Need help dialing in handlebars. Pain and numbness in hands.

[DouglasB]

I'm having a couple of issues. The main one being major discomfort in the hands, wrists and forearms, as well as numbness in the hands. I immediatly ordered a set of Ergon 3 grips and they help but not a lot. What I notice the most is that my hands are way out to the sides. I measured the handlebars at 27 inches. I then measured my road bike and they were 15 inches wide. When I am riding the Ebike, I feel like I'm tying to fly rather than ride a bike. Logically you would think that the upright position, with less weight on the shoulders arms and wrists would be better but it's just the opposite. After riding the Ebike, I have numbness and pain for a couple of days. I have started making some changes to the Ebike but not certain where to begin so I'm going slowly. I like the grips. The next thing I'm trying is to lower the adjustable bar height system on the Contro-e. I can move it lower and forward. It doesn't make sense but like I said, I don't have a problem on my road bike. Would shortening the width of the handlebars do anything? Before I retired I was an office ergonomics specialist and could solve any issue you had related to discomfort with your office, computer setup. I did it for twenty years and became quite good. Now I'm having ergonomic issues with my bike and don't know where to begin. A bit of information: I am 70 years old and have been riding a road bike about twenty miles, five days a week for the past couple of years. I ride with drop bars but only use the top because of flexiability issues, other than that and a left hand that occassionally goes numb I'm quite comfortable. No body aches or pains.

 

[steve marino]

I don't doubt you're having problems, look how high your seat is. While young cyclists who ride 20 lb road bikes and think they're Lance Armstrong like their seats like that, old folks like us need to get into a more upright position. So lowering your seat, maybe bringing it forward, and raising the H bars is what is needed. Also, I'm a big fan of the type of bars below. You can find them in different degrees of pull back, but what you want to do is get your hands in a more natural position along w/ sitting more upright. If you are getting pain and tingling it means you have too much weight and pressure on your hands.

One of my pet peeves is how bicycle handlebars are designed all wrong. If you look at motorcycles, especially cruiser types, you see that the bars are higher and more swept back. I used to work as a physical therapy assistant in a hospital inpatient orthopedic rehab ward, so I know a little about anatomy. Drop your hands down and let them hang normally, then slowly raise them to chest height and then twist your arms like you are gripping a normal straight handlebar. The first thing you notice is that your elbows go out, and your shoulders and upper arms go into a totally unnatural position. It feels awkward and uncomfortable to hold them like that for any length of time and will cause lots of shoulder and joint problems at some point. So drop them back down and let them hang naturally, then slowly raise them up to chest height and notice the position of your hands and upper arms. You'll see right away that this is how our body is designed to work. Those straight bars on your bike are for motocross racing, not street riding. It can be fiddly getting the seat and bars where you are comfortable. Sometimes even 1/2" up or down or forward and back makes a big difference.

 

[JRA]

By riding on the top of your drop bar do you mean you ride primarily with your hands on top of the brake hoods? If so your hand position on your new bike is different and supported differently whereby your wrist/hands are flat on the straight bar and 90d different while on the brake hoods. Due to your wrists being used to the drop bar positioning, which also relates to the handlebar width as you suggest, it would be best to get to the same hand position as possible to the set up that does work for you.

You could make your bars narrower in increments to see if going narrower and being able to use the bar end option of the Ergon 3's to imitate the hand position you use on your road bike. I too ride drop bars and find that narrow bars for road use suit me better than wider bars.

Do pay attention to your saddle height relative to your bar height, as well as your leg extension, as you will have the best results with both your bikes fitting you the same way.

