My question from yesterday "Was it a back to work novelty or a psychological change" about getting up and pedalling has well and truely been answered. Back to work novelty it was. A massive struggle to get my arse out of bed and onto the bike this morning, but I did it. Not as cold today as yesterday, still pretty icey though and the journey into work via the City Centre was totally without any Jobys.
The pedal home last night was pretty good too, I've captured the entire ride on my Muvi and will upload that at some point into today's blog. I've got a bit of editing to do obviously as I'll need to get an hours worth of footage into 10 minutes for Youtube purposes. Again, please excuse the panting, heavy breathing, snotting, coughing and general noises you don't want to hear. But I'm not as fit as I could be and it's still bloody hard work! I must work out how to put a sound track on or anything more pleasant than my bodily noises.
The rapidfire shifters, new brake blocks and grips are performing nicely, although the "numb hand" thing is getting to be a bit of an issue, I have well padded grips and gel gloves, other than trying to adjust my riding position I guess I'll have to grin and bear it I suppose. If anyone knows of a numb hand "miracle cure" then please let me know.
Canal part of my commute home:
And the road part!
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Colin, I had the same problem when upping distance and time on my MTB and found that the cause was my posture on the bike. The only solution I found was to shift the position of my saddle forward to adjust my overloading of weight onto my arms/hands. It took some getting used to but since shifting forward the problem has certainly eased. Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteA the numb hand, I am guessing you end up with the little finger tingling...
ReplyDeleteThat will be a trapped Ulnar Nerve, the nerve runs down the centre of your palm, the gloves may actually be part of the problem.
For me the issue started to resolve when I changed from a Hybrid bike to a road bike, it meant that I had more possible hand positions.
The only advice I can give is to not grip the handlebars to tightly, make sure your riding position is correct (Not to much load being placed on your arms/hands) and make sure the padded gloves aren't actually over padded and causing the trapped nerve!
@ JB, yep the little finger starts to go then the whole hand goes numb, both hands actually, I get a bit of relief from it when I stop at lights so I can get some blood back into them! It's not so bad when I off roading as my hands are changing position all the time. But road riding really does them in.
ReplyDelete@ Brian,
When I started this regime I had to raise the bars and stem on my bike because my belly was in the way, there isn't too much weight on my hands at the moment compared to what I used to have, a long low cross country racer crouch. No chance now!
Cheers
Clive
Where's the snow?
ReplyDeleteI use bar ends to give me a few more positions on the bars and it seems to work for me. They are also great for car door mirror abuse....
ReplyDeleteClive try some Ergon GR2 handle bar grips, rather than being round they have a large flat area which supports the palm of your hand, they also have bar end grips which you can use also. I had the same problem when I first started and the Ergons were one of the first upgrades I bought, they are infinitely adjustable till you find just the right spot
ReplyDeleteOh the joys of cycling on the Bristol Road, not done it many times, but watching that reminded me why I avoid the Coventry Road as much as possible, very similar. Laughed at your comment about the bell being one step away from a basket.
ReplyDeleteKeep it up.