mattrad wrote:
After riding in the Seattle to Portland ride on Saturday I have experienced serious numbness and tingling in my hand, thumb, ring finger and pinky. The ride was 205 miles and took me just about 10 hours, only stopping to refill bottles and use the john. I have never experienced this durning 100 mile rides.
What should I do to fix my hand?
Would different gloves or bar wraps help in the future?
Thanks
You have ulnar neuropathy. It's caused from putting too much pressure on the ulnar nerve on the outside of your palm. If you've inflamed it good, it'll take a while to go away but should subside eventually. It'll heal more quickly if you let it rest (i.e. not riding), but who's really gonna do that? If it doesn't happen on rides of your normal length, then I wouldn't worry about any long term changes to your position or anything like that. The next time you're going for a longer than normal ride (like another 200 miler), you can take a little pressure off of your hands by flipping your stem up; also, try to move your hand position around alot so you're not putting too much pressure on the ulnar nerve.
Good luck.
EDITED TO ADD: I wouldn't necesarily worry about getting thicker gloves or adding more bar wrap. Sometimes all that extra padding actually exacerbates the pressure on the ulnar nerve.