Numb hands

[tony_s]

An anecdote: Some time back (oh, c.20yrs) I was suffering badly with numb hands, but only on some bikes. I tried all the usually touted things, such as gel mittens, various bar wrappings, different bars and adjusting the riding position. They all helped a little, but still some bikes provoked the problem and some didn't. Eventually I noticed the one common factor was that bikes with down-tube shifters were largely OK but all others caused trouble. (This was the era when down-tube shifters were still common but going out of fashion.) Clutching at straws, I tried pretending I had down-tube shifters even when I didn't. That is, I would fiddle with the down-tube with each hand in turn after every gear shift. Bingo! Problem solved! For me the solution ever since has been frequent lifting of the hands completely clear of the bar and waggling the fingers and wrists.

I should in fairness add that I suffer from very poor peripheral circulation and keeping (or trying to keep) the hands warm does help, but the two problems seem to be substantially independent.

Your mileage may vary.

[foxyrider]

I've noticed that the tightness of the wrist closure seems to have some effect. On today's ride, when I started to get a tingle I undid the closure and then didn't suffer afterwards! But that's today, whether it'll work on the next ride is moot.

[NUKe]

Move the saddle back.or tilt the nose up slightly.

[Valamo]

I had it a while ago too, because I tend to put my hand between knies or something like that.

Really weird to wake up and have a paralysed hand (at least it feels like that).

In my case it was caused by supplements. I used to take a protein shake before going to bed and that apparently brought me in a different kind of sleeping state in which I would not notice the lack of blood going to my hand.

It was in those times when I was interested in gambling - I often played in best casinos - casinosranker.com

Purely hypothetical of course, all I know is that the problem dissappeared as soon as I stopped taking the protein before going to bed.

[Alan O]

Bit late to the thread, but...

I resumed cycling a couple of years ago after a long gap, and one of the problems I had at first was numb/tingling hands. Not bad enough to worry too much about while I was fettling other things, so I just made do with padded mitts.

Originally I was using a bike fit that suited me 20 years ago - mostly riding on a different bike now, but with the fit copied across from my old one. And I slowly tweaked it as I went on and as my rides lengthened. The final tweak (only a few months ago) was bars up a bit and saddle back a bit, and the fit felt just about perfect.

And I'd completely forgotten about my numb hands problem until I read this thread - it's gone, hands are fine now, and I just hadn't noticed! So, yes, as others have suggested, it's possibly just down to an imperfect bike fit.

[Paulatic]

On our recent Wimps LEJOG I began to get a numb left hand little finger. Started after Perth on a lot of bumpy cycle paths. I stopped wearing cycle gloves and by Inverness it had gone.
I suspect it was a gel bit applying pressure where it shouldn’t.