milchad

+1 One of the mose painful rides I ever did was the "Ride of Silence"
https://www.rideofsilence.org/main.php

cave12man

man, thanks for the advice everyone. interesting info. my gloves are fairly un-padded (performance terry gloves) so i think i'll have to work on my wrist angle and positioning. i've never heard of getting into the drops and trying to let go of the bars while staying in position so i'll have to try that too. i have a sneaking feeling that my bike is a size too big as well so that might be one of the problems. i've been meaning to get it professionally fit but haven't had the time. guess now would be a good time.

i'll have to try that stretch too. i can feeling back if i let go of the bars and shake them a bit but another couple miles of flats and their back to being numb again. very frustrating.

thanks again.

echotraveler

not the best advise, the seat should be moved front and back to fine tune you pedaling. Your knee should be parallel to the pivot on your pedal that way pedaling is more efficient. he better go to an lbs and have a fit...

waterrockets 

Common myth. Not a bad starting point, but hardly the final word.

DannoXYZ 

You are putting pressure on the median and/or ulnar nerves. Don't do that and the hands won't go numb.

ridethecliche

I've had a couple of numbness issues on my hands when riding.

I got the specialized bar phat gel liner for my bars, and that coupled with unpadded gloves helped. You should also vary your hand position a ton while on a ride. Hoods, tops, drops, etc. They're there to be used!

cyclebycle13

This is interesting-- I've been riding for 14 years now (as an adult). I've been dealing with my left hand going numb for several years now-- tried no gloves, no padded gloves, moving hands around, etc. I finally rotated the handlebars so the hoods were further down. From some fitting method you hold a straightedge against the bottom side of your drops so it points in the same direction as the bars. You try to get it so the straightedge is pointing towards the rear brake. I didn't get it exact, but before I changed it I was way off. No more numbness- even with padded gloves.

kleinboogie

Check out the picture. Idea is to not compress the two nerves running through the center and between the center/outside of your palm. GL

cappuccino911

if i can piggyback on this thread a bit. I made a bar and stem change recently. shorter stem but I moved the brifters farther down the bar. now the angle of my wrists is actually perfectly straight when before i had my thumbs kinda coming up more. I made this change because I was having trouble shifting in the drops and i read somewhere that the bottom of the brake lever should be close to the bottom of the bar and mine were nowhere near there. now i'm having some soreness and numbness in the hands with this switch. when i first went to my old setup a few weeks ago it was also a bit sore but i seemed to adapt to it. I thought having a shorter stem would make me less stretched out and a bit more upright and actually be more comfortable. is this incorrect thinking?

bonz50

in other words....

QUIT FAPPIN!!!!!

you'll go blind too...

Nachoman

The Performance terry glove is one of my favorite gloves. But I find it to be very padded.

jgrosser

Numbness (at least in my case) was caused by excessive pressure on the Ulnar nerve, which runs through the palms. I experienced severe and lasting numbness in one hand and weakness in the other hand earlier this year. I have since fixed the problem by: 1) gloves with more padding at the base of the hand but no padding over the ulnar nerve (creating a void so that less pressure is placed on the nerve), 2) Fizik bar gel, 3) thicker bar tape, 4) looser grip on handlebar, and 5) frequent shifting of hand position on bar. With these steps, I have eliminated numbness.

dahut

Id go along with this. Get the weight off the forward fulcrum point and balance.