groovestew

This is possibly an incredibly stupid question, and worthy of ridicule, but here goes.

I recently did a hilly 300 km brevet, and the constantly changing slope meant a ton of shifting. My bike has 2009 Shimano 105 STI levers. By the end, I couldn't shift with my finger strength anymore - I had to stiffen my fingers and use the muscles in my arm to push the levers. I should mention that it was very cold (just above freezing) and my hands were quite numb from inadequate thermal protection which may have been a contributing factor, but I know for sure that I quite simply just got tired hands (well, my right hand, anyway - I stayed in the small chain ring the entire ride). So I'm just wondering: has that ever happened to anyone else, or are my hands just really really weak?

Al Criner

Were you braking from the hoods alot? That will tire people out - remedy is to descend in the drops, not on the hoods.

If you are reaching too far you could try different bars or shims to reduce the reach to the levers.

In cold weather, keep your wrists warm with tennis wrist bands, this will keep your hands much warmer. If cold hands are the problem, this will help solve it, and this is easy to test on your next chilly ride.

chewybrian 

I suspect the cold is the real issue. I had the same problem on a cold 200k. When I got my 2nd flat, I was afraid I'd have to dnf because I was struggling so hard to get the tire off and on. I had numbness in my thumbs that carried on long after the ride. Since I had no similar issues on longer rides(when it wasn't cold and raining!), I chalk it up to the cold. I'll never get caught without good gloves again.

Bacciagalupe

My best guess is also cold. What kind of gloves were you using?

By the way, if you are able to determine that it was fatigue rather than the cold, one possible option is to add interruptor (aka cross) brakes. That may allow you to spend more time on the tops and change up your hand position.

unterhausen

I had problems last year when I was using downtube friction shifters. I was avoiding shifting, at least on the 600k. Gloves can make problems like this worse, I have had problems due to warmer gloves


I wouldn't worry about this, having cold hands for that long is going to cause problems.

groovestew

Thanks for the responses. I'm going to conclude that I just have weak hands, and should work to strengthen them a bit. I'm pretty sure that the cold was at most a contributing factor, since the fatigue in my right-hand fingers carried on through the next day, whereas my left hand was fine. I failed to mention that it wasn't cold the whole time - there were several broad temperature swings due to time of day and altitude, but the ride finished cold. That said, I'll definitely pack warmer gloves along on future rides, just to mitigate cold as a factor.

To answer a couple of questions asked: I did very little braking during this ride, and most of my braking is with the front (left hand) brake, so that wouldn't have had much effect. I do also have the cross levers on my bike (in fact, it's a cyclocross bike), but for this ride, I ended up spending probably 90% of the time in the drops, only going up to the hoods or tops if I wanted to stretch my back.

Andrey

I used an 8 speed STI shifters on my first 600km ride a few years ago and I switch to bar end shifters since for the reason that my wrists were so tired shifting gears that I ended up riding almost without shifting on the second day of the ride. I have been riding longer distances since with bar end shifters and my hands were fine(almost). They were bruised and it was hard to hold a handlebar on 600km + rides, but at least I had no problem shifting gears.

CliftonGK1

On a recent hilly 300k I had some late-in-the-ride hand issues, too. Even with descending in the drops and not braking from the hoods, the final descent is was did it to me: 17-ish miles in thick fog and mist coming off a ~4000' peak in the dark on poorly maintained roads. Had to ride the brakes most of the way down. Shifting my barcons wasn't much of an issue, but any gripping motion was cause to trigger some cramping in my hands.

lonesomesteve

Switch to a single speed. Problem solved. </kidding>

I've never had the problem from shifting, but I have had similar problems from too much braking while coming down a mountain pass in the middle of the night with a weak headlight. I almost had to get off and walk.

You could do other hand strengthening exercises, but chances are the best exercise for those specific muscles are more hilly 300k rides.

Carbonfiberboy 

On long rides, I always carry two pair of gloves, of different makes, styles, and padding. If I start having hand problems, I switch gloves. That's always fixed it . . . so far. It's more likely a nerve problem than a strength problem. Shifters work very easily, after all.

Six jours

I've heard several people complain of "shifting fatigue" during long brevets. Jan Heine (Bicycle Quarterly) has noted it among STI/Ergo users as well, but he's such a retro-grouch that you have to take him with a grain of salt on some of this stuff. I don't use brifters myself so can't comment from personal experience.

I have had arm and hand cramps from braking on long, steep, unpaved downhills, to the point that I've put together a bike with a drum/drag brake for such rides. FWIW, I'm a competition pistol shooter so I do extensive hand and wrist exercises daily. In my experience, hand strength alone isn't enough to guarantee you'll have no problems with controls on the bike.

Homeyba

You've answered your own question right here unless you've run into this problem when your hands were warm. The only times I've ever had an issue similar was when I had frozen hands. It probably continued for then next week because you did some minor nerve damage.