Cycling Gloves and Padding
 

I need to replace my cycling half gloves and I am looking to maximize the padding in the palms. The goal here is to minimize vibration and every little bit helps (I guess). Suggestions?

Thanks.

dave

Solve the problem rather than look for a better band-aid?

If you're looking to maximize padding, you probably have too much weight on your hands. If you have significant weight on your hands, your position probably needs work.

I like the way Specialized Dual Gel gloves fit. But for long rides padding isn't helpful to me. I still find myself grabbing the gloves with less padding for all but the shortest of my rides.

I minimize vibration by just not holding onto the bars tightly. And I try not to use any of the back half of my palm next to my wrist. When in the drops I just curl my fingers around the bar and my palm doesn't touch at all. For me that really helps eliminate the road vibrations and bumps from pounding into me.

He probably needs three different surgeries.

What is wrong with a band aid?

Try this...

https://www.bikeforums.net/22900854-post5.html

https://www.bikeforums.net/fifty-plu...l#post22900854

I have severe arthritis in my left shoulder and the vibration seems to be a culprit in my shoulder discomfort while riding. I am simply doing anything that I can (particularly things that are inexpensive and easy) to reduce that (whether it will be effective or not). And yes I have been to my orthopedic doctor, yes I have had a MRI, yes I have been through the PT route, yes I have been properly fitted to my bike, and so on.

dave

One thing to be aware of is that greater padding does not necessarily equal greater comfort. You can end up gripping harder because you feel less secure, and end up no better off. So, whatever you end up with, consciously relaxing your grip on the bars may help quite a bit.

In your case (I perused your other thread), doing everything you can to lighten the weight you put on your hands, as well as the other steps to reduce vibration, may be worth the effort. Ideally, you should be able to lift your hands off the bars while pedalling without falling forward, and you shouldn't have to push off them, either.

One other thing about padding - I use unpadded gloves now but I went through a bunch of padded gloves in the past and what I found was that SOME of them exacerbated the Carpal Tunnel problems I had from years of pipetting. In fact, one of the worst pairs supposedly had a channel to alleviate the pressure on the median nerve! Good luck!

You may also want to try adding gel pads under your bar tape or double wrapping your bars. There are also stems which have built in shock absorption which flex but not to the point of making it noticeable or unsafe.

The way I got relief from shoulder and neck issues is by changing my on bike position, including riser type stems with shorter reach, and either shallow drop bars, like Ritchey Beacon bar. And/or, something like the Soma Porteur bar. The closest I have to more traditional drops is a Pro LT Gravel bar, 103 drop and 65 reach with only 5 degrees of flare. That is set up so the top of the bar is slightly above the saddle height. Those changes have also taken a lot of stress off my arthritic thumbs. I cannot do low and long any more. I prefer non-padded, long finger gloves, and tape with a bit of cushioning, not real thick. Too much padding causes numbness in my hands.

Some of us place real weight on our hands to get lower and more aero. For myself, a guy with lots of wind resistance and a small engine, such a position simply makes my cycling better, faster and more enjoyable, especially if I have to go upwind which is often the case with the rides I do. (When I do the work you suggest, I get looser, the bend forward gets easier, I push the stem down and end up happier with more weight on my hands.)

[QUOTE=Iride01;22987362]I like the way Specialized Dual Gel gloves fit. But for long rides padding isn't helpful to me. I still find myself grabbing the gloves with less padding for all but the shortest of my rides.

I minimize vibration by just not holding onto the bars tightly. And I try not to use any of the back half of my palm next to my wrist. When in the drops I just curl my fingers around the bar and my palm doesn't touch at all. For me that really helps eliminate the road vibrations and bumps from pounding into me.[/QUOTE]

I don't do that second sentence consciously but I do ride in hand positions where my palms are facing each other and contact with the bars is on the outside of my palm's little finger side. Poor roads I spend a of of time in the drops.

A trick that was stressed by my early mentors when I started to race - firm grip on the bars but not an iron one. And keep my arms loose so there is no direct transmission of shock from bars to body.

I am another who chooses lightly padded (or no padding) gloves but I double wrap my handlebars to bring the diameter up a touch.

