What causes hand numbness on road/mtb bike?

Triathlon Forum
1

I just finished my first MTB race. It sucked!!! Amongst other things my right hand was completely numb for most of the race. I was riding a borrowed bike that was a size too small, but I have often had similiar issues when riding a road bike. What causes this and how can I stop it from happening?

chris

2

I’ve had that happen a couple of times and it was usually caused by a couple of things… #1 A death grip on the handlebars #2 the angle of my wrists when holding the bars. It’s possible that this was aggravated because of the small bike.

Fixes: Ease back on the grip, make sure you’ve got good, comfy grips and padded gloves. Make sure that your wrists are as straight as possible. Longer stem maybe?

Also, make sure you shake them out once in a while…

Brad

3

I just need a big bike in general, but I wasn’t sure if that was the problem with my numbness. Death grip??? Did I mention it was my first MTB race? I wiped out three times!!!

chris

4

I had tthis problem also, and it was due to my seat being angled down too much which resulted in a lot of weight on my hands. To fix it I just tilted the seat up a tad and it fixed it.

5

I guess that could be part of the problem with this bike. Since it is a size too small I end up with a bunch of weight over the front end.

chris

6

You can get this on a motorcycle as well. Generally either holding on too tightly, or you are putting too much weight on the bars and the arms are fatiguing.