Cycling related injury... sort of

JimNicho

Retro Guru
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I finished the big charity ride on Sunday, and it was really hard on my hands, both days. I noticed yesterday that I can't straighten out my little finger properly on my right hand. It doesn't hurt, and I can grip with it, but if I straighten out all of my fingers... the little one sticks out at about 10 degrees. Has anyone ever experienced anything like this?
 
I've had this sort of thing before. In 2004 I did a John O'Groats to Land's End ride.
The constant pressure on the ulnar nerve in my hands for 2 weeks caused some temporary nerve damage and numbness, along with the symptoms you describe.

I could straighten my fingers properly after about a week but the numb sensation took about 4 or 5 months to fully heal.
 
What sort of bike you riding?

On my old rigid I used to get this riding with ODI lockon grips, switched to foams and never had a problem since.
 
Singlespeed with manitou, I think, forks up front and some sort of lock on grips. I might consider the foam grips... currently looking at shorter/higher rise stems to take a bit of weight off. The finger is a bit straighter this morning though :)
 
It's one of the good arguments for drop bars or at least bar-ends. You can switch your grip around and relieve pressure, and this kind of thing doesn't happen so easily.
 
+1 for bar ends. Better variation in positions goes a long way. Try to study exactly the weight distribution across the palm of your hands; you want a very even distribution - slight alterations of the sweep angle of flat bars can do the trick. If that doesn't help, then you may simply be having too much weight on your hands to begin with.
 

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