 

[indianajo]

I'm age 68. I find that straight across mountain bike handlebars put my hands to sleep worse than turned back cruiser style bars. So I made sure my new $1500 bike (left) had turned back bars. Good thing, they are a non-standard size on the yubabikes and can't be changed. This bike does allow me to sit straight up and unload my weight from my hands. Air drag costs 1/2 the speed I could make by bending over, but oh, well. My neck is fine, my Mother popped a cervical disk age 38 due to a stupidly high typing workplace, and was in pain every second of the rest of her life. I won't bend my neck or back just for efficiency.
If your bars are 1 1/8" diameter at the stem, then you could change your handlebars. Moving your seat back might be required. Some seats have a pair of rails above the post adapter, where you can slide it back and forth.
Generic parts houses are the best place to find these odd-ball parts. Niagaracycle used to be the best I knew but they have dropped off the internet, only sell via amazon now. Second best selection is IMHO modernbike.com in iowa. competitivecyclist and jensonusa are mostly for racers, IMHO.
I use pool floats for handgrips, see the green ones left. They have to be glued on and have to be changed monthly.
Ergo on a bike is important at our age. The index shifter of the 7 speed shimano caused a 2" diameter cyst to grow above my thumb joint. I changed to a twist grip shifter. After 18 months of that the cyst is down to almond size.
Make sure your posture makes your wrists to be straight, not at a large angle.
Good fortune in future.

 

[DouglasB]

Here's my road bike set up. Works great, and yes I ride almost exclusively on top of the break hoods.

 

[J.R.]

@DouglasB

Try getting your hands in a more natural handshake position. Nerve impingement is a tricky thing to eliminate, everyone is different. Thoracic outlet syndrome, ulnar nerve entrapment and median nerve entrapment are all issues cyclists of any age can suffer from. I have issues with some of these and you'd think an upright position would help, but for me a MTB slight forward cant is much better. Sitting upright, for me, further compresses the nerves. I do hold the grips at the ends and find that natural position to be the most pain free. Personally I'm not a fan of narrow bars, I like my hand position to be outside of my shoulder width and arms slightly bent at the elbows. Again everyone is different. I would try to mimic what works with your other bikes.

 

[WilliamT]

I would try adjusting your seat angle. The front seat angle on your ebike is pointed too high. I had a similar problem on one of my ebikes.

My seat wasn't tighten enough and when I sat back it tilted up slightly. I figured it was okay and just rode that way for the next 17 miles until I got home. After 1 hour, my hand started to get numb which never happened before. By mile 15, I pulled over and had to adjust my seat so the front pointed just slightly down. That fixed the numbness in my hands.

The seat angle on your road bike looks good. I prefer the front slightly lower than the rear. Not too far down otherwise too much weight is on your hands.

 

[ymarty]

I will probably echo much of what the others have said but i suffer, still suffer from numbness of the hands. For biking, I was able to resolve this problem by lowering my seat down so that the hand position is parallel to my chest. I also have a quick-release adjustable head stem with Bmx style handle bars. I am able to position the handle bars where my wrists stay straight and I am not putting any pressure downwards on to my hands.

 

[DouglasB]

I used the bar adjustment mechanisim built into the Cannondale Conto-e Speed stem and lowered the bars down a bit and sllightly forward. I then took a twelve mile ride and had no issues. Makes very little ergonomic sense to me but as I always say "What ever works". I think I would still like to cut a couple of inches off of the width of the bars. It just seems contrary to ergonomic principals to have the arms winged out that far. One thing I did discover, doing office ergonomics, is that the body can tolerate an amount of seemingly bad positioning if there is support. I always waited until I understood a persons positioining completely before trying to make corrections. What works for one doesn't necessarily work for another. The body has a natural intelligence and if you listen, it will tell you what it needs. Some people just don't listen.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

Like I've suggested in other threads, there are pro bike-fit services that are really, really good at solving problems like this. Most decent bike shops and most decent physical therapists can point you at someone who can provide that service. Some most excellent bike shops will provide a "mini-fit" service for around $50 or $60.

A full-on pro bike fit will run you north of $150 (although if you are creative you might get your health insurance to pay for it), but I'd argue that $150 is cheap compared to iterating through different parts trying to make your bike and your body get along peacefully. And $150 is much cheaper than buying a spiffy bike for thousands of dollars and then not riding it because it is an instrument of torture.

