I'm rather new to cycling and I'm not sure how to deal with the one primary source of discomfort while riding: hand pain. I find that I am far more comfortable on the drops than on the hoods or the tops, though I do ocassionally use those positions as a change of pace. They primary place I get pain is in the large muscles in the thenar and hypothenar (?) regions as shown in the drawing. This is discomfort from pressure on the muscles, not on the nerves or connective tissue. There is not the oft mentioned numbness or tingling from the latter, just pain like sitting for a while with a lead brick on your quad. And, since those areas are the ones that are the primary contact points no matter what position I use, they hurt even with regular changes of grip.

I know that part of the issue is that I am starting from a rather low strength/fitness level which means that my legs provide proportionally less support and my torso is heavier than it is for those in more ideal fitness levels. I also know that I need to keep reinforcing the habit of slightly flexed elbows to allow the triceps to bear some load and provide a spring effect. I also intend to replace the cheap brake levers and unpadded hoods with something better when budget allows which may well make the hoods more attractive.

I have already installed "ergo bend" bars which are really quite a perfect fit and are more comfortable than the traditional Maes bend that I had been using. I've got moderately padded bar tape, but nothing else as I have a general aversion to "gel" in marketing material. Is this a mistake in this instance? What should I try to help relieve the discomfort while I slowly (over several years, I presume) lose excess torso mass and add leg strength?

i double wrap the bar tape on all my bikes and appreciate the
extra cushion that brings, especially on long rides.

Learning to ride in a good position with less weight on the hands is really a work in progress and takes many seasons to develop. It is a skill.
Riding position is key and a book can be written about it. I personally prefer a winged shaped handlebar like a FSA K-wing carbon handlebar for less pressure on the palms...same force is applied over a greater area.

But getting your weight balanced on the saddle with proper saddle fore/aft position is huge....the pedals are a platform to balance your weight and lower level cyclists are best advised to ride with more setback because their pedal forces are lower to keep high pressure off their hands.

Position on the bike can be counterintuitive for the beginner for sure...not unlike the golf swing for example.

Best general article penned from somebody who still visits the 41 ocassionally was written by Danno: Read and re-read it. Biggest mistake I see riders make is they choose a handlebar position too close to their body. You can't rotate your pelvis properly, have good posture and get your weight balanced on the saddle for less weight on the hands when too close to the handlebar and why you see better riders ride with a longer reach.

Have a read:
https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php/752905-Numb-Hands

Double wrap your bars, use gloves.rise your stem above your saddle height. Or HTFU.

Try not to grip too tight. Let the bar float just a bit.

Pedal harder. IMO, at least 50% of your weight should be on your pedals.

While I agree with you, and that can and does help, one can do what you said and still have pain/numbness after longer rides. I pedal pretty hard and I still have those issues with my hands. Part of the reason is that often my rides are in areas where I can go long distances without stopping. Therefore, while riding I have to consciously remove my hands from the bars and shake them from time to time.

See post #30 in this thread. Helped me tremendously.

https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycli...t-rides-2.html

I've thought about that. I also thought about running thin weather-strip like padding on top of the horizontal part of the drops once my new bar tape arrives from Amazon. I looked at some of the "gel" drop pad sets and decided that it would be cheaper and more customizable to cut up some Dr. Scholls insoles to put under the tape.

Thanks for the input. I've got some used tape that I can try tomorrow.

Thank you for the excellent feedback. I've still got to pick a better-for-me saddle -- another topic on itself. I thought that I had the saddle/bar height and reach dialed in, but I will make some adjustments and observations along those lines. I think that you identified the core issue -- I simply need more experience and training to gain the skill and strength to be more comfortable.

Being a geek, I wish I could rig up a set of pressure sensors on the seatpost, bottom bracket and headset connected to a RaspberryPi so that I could actually see how my perceptions line up to reality. Ah, well. That is a topic for another forum as well.

"HTFU"

I'd be offended if you weren't right. Getting told to do so helps get out of the friggin' garage in the morning.

Thanks, I normally keep my fingers somewhat spread at this time of year for cooling and sweat removal. The only time I "grip" is when I am preparing to dismount, grab a water bottle, climb hard, etc. My problem is just the weight bearing hand muscles getting sore from my fat self balanced half(ish) on them.

If that were physically possible for me at the present it might just do the trick. It will however, take me thousands of miles of riding to get the endurance and strength to pedal hard consistently. So, to make training less painful and to therefore make it more likely that I train, I am seeking solutions for now.

I do appreciate your point, but I need something else.

This is just my opinion, so feel free to ignore:
Weight distribution on the bike is a teeter-totter with one fat kid and one thin kid. Your seat is the fat kid side, your bars are the thin kid, and the pedals are the pivot point. Primarily, you have weight on your seat, but also significant weight on the pivot point, and some on the bars. Sometimes you put weight on your hands, but that should raise the fat kid in the air slightly.

I don't know if you've experienced it, but when you are seated and really pushing hard on level ground, your butt lifts slightly off the saddle. You want to find that point, and dial back from that to get some weight on your can, but not so much that your feet are just dangling meat limbs.

Battery dying, good luck.

A couple of things:
- All the guys that mention bar tape. Double wrap of tape while it may fractionally help, is nothing compared to proper riding position. When I set up a new bike, I ride the bike for a couple of days with no bar tape at all to precisely dial in shifter position on the bars. I don't ride with a lot of weight on my hands because my weight is better balanced on the saddle. That is where is starts. You sit on your saddle and lean forward. You have an average pressure down on the pedals which are in front of the saddle. Pushing down on the pedals offsets your weight and pushes it back to keep weight off your hands. So it starts with position on the bike that I would say more get wrong than right.