This...Once I got my fit worked out, I found padded gloves were not needed

I agree with the original poster's point - padding in gloves can reduce the vibration feel in your hands.

The two suggestions that addressed that point - gel gloves and cushier bar tape - are what I did over the years, pretty much in that order. Then on a long ride I forgot to bring my gloves and found that the cushy bar tape had pretty much solved the problem, really didn't need to gel gloves. But, the back of the gloves is still a useful brow wiper and out of habit I still wear them. I've also bought into liking a high vis color on my hands for road riding.

My favorite (from a fit and durability point of view) have been Peal Izumi Elite Gel gloves.

I used to put on the cheapest bar tape and went to cork/gel bar tape - the added cost is almost as much over the life of the tape as a pair of gloves, but in any case: as a percentage of the cost of the bike, not a major investment!

When rheumatoid was joined by osteo in my hands I took on all of the good input mentioned above in addressing the issue. I believe addressing the bars as rsbob's suggested gave the the most relief of all I worked on.

I like a think handlebar tape (I'm using zipp service course cx) and a glove with lots of padding (I'm using performance terry).

I have noticed a lot of racers are not wearing gloves.

What's your tire inflation? If it's too high, that's going to have a couple orders of magnitude more effect than glove padding.

I find when my hands sweat they get real slippery on the bar tape (cork) without gloves. They must be using a different composition of tape than I am.

I am running 25mm tires on both my Bianchi and Emonda. The Emonda could go up to 28mm (depending on the tire) but no way WRT the Bianchi. My raw weight is around 165 these days (a bit too heavy but ...) and 75/80 pounds is as low as I care to go on these tires and the road surfaces that I ride on (country road asphalt in varying degrees of maintenance). The tires on my current bikes have over 50% life left and I have four still in the box Conti 5000's sitting on the shelf. So that experiment is not 'next on the list'. Latex tubes - different story.

dave

I'm another vote for checking the overall bike fit - rather than adding more padding.
I have pretty much stopped wearing gloves for summer road riding. I started going gloveless earlier this year and find that the padding in gloves doesn't seem to do anything. I don't have any problems gripping my bars or hoods with bare hands.

FWIW, this is not a bike problem (or fit problem or even cycling problem). This is a well diagnosed shoulder problem and, from my perspective, is a "all hands on deck problem". If better padded gloves help (they literally saved my outdoor riding when I was having wrist issues a few years back) then better padded gloves it is. If a fit change helps - then I will go for it (within reason). Tires, wheels, etc., same thing. This is not going away and in the best conceivable case will simply not get worse (and that outcome is actually unlikely) and I will find some band aids that are helpful and keep me riding longer than otherwise. .

dave

Your wrists and your elbow are between the bars and your problematic shoulder; none of those joints should be bearing much weight. If there's enough rigidity through your arms, such that jolts transmit through the two sets of buffer joints and still discomfort your shoulder, what hope is there that 2mm more padding on your palms will alleviate the problem?

I know that you've said that you've been fit. Evidence suggests that the fit wasn't a very good one. I'd recommend revisiting fit -> adopting a less aggressive position -> and, if all else fails, looking at a 'bent (sorry :o).

I do not know if this will be helpful or not. But it is tied for first place WRT cost (of various possible solutions) and by far the easiest to implement. So I am going to give this a try.

Shoulder surgery (full shoulder replacement in my case) vs. a recumbent-type solution. Now there is an interesting decision.

dave

Time for a recumbent.

Happen to like Pearl Izumi, who have various padding scheme options and a snug fit that doesn't fold to cause blisters. Sizing runs a little small, if ordering on line. Men's large are pretty tight on me, at least when they're new.

Good luck!

I mostly wear padded gloves of various manufacture, but for really long rides, I prefer unpadded gloves. I think that might be because they're not as sweaty? As has been said, hand comfort is all about position and the location of the bars and hoods. I find increasing reach by a few cm. can help decreasing the vibration's force on the hands, simply because the arms are more hinged, it that makes any sense to you. That's assuming that your position already takes the weight off your hands. If your hands are pushing down on the bars, vibration will be more noticeable. They should be light on the bars. Look at the photos in the Numb Hands post.