 

[linklemming]

I used the bar adjustment mechanisim built into the Cannondale Conto-e Speed stem and lowered the bars down a bit and sllightly forward. I then took a twelve mile ride and had no issues. Makes very little ergonomic sense to me but as I always say "What ever works". I think I would still like to cut a couple of inches off of the width of the bars. It just seems contrary to ergonomic principals to have the arms winged out that far. One thing I did discover, doing office ergonomics, is that the body can tolerate an amount of seemingly bad positioning if there is support. I always waited until I understood a persons positioining completely before trying to make corrections. What works for one doesn't necessarily work for another. The body has a natural intelligence and if you listen, it will tell you what it needs. Some people just don't listen.

Glad you got it sorted out.

I had the same issue with my Bulls eMTB, I slammed the stem (reverse stem so its -6deg and moved all headset spacers to above the stem) to go down a bit in the front and put more weight on the front end and the numbness went away.

My Juiced CCX although having the same setup cockpit dimensions and handlebars with same sweep, still gives me numbness, I will probably try another ergo grip soon.

 

[6zfshdb]

I will probably echo much of what the others have said but i suffer, still suffer from numbness of the hands. For biking, I was able to resolve this problem by lowering my seat down so that the hand position is parallel to my chest. I also have a quick-release adjustable head stem with Bmx style handle bars. I am able to position the handle bars where my wrists stay straight and I am not putting any pressure downwards on to my hands.

View attachment 28908View attachment 28909

I used a similar approach to reduce my wrist discomfort. In my case, I used these products:

Hi rise BMX bars with a 15 degree backsweep

6" stem riser

Ergo grips


I rode with straight bars on my MTB for years before discovering that swept back bars are more comfortable. I tried the cruiser type and found the 45 degree back sweep just made the problem worse. I settled on the BMX style with a 15 degree back and 3 degree down sweep. Personally, I think a 20 degree back sweep would be ideal but so far, I haven't found a bar with that configuration that is wide enough for all the e-bike controls.

Raising the bar height transferred some of my weight from bar to seat which also helped.

Using the right type of riding gloves with ergo grips also made a big difference for me. I use the gel pad style and just add loose fitting cotton gloves over them in cold weather. Avoid tight fitting gloves since they can reduce blood circulation.

Suspension and seat comfort are also a factor for me. I found I was gripping the bars tighter on rough trail sections to reduce weight on the seat. Using good seat post suspension and a saddle that fit properly helped the wrist issue considerably by allowing me to lessen bar grip.

Obviously, these changes aren't practical for serious mountain bikers. At my age, I don't do much single track anymore. The above products work well on my e-bike which I currently use for less strenuous gravel trail riding.

I realize every bike / rider combination is different and what works for some won't work for all. Trial and error is the best approach until you find a combination that works best for you.

 

[Volt_Ampere]

My wife had the same complaint - mostly her back bothered her riding a mountain bike. I built her an Ebike and I raised the bars about 6 inches and back about 2 inches and she likes it much better that way. Maybe not ideal riding position but with an Ebike it's fine and she won't ride if it bothers her back.

 

[Deleted member 4210]

oops. just saw your photo. (hence deleted prior post). Hate to be the bearer of such news, but unfortunately, that bike frame is probably too small for your long torso. It will be a challenge to get your reach correct, and be in a comfortable position for your arms and wrist, irrespective of what you might do with handlebar position using any adjustable stem or riser combination.

The bike's geometry is designed for a moderate lean forward position, so I would suspect with your body size (torso length), and the seat height way up high to get your leg extension correct, it is forcing you to be in a more upright position since the reach (distance between seat and head set) could be too short for your body size. (hard to discern exactly from the photo but off the cuff it looks like that is the issue). Being more upright on a bike like that, with that design of seat, could also actually affect your blood flow in your torso (and possibly nerve endings) and surprisingly your sit position (butt on that particular seat design) could cause a feeling of numbness way up in your wrists and hands, no matter what you do with the handlebar position. IF, you can get the seat height correct, followed by seat position (knee vs pedal center), and then proper stem length and height (again could be a challenge with the frame you have), a very rough way to possibly help that seat fit, would be to change your seat to support your body better. (again which can, believe it or not, affect hands/wrists in terms of numbness, aside from the reach and arm and wrist position). As another person mentioned above, a bike fitting would be ideal, and a shop that has a number of saddle styles, and stem lengths and designs, and willingness and capability to put your bike on a trainer to allow you to test ride while they examine your position, and expeditiously swap out seats for you, and stems, would save you a lot of time and money. It wont be free, but the fee for their time, would be well worth avoidance of physical injury, especially if you are in the wrong posture if riding more than 10 miles at a time. Definitely worth the money.

