Cycling UK Forum

Get numb hands after 10/ 15 mins riding and is much worse in the cold, would carbon handlebars help ?

.....................http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=47117

Have you tried gloves?

kenny17 wrote:Get numb hands after 10/ 15 mins riding and is much worse in the cold, would carbon handlebars help ?

You dont say what type of bars you are currently using Kenny. But if your getting numb hands after 10 to 15 miles its not carbon bars you want. Its almost certainly caused by pressure onthe Ulnar nerve. It runs down your palm just off the base of your thumb. It can be caused by alsorts of things for example ffrom gloves too thin to saddle too far forward not.

Are they numb because they're cold or numb for some other reason? In both cases I'd try gloves first of all, dropped handlebars help if it's a matter of pressure.

....http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=35438&hilit=+carpal

john.will.wright wrote:Are they numb because they're cold or numb for some other reason? In both cases I'd try gloves first of all, dropped handlebars help if it's a matter of pressure.

Not strictly true, you get much better pressure relieving grips on flat bars than you ever will on a drop bar, if you've also got a pair of bar ends you have other hand positions as well.
A carbon bar will only help with vibration damping but not enough to go to the expense in my experience.

Same thing has happened to me, in my case on my MTB with flat bars. I have put bar ends on and tried different positions with these, also increased the saddle height, hasn't completely gone away yet. I recently purchased a road bike with drops and don't seem to have the problem with these.

+1 for drop bars - I struggled badly with numb little fingers on my last bike with flats bars (and I did have good gloves, bar ends and pressure relieving grips).

Since switching I've not had a problem save on rides of 80 miles plus - simply, I think, because there is no pressure on the ulnar nerve for me at least.

I had a pair of bar ends with those padded area things, which still made my hands go numb after 40+ miles, cured by a change of bar ends, which were wonderful from day one, but I couldn't tell you why one set were pants and the others lovely.

kenny17 wrote:Get numb hands after 10/ 15 mins riding and is much worse in the cold, would carbon handlebars help ?

no

is your bike set up for you correctly if your over stretching and putting a lot of weight on your arms it may be causing the problem had a friend recently having similar problem it was rectified by altering his riding position

This very question (along with which size bike, audax or touring bike and many more) seems to get asked at least once a month. The answers have been covered many, many times. To prevent those of us that have been here a while repeating ourselves ad infinitum, could the mods please sticky some/all of the numerous threads in either too good to loose or better still at the top of each forum they were asked in. Colin seems to have many links bookmarked, thanks.

Freddie wrote:This very question (along with which size bike, audax or touring bike and many more) seems to get asked at least once a month. The answers have been covered many, many times. To prevent those of us that have been here a while repeating ourselves ad infinitum, could the mods please sticky some/all of the numerous threads in either too good to loose or better still at the top of each forum they were asked in. Colin seems to have many links bookmarked, thanks.

Kenny didn't ask about which bike to buy, I see from another posst he has a Dawes Audax. He asked about Numb hands. The rest us were asking about the bike to try and help

If using flat bars try Ergon grips.

There's a cheaper Bontrager version too:

http://www.swinnertoncycles.co.uk/Bontr ... ck-On.aspx