[Closed] Why is my hand going numb???

Do you have any other "solo" hobby's that could be impacting on the joint 😀

Embrace it, for it'll feel like someone else is doing it... 😆

Can you smell burning toast?

I get this on my fatbike. Could be you have too much weight on your hands. Might be worth trying a higher bar or more spacers and/or tilt your seat a smidge back..

Could be you have too much weight on your hands. Might be worth trying a higher bar

yes. Other option: shorter stem?

Had the same problem on my longitude cut the bars down to 720mm and fitted some ergon gs2 grips with the little bar ends ,been out 3 times this week since on 40/50 miles and no problems , the grips i think help keep more weight on the saddle than on my hands

Second the above and the other thing I find helps is taking my wedding ring off as I think it vibrates on the bar (funny shaped fingers and large flat faced ring).

Controls rotated differently?

Longer/shorter top tube mean you put a different amount of weight on your bars?

Don't tip your saddle back, tilt it nose down by about 5 degrees. It sounds counter-intuitive but it encourages you to engage your core muscles and not rely on pushing on the bars.

I'd get similar but it would happen on 12hr+ rides, fine up to about 8hrs but the longer rides were a problem. Tried lots of things (one at a time) but it was tilting the saddle nose down that solved it. I think what was happening was that the saddle was bumping against soft tissue 😯 so I'd adjust my weight onto my hands.

My wife had similar problems on long rides, tilted nose of saddle down, no more problems.

Don't tip your saddle back, tilt it nose down by about 5 degrees. It sounds counter-intuitive but it encourages you to engage your core muscles and not rely on pushing on the bars.

interesting!
🙄

Next time it goes numb, raise your arm above your head, elbow bent and sticking out to the side, base of the thumb on the top of the head, see if it stops- would suggest nerve irritation in the neck if it does (trapped nerve or thereabouts)

Once you've finished your ****, obviously.

I used to get this on both hands.
Ergon grips solved it instantly.
Edit: when I bought my karate monkey, i left the steerer tube on the forks a lot longer than is normal for me, this gives me a much higher bar position, which also solves the numbness problem.
A shorter stem, or narrower bars will give a similar effect, which is to reduce the weight on your hands.

Is it your whole hand or just part of it? E.g. only your index finger and thumb, or only your little finger and ring finger?

Have you tried painting your fingernails?

Next time it goes numb, raise your arm above your head, elbow bent and sticking out to the side, base of the thumb on the top of the head, see if it stops- would suggest nerve irritation in the neck if it does (trapped nerve or thereabouts)

Very interesting. I also get numbness and tingling in both hands on several of my bikes, mostly the skinny-tyred ones with daft curly handlebars.

What does one do about such a thing?

Thanks guys, Shermer, fingers and thumb mainly. Interesting about the saddle and thinking this through I lowered the bars and can't remember whether this happened before, so I'll raise the bars first, then I'll possibly play with the saddle...

I usually find hand / finger pain down to grips or bar profile / bar position (i.e. Rotated to far forward or back). Bars too low or wrong length stem manifest itself in shoulder & neck pain (similar for suspension/ tyres too hard). ESI grips were my salvation, but you've tried those (and others) so I'd try rotating bars first then some different profiles

Median nerve:

[img] https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRSxl-HKsH10-t58_74666AgC1u2SotwwS8D_OAmM8vbUYIxa6H [/img]

Ulnar nerve:

[img] https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR-vw3lW_7UiZtc_utFitKShI16-u7LBdcHnesqV5VeA4Ey_4EU9HJbLdH9 [/img]

If it's ALL the fingers then I'll be looking at shoulder or neck

I ride seat nose up on all my bikes. this takes weight off your hands. take your hands off the bars while riding along - if you fall / slide forwards you have weight on your hands. Just sit there the saddle is right. Saddle nose down is agony for me and unrideable

Everyone is different - there is no right answer but IMO bars too low and wide and saddle at the wrong angle is what gives rise to hand pain / numbness.

I've had different golf/ tennis /tendonitis, snapped wrists and crunching elbows and lots of neck physio work including cracked neck vertabra, the tingling pain stuff its worse on the drop bars but do get it on the MTB a bit, carbon bars helped- vibrocore were terrible, ergon angley grips nice to use but don't seem to make any difference. Main thing for me is seat position, generally lower and more set back than I'd ideally want. Seems to also help knees which are even worse than other bits.

Elbows? Mine are bolloxed and the days they hurt the fingers tingle. Nerves i guess.

Thicker Gloves? Especially winter ones...

I find thicker, padded/insulated palms seem to squirm a little under my hands, and pretty much unconsciously I end up gripping tighter to compensate, often resulting in some numbness...

Poor bike fit is causing your neck/back to be positioned in such a way that the nerve cluster that runs from your spine down your arm is being pinched. It's C6 I think but a doc or physio will confirm. Try messing with saddle position, stem length, bar width & sweep or even a whole different bike. Good luck.

Had a similar sounding problem, Ergon grips sorted it for me. Or Bontrager do a cheaper alternative.

if its only one part of the hand its not shoulder but wrist issues

tjagain - Member

if its only one part of the hand its not shoulder but wrist issues

That's what I was told, but I had persistant issues with 2 fingers when my trapped nerve was first developing, then it spread (and went from numb to ow). And now that it's almost fixed, any flareup always starts in those 2 fingers