Do you swing both ways?

mfj197

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jul 18, 2014
553
160
Guildford
On the road bike over 20 miles my hands would go numb with one of my sets of gloves but not with the other, riding mostly on the hoods. On the flat bar ebike I've put on Ergon GP3 combined grips and bar ends and I've not had any occurrence at all with either pair of gloves. Fantastic grips for a flat bar bike.
 

Black Dog

Pedelecer
Jul 18, 2014
137
60
70
Apologies if this is old news, but if it's carpal tunnel syndrome, then it's an inflammation of the radial nerve where it enters the hand through the carpal tunnel in the wrist. Main symptom is numbness in the thumb and first two fingers. The nerve gets inflamed and swells, and rubs more, and the problem gets worse, until you rest it. The only solution I could find was to keep the hand in a straight line with the forearm, so the wrist was bent as little as possible. Easier on a motorbike with flat bars than on a pushbike, where you have to have weight on the hands, and to keep the wrist straight you have to hang on with your thumbs or something. I fitted cowhorn bars (with bits at the end) to the MTB yesterday and it makes a big difference, as you can keep your hands in a more natural position. Same as riding on the brake hoods, I suppose. I'm not sure I can be bothered doing this with the Wisper, as the left grip has the integral 'throttle' and changing the bars for something radically different is going to be a major pain in the bum. Good luck with it.

Edit: that was in reply to d8veh. I think what you (mfj197) say about the bar ends confirms it.
 
D

Deleted member 4366

Guest
I don't get any problem on a MTB with normal bars. It's only on the roadbike, whether I hold the hoods or the flat bar. I've tried every position of holding the bar and leaning furthers, but it doesn't go away. It must be something to do with leaning forward, so I'm convinced that the nerve is trapped further up. As I've said before, I used to get it on my motorbike when I wore one particular jacket. On my roadbike, i was wearing a tee-shirt, so I can't see that clamping any nerves. When I hang my arm down, it disppears in seconds. I'm still resonably convinced that my nerves are trapped under my armpit when I lean forward.
 

JohnCade

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 16, 2014
1,486
736
I used to get numb hands and elbows on my motorbikes too, but after a much longer time. I used to get it on the MB I had a little while ago as well as my road bikes, but it’s always worse on a road bike. I think it’s mostly vibration. When I had Reynolds 531 bikes with curved forks the spring effect reduced numbness. But when I switched to dead alloy the vibration was much greater and so was the numbness. It could be that your MB has soft damping and of course the road bike has none.

If changing hand position doesn’t help after a good arm shake then maybe thicker bar tape might.
 

103Alex1

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 29, 2012
2,228
67

RobF

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 22, 2012
4,732
2,311

JamesW

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 17, 2014
492
72
42
I used to have something like this at uni:
http://www.acycles.co.uk/zefal-cyclop-bike-handlebar-mirror-690.html?utm_source=google_produit_cpc&gclid=CPXquavAycYCFaIIwwod5zMC5Q
mirror sits in the end of the handlebar or the bar-ends and adjusts to wherever you want to see. I got through 3 of them I think (I had a habit of dropping my bike on the wrong side and the mirror would get crushed).
The only reason I don't have one now is that it wouldn't easily fit on my bike on the train.

The mirror once got smashed through 90degrees by a car overtaking me and pulling in again too soon (While I had a hockey stick in a hockey bag over my shoulder) - I guess you can call that a VERY near miss.

edit:
this appears to be the exact mirror I prefer - It can quickly be folded out of the way and adjusted in all dimensions when moving, but it might need to be tightened up a bit more on an e-bike:

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/blackburn/mirror-bar-end-fitting-ec009171
 

mike killay

Esteemed Pedelecer
Feb 17, 2011
3,012
1,627
Re numb hands.
Driving a car, do you get numbness?
If not, I suspect it is the angle at which your hands are resting.
Ten to two, or quarter to three seem comfortable and of course do not take any weight.
Flat bike bars on the other hand require an unnatural position, drop bars generally mimic the quarter to three position.
 
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greyfox69

Pedelecer
Jul 28, 2015
144
151
65
ST8 North Staffs
Back to the subject of negative comments, when someone tells me it's cheating i just tell them that at my age i cannot read without glasses so i suppose this must be cheating as well, not to mention slip on shoes, velcro fasteners, viagara etc etc
 
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anotherkiwi

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jan 26, 2015
7,845
5,785
The European Union
Re numb hands.
Driving a car, do you get numbness?
If not, I suspect it is the angle at which your hands are resting.
Ten to two, or quarter to three seem comfortable and of course do not take any weight.
Flat bike bars on the other hand require an unnatural position, drop bars generally mimic the quarter to three position.
Of course ergonomics do not come into play in car design so what do we know...
 

paul20v

Pedelecer
Nov 18, 2015
150
81
Hi
I have both and they both have a purpose for various tasks
As for comments when riding an ebike well basically i couldnt give a toss what anyone thinks about it
And when im at the top of the next descent fresh and ready whos the fool , its no worse than using an uplift
I do use the ebike on the road as well but mainly on eco and i do tend too be above the cut off most of the time
As for the normal bike thats great too and i enjoy it just as much i also tend too use it more in the rain than the ebike
Happy pedaling whatever it might be on image.jpeg
 

EddiePJ

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jul 7, 2013
4,632
4,012
Crowborough, East Sussex
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paul20v

Pedelecer
Nov 18, 2015
150
81
Trying to find a photo earlier, I came across another of my favourite bike. The superb Ultra 1964. This bike is just so much fun to ride. :)

If all of my bikes were to disappear tomorrow, this is the one that I would miss.



Paul, how about some off road shots of new Macina. :) http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/threads/how-many-people-are-using-there-e-bike-off-road.15780/page-65#post-286811


.
will do next time I'm out its gets cleaned too much at the moment you know what it's like when there new :)
 

Yamdude

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 20, 2013
842
639
Somerset
I'm still swinging both ways..... as i still haven't yet decided whether to fit an ekit to my Giant road bike. Although it hardly gets used compared to my hybrid bike that does have an ekit fitted to it.