arm, wrist , hands as some kind of a support mechanism for the weight of the upper body. Later on, the rider will develop core muscle strength and this will take the weight off the arms and hands.

There's some core strength development just from riding. But it helps if you do exercises and also during rides, its good to change positions, even sit straight up, with no hands for a while and pedal using an easy gear.

I just watched on TV commercials Windsor Pilates to see how core exercises are done. Also, I got a chance to ask a pro rider what he does and got some pointers.

LarDasse74

I agree that trhicker gloves may not be the best solution.

Other things to consider:

-If your saddle is tilted nose-down, even slightly, then your hands and arms are forced to hold far more weight than if the saddle is level or slightly nose-up. Handlebars too-low relative to the saddle can also aggravate this.

-If you are riding on very rough roads with narrow high pressure tires, road vibrations are transmitted directly to the bars. See if you can fit a slightly wider tire and run it at slightly lower pressure.

-If you have drop bars, make sure you are changing hand positions often. If you have upright or straight bars, add bar-ends to give you an extra hand position.

I generally wear the thinnest gloves possible... but I only wear gloves when mountain biking (with suspension) or when it is cold. I have always found thicker gloves make my hands go numb, and gel padded gloves are far worse than foam padded gloves.

bkaapcke

I ride a LWB recumbent, so there is no weight on the hands.The problem is a 20" front wheel (very stiff) and slurry seal on the local MUP and many local streets. Even with 20x1.75 tires, run at 44psi (80 max) a low level harmonic vibration comes up through the fork, stem and bars. It's just enough to irritate the ulnar nerves. I bought a Pantour hub/wheel, but it wouldn't work on my fork. I do have 1/2" wall foam hand grips which help, but do not eliminate the problem. IL have used foam and gel padded gloves and foam seems to help a lot more than gel. At this point, I'd like to try the thickest foam padded gloves I can find. I figure it's cheap, relative to a lot of other stuff I have tried or am still using. Ideas?