I managed to hulk through a pair of crap leather gloves (which I didn't realize when I bought them, but then I thought "oh, at least they'll last for a lot time"... so of course I blew them out in less than ten rides). Anyone have some suggestions for non sweatshop made gloves? Salsas, maybe?

to high compared to the bars. Without seeing you in natural riding postion that is hard to judge.

The possible lack of a second lever may be an issue and road bars with a flat top would definetely help too.

Are your arms bent when you are riding? If not raise the bars and/or get a shorter stem.
If you let go of the bars is your body comfortable in your riding position? if not adjust them till it is.

It's not really recent, had it since I go the bike. First bike I've had in 15 years, so I knew there would be some adjustment period. I think that I ride so much though, that I'm not giving myself time to heal and/or get used to it.

While riding tonight after posting this I tried to be very concious of how much weight I was putting on the bars and that made a big difference (especially since I had almost 30# of crap in my bag tonight...laptop, groceries, books etc). I'm going to make some minor adjustments to the seat's forward tilt tomorrow, I hadn't really noticed it until it was pointed out. Also, I talked to a friend tonight and he said that he gets sore palms when he does a lot of decents, which I do at least a couple miles downhill every night. Living downtown in the bottom of a long, sloping valley so any way I go is uphill, and any way I come back is down. As for having a second brake lever, I haven't used the brake (save for one day when I was reeaaly exhausted) since the first day on the bike. Because of the hills though I leave it just for emergencies; and therefor don't really think I want a second lever. I don't really want that one, but I bet I'd be pretty bummed if I needed it and didn't have it.

Tonight while being concious of leaning on the bars I found it was fairly comfortable to, not quite bend, but have some slack in my arms if that makes any sense. I tried to remember to let my core muscles support me, not my hands on the bars. Probably better for my back to do that anyway so I will spend time making that a habit.