Numbness

Scotttri

Right hand going numb, around thumb index finger whilst riding. My seat is level, it doesn't feel like i'm putting alot of pressure on my hands, I tried riding without gloves and it made know difference. It's only the one hand. Any ideas???

daveryanwyoming

Well you're definitely compressing a nerve somewhere. Are you dropping your wrists. IOW do the backs of your hands form a straight line with your wrists and forearms or do you have a sharp bend there? That's a likely cause of numb fingers and pretty common with folks that don't know better. And do you move your hands around a lot while riding? With drop bars you should move your hands from the brake hoods to the tops to as many creative positions as you can periodically during the ride to move the pressure points around. With mountain bike flat bars your choices are limited but bar ends can give you a few extra hand positions.

If you aren't dropping your wrists and have most of your weight on a flat saddle your only other options are padded gloves which some like but I don't really care for or raising your stem a bit to put even less weight on your bars. I'd make sure you're holding the bars without unecessarily pinching nerves and make sure you move your hands around periodically before playing with stem height or reach.

Good luck,
Dave

Scotttri

Thanx for the reply i'll have a check and try your sugestions next ride

DirtTurtle

I think the advice given is more than i can help with, but an edition of ride magazine featured this problem, its called "something" palsy, cant remember its name. Happens to alot of permanent cyclists, i get problems from it. I do know the article recommends exercises to rebuild the nerve that suffers as a result of cyling. I do think preventative measures are the best to solve the problem, but if futher help is needed just post and ill dig out the article to post what it says, and the exercises to help with it.