 

[DouglasB]

Thanks Mike, that would make sense since extending the bar forward and lowering it a bit did seem to help. Looks like largest frame for that bike is a large, which is what I have. I'm am encouraged by the fact that I was able to get some relief by my recent adjustment. I think with some more attention to the issue I should be able to work it out. Maybe some straight, narrower bars? That should put me a bit more forward. It just seem so counter intuitive, that by moving forward and putting more weight on your hands, it would relieve the situation? Logically you would think that sitting more upright and taking weight off of the hands would be more comfortable. I do change up my hand position regularly and try to have a relaxed hand on the grips. I like the horns on the Ergo-3 grips but again, it feels like I'm trying to fly with my wide (27") bars.

 

[DouglasB]

I don't doubt you're having problems, look how high your seat is. While young cyclists who ride 20 lb road bikes and think they're Lance Armstrong like their seats like that, old folks like us need to get into a more upright position. So lowering your seat, maybe bringing it forward, and raising the H bars is what is needed. Also, I'm a big fan of the type of bars below. You can find them in different degrees of pull back, but what you want to do is get your hands in a more natural position along w/ sitting more upright. If you are getting pain and tingling it means you have too much weight and pressure on your hands.

I'm 70 and ride one of those 20 lb, "Lance Armstrong" bikes with the hard little seat and am very comfortable on it. Funny thing is that this bike is way much more upright and is giving me issues, where as leaning forward on my road bike (mostly on the brake hoods) is not a problem.

 

[DouglasB]

Like I've suggested in other threads, there are pro bike-fit services that are really, really good at solving problems like this. Most decent bike shops and most decent physical therapists can point you at someone who can provide that service. Some most excellent bike shops will provide a "mini-fit" service for around $50 or $60.

A full-on pro bike fit will run you north of $150 (although if you are creative you might get your health insurance to pay for it), but I'd argue that $150 is cheap compared to iterating through different parts trying to make your bike and your body get along peacefully. And $150 is much cheaper than buying a spiffy bike for thousands of dollars and then not riding it because it is an instrument of torture.

The shop where I purchased my Ebike has a "fitter" who works with mostly road bikers. I will have him check me out when I go back in for my "one month tune up". I have learned a lot by watching numerious videos on fitting a road bike and have gotten my road bike to where I can ride 20+ miles without any discomfort. All that theory seems to go out the window though as soon as you move into a more upright style of riding.

 

[Telkwa]

I cut a coupla inches off my bars and they're still almost as wide as yours. 26+" on two different bikes.

I've cut the handlebars shorter on all of our e-bikes. I used a tubing cutter to get a nice clean cut. Takes longer than a hacksaw, but nice results. A few swipes with a couple of files and you're good.

Measure twice, cut once. I almost cut too much off one set of bars. The shifter levers extended a little bit too far into the grip area when I was done.

Depending on the sweep of the bars, and at what point the bars flare out to the 31.8mm clamp diameter, you might find that the shifters won't push inboard as far as it seems at first. Be cautious also with trying to squeeze the shifter and brake lever too close. Twice in recent history I thought I had it right, but when shifting the levers collided with the brake parts.

IMO the Ergon GP-5's are more useful than the 2 or 3. The bar end is big enough to provide more hand positions, and in your case allow for some experimentation. Although my hands are average for a 6 foot tall guy, I prefer the GP-5 Small rather than the Large. The only difference between the two is the diameter (or thickness) of the grip where the thumb wraps around. The Small and Large are otherwise identical.

 

[steve mercier]

Also choosing a more upright bike to begin with may make a huge difference in that area. The R+ M Nevo for example is one bike I found to have a very comfortable riding position.

 

[Chopperbill]

My right hand use to get numb and I had carpal tunnel surgery. Fixed it. Now my left is gettin numb after a couple of years. If you need the surgery if found nothing that would work unless it was done.