Hands ache during ride - advice please

[Gio G]

Usually around 15 miles into my ride, (mainly off road cycling) my hands start to ache. Would better/softer handle grips help with that, or is it more to do with how I am set up on my bike?

I have the standard grips that came with the bike from Intense, so assume they are usually the cheap options offering little comfort..

Any advice?

G

[lufbramatt]

You can play with softer grips or gloves with gel inserts etc. but it might be a case of holding the bars less tight (for off road, position your centre of mass to get heavy feet/light hands, steer the bike with your hips, "guide" the bars rather than death grip) and strengthening your forearms and core off the bike.

Could also try raising the handlebars (move spacers under the stem) to get more weight on the saddle.

Lee McCormack's book is well worth a read if you can cope with the "bro" language used.

[jontysafe]

Do some core exercises as well. Pilates really helped me with hands going numb.

[Gren]

Gripping too tight is common amongst newer cyclists. I know I used to do it. Relax your grip and that should help.

ODI X-Trainers are my grips of choice on the mtb. Sort of things you can wear without gloves if you really want but good padded gloves will help a lot

[Gio G]

Gren said:

Gripping too tight is common amongst newer cyclists. I know I used to do it. Relax your grip and that should help.

ODI X-Trainers are my grips of choice on the mtb. Sort of things you can wear without gloves if you really want but good padded gloves will help a lot

Thanks - ordered some ODI grips to see if that helps, no harm really, as the standard one's don't offer much in the way of comfort.. I have a few days in AFAN tomorrow, will try to loosen my grip a bit.

Thanks all..

G

[Daveyraveygravey]

Too much weight forward maybe? Holding on for dear life too can also be a problem. 15 miles would be about 80 to 100 minutes into a ride which isn't THAT long, which suggests position is a problem

Edited by Daveyraveygravey on Wednesday 25th April 22:06

[Unexpected Item In The Bagging Area]

You should be just resting your hands on the bars rather than gripping them. Even technical trails don’t require anything more than you holding them without any pressure.

[bakerstreet]

Ali bars? I also found I used to get numb hands, but then I switched to some cheap carbon bars from the far east. Takes out some of the road buzz.

Got a set of Hylix bars on my CX and a set of 3T Ergonova replicas on my first road bike. The 3T replicas are probably my favourite. Didn't like the red on the Hylix bars and I couldn't find the 3T replicas again, so went for some Topeak ones for the new bike. Not as light as the others, but they solved the numb hands problem

[fat80b]

Daveyraveygravey said:

Too much weight forward maybe?

I had a similar problem in the past - I figured that the reach was too much and I solved this by replacing the stem with a shorter one thereby bringing the handlebars a few cm closer to me and the problem disappeared.

[Daveyraveygravey]

fat80b said:

I had a similar problem in the past - I figured that the reach was too much and I solved this by replacing the stem with a shorter one thereby bringing the handlebars a few cm closer to me and the problem disappeared.

It is amazing how little adjustments can transform a ride, in some cases!

[Craikeybaby]

Experiment with different grips - I've found DMR Deathgrips hav reduced hand pain for me.

[SixtySpeedTwin]

i had similar problems so i got these and the problem disappeared

https://www.evanscycles.com/specialized-contour-xc...

cheers
Clive

[chris7676]

On the road bike - I found trying braking on the hoods was causing that (and still not effective), so now usually do it from the drops.
Gloves etc made fa difference.