If you are a geek then tech is your friend. Take a picture of yourself on the hoods and in the drops in profile from the crank side and post it here. I think I already know what you look like by your questions but do it anyway. Post your height and saddle height from BB center to top of saddle and include bike frame size.

Position trumps anything you can add to your handlebars to make them more comfortable. If your saddle is too forward relative to the crank center and you are sitting too close to the handlebar, you are bound to have too much weight on your hands.

A common dynamic is...a guy goes in for a fitting. The fitter sees the rider pedal on the trainer in likely your position for about 5 minutes and says, you are riding much too cramped and we need to move your saddle back and handlebar well forward. Once adjusted the rider gets back on the bike and says no way I can ride in that position. That is because a good long reach to the handlebar which puts less pressure on the handlebar as Danno correctly says requires a completely different pelvis position and a nice elongated back. This is completely foreign to somebody who rides a roadbike like a cruiser. There is a reason why cruisers have a high handlebar. If you sit on top of the handlebar, you need a high handlebar for leverage against your body. Sitting properly on a roadbike is completely different and even good riders work on their posture. If I feel discomfort on my bike, I can generally trace it to slumped posture with insufficient pelvis rotation.

I think you missed my point. I am not telling you to ride faster, or generate more watts, I am saying put weight on the pedals. When you walk, you put 100% of your weight on alternating feet. I am saying put 50%. To say you are unable does not compute.

An awful lot gets focused on higher cadence, and I see a number of riders with most of their weight on the saddle, spinning their feet at high rpm but with no weight on them. These are the most common folks I hear trying to solve hand or ass pain.

As mentioned, work on your position and then work on it some more. Having carpal issues, wrist issues, shoulder issues, neck issues and older age $uck$ cause it sometimes takes lots more $$$$ to help fix things in addition to working on body position and strength.

Aerobars have helped me.

yes agreed. never had really bad hand/wrist issues but found myself shaking them from time to time/shifting more weight onto my saddle fairly often on rides over
40 miles or more before adding the extra layer. proper riding position is key but i have found that the little extra layer of cork tape helps a little bit. it is more of a cherry
on top vs the sundae of a proper fit/riding position. but...if it helps the op get to their ultimate comfort zone on the bike...then awesome.

True and even many pros double wrap handlebars...especially on cobble stages that brutalize the body.
To me better than double wrap handlebars is a flat top handlebar like the FSA K-wing. I like to experiment and every once in a while I get a wild hair and will try another handlebar shape with rounder tops. After about 3 rides, I take them off and put the K-wing back on. A very friendly bar on the tops with nice long flat transition to the shifter hoods. If I find a more comfortable handlebar, I will ride it, but I haven't so far.

Brake Hood Over-Grips - Products

i love them

Wow, perfect catch! The biggest thing I get from that is that I REALLY, really need to replace the cheap, dagger-like hoods one the cheap non-adjustable brakes. Once I get a replacement, I'm going to have to have my wife take a couple of side shots to visualize the alignment as that post mentioned.

You rock. Thanks!

Are you properly positioned on your saddle? There must be a baseline to start from otherwise you are going to be chasing problems forever and never or seldom finding relief.
As a "new rider" discomfort comes from a variety of areas. It takes time, one you are properly positioned on your bike, for the body and mind to acclimate to the pressure and stress levels on varied parts of the body...the "pivot" points are the most common complaint areas...ie, butt, hands including arms, shoulders, neck, etc and often the feet.

It also strikes my you are overthinking the situation...stop buying stuff to remedy discomfort...create a baseline by a proper fitting and adjustment of your bike...use reasonably good quality parts...saddle, gloves, etc. but don't go crazy overboard...begin and stick with a daily stretching regimen to begin limbering your body...learn to change your position on the bike more often but not until you are properly fitted...Stick to basics describing a problem, I'm not a medical person so stick to basic descriptions...numb nutz, hands, etc.

I'm also curious as to the bike you are riding...cheap brake levers and unpadded hoods?...hoods generally aren't padded, merely a rubber sleeve of some sort...the shape of brake levers are fairly the same across the board though shapes may vary somewhat...handle bar tape provides minimal comfort in general and is really more for grip and sweat absorbtion...get tape is ok but again doesn't really do tons but double wrapping your bars may help. I double wrap one set of bars on my cross bike as the bars "feel" a bit less in the diameter area than my normal road bike bars but it could just be me...I like the feel of the double wrap on my cross bike but have no need on my road bike bars.

To sum it up...position, position, position...unless you are starting from a good position and adjusted bike it will be nearly impossible to do more than put bandaids on the problem.
You can do it yourself...kinda sorta better than nothing...you can find methods by doing a Google search and/or Youtube search and do it yourself with some help from a friend, etc.

Take some time to allow your body and mind to begin to adjust to the position. Don't make "minor" adjustments for several weeks and when/if do it incrementally meaning a millimeter or two/three rather than a centimeter...
Don't worry about saddle changes until the above is complete...we all have the "box o saddles" hundreds of dollars of saddles we no longer use...don't be one of us.

Good luck and keep us informed.

Thank you. Took your advice and revisited the saddle-bar distance. I'm not quite sure I've got it right but I just put in my fastest time on a particular loop with the increased seat-bar reach. I'm going to ask my wife to take some pics of me riding by so that I can see my actual position and compare it to pictures of skilled cyclists. Being able to compare angles and use my comparative strength/fitness as a modifier should help follow the advice i have been given.

BTW, judging by your handle, you prefer Ergo levers and hoods? Leaving the mechanical aspects out, do you personally find them to be the most comfortable of the Microshift, Shimano, SRAM, Campy options?

Nice! $15 is worth a try. I've used bar tape for a jury rigged pad, but it is far from as functional or aesthetic.

That makes some sense to my brain... just need more time in the saddle to get a feel for that balance. Love the playground analogy, BTW.