Hand Numbness and Long Distance Riding

Usual disclaimers on this article, I am not an expert: this is simply one persons experience

After I’d done a seasons audax riding in 2005 columinating in the London-Edinburgh-London 1400km I discovered that I often got numb fingers after riding a long way.

This wasn’t actively painful, just causing a lack of mobility in fingers. As I work in IT, the only work related effect was that I typed a bit slower. It took weeks for the problem to wear off.

I was determined to avoid it, so I looked into what people said it was and how to avoid it

Most people said it was due to pressure on a nerve in the hand
Weight on the hand and possibly vibration damaged the nerve. The reason it took weeks to recover was that the nerve regrow at a very slow rate. But not everyone on these long rides suffered from it. So there must be a way to avoid it

The following suggestions were made for avoiding finger numbness

1) pad the bars
2) wear gloves with lots of padding
3) use a bike that is inherently comfortable
4) use a bike that fits
5) have bars that allow many hand positions
6) improve core fitness to make the rider fit the bike better

1) pad the bars
There are several systems for padding bars. There is Specialized bar Phat tape. Fizik do gel inserts. Or there is cheap pipe lagging from a builders merchants. I’ve tried all of the above. The Specialized and the Fizik seem similar, although the Fizik sticks on better. The pipe lagging is not quite dense enough and it is a little too bulky

2) wear gloves with lots of padding
Again, I tried several different types of gloves. The Specialized gloves seemed to suit my hands best

3) use a bike that is inherently comfortable
bikes made of stiff aluminium with thin high pressure tyres are of their nature less comfortable than bikes made from steel with larger tyres at a lower pressure. Part of this comfort factor is the transmission of road noise to the hands

4) use a bike that fits
A bike that fits is a slightly different concept to an “inherently comfortable” bike. A stiff bike with narrow tyres could be designed with comfort in mind to fit a particular individual, An ill fitting steel bike with wide tyres could cause discomfort. In fact, that’s what I had as my first long distance bike. It was steel with wide tyres and didn’t fit me.

5) bars that allow many hand positions
Having many different hand positions allows the rider to move their weight around onto different parts of the hand. So if the problem is caused by the weight pressing continuously in the same place, this might help.

6) improve core fitness
the idea behind this is that a flexible person with strong core muscles can effectively “move” their weight into a better position. This will take their weight off the hands and onto the backside and pedals

To cut a long story short I did all the above recomendations. For PBP 2011

1) I had Specialized bar Phat tape fitted ( it came with the bike)
2) I got some gloves with effective padding
3) I got a Specialized Roubaix that had many different comfort features. For PBP I specially fitted 28mm tyres
4) Although the bike wasn’t custom, the sizing of it was good. I put on a better fitting stem
5) I always use drops, this isn’t a change
6) After several years of riding, doing core exercises, taking a yoga class and reading extensively on core work, unsurprisingly I believe that this factor was better than in 2005

I had no hand numbness in the qualifiers or at PBP. What was the magic factor from all these that worked? I don’t know. If I was to pick one factor I’d say a bike that fits. If I was to ignore one, I’d say gloves.