Road bike wrist pain....

[the_sly_pig]

Resisting installing time trial bars. Fell a bunch last winter, any suggestions?

[3Hotdogs]

1. Do what you need to do to prevent and do it now to prevent further damage. 30 years ago, I went on a

60 mile ride on rough macadam. I ended up with a form of carpal tunnel. It never went away.

[California_Republic]

2. Change up that handle bar

[The River]

3. I Always Used

flat bars and had a custom extension that ran all the way across
about 6" in front of the main handlebar. I had about 6 different
hand positions. Relax your grip if you hold on too tightly.
At 69 my hands and wrists still feel good.

[Bayard]

4. Don't fall?

(Sorry)

I used to wear super padded gloves. Do exercises to maintain flexibility and range of motion in your wrists. I've had carpal tunnel surgery on the right, and supposed to have on the left (not cycling related, but no fun). Do your hands actually get numb?

Are you sure you haven't had a fracture?

[LakeSuperiorView]

5. Here's what I did. Don't use time trial bars except to hold your helmet when you are off the bike.

The likely culprit is locking your elbows such that your wrists (and shoulders) are forced to absorb the bumps. I am carrying too much upper body weight (read that as a fat gut) so I was pushing off the handle bars to support the weight.

You need to get your shoulders down and elbows bent so you can absorb the bumps with your arm muscles instead of wrist/shoulder. Your biceps and triceps are much bigger than the muscles that work your wrists and more suited to absorbing the shocks of the road. Not riding bumpy roads also helps, but that is a no brainer. Think rounded shoulders, down and back, side benefit of being more aerodynamic.

For me, it wasn't enough to keep reminding myself. I don't recommend this for anyone else (i.e. don't blame me if you build it and crash) but I built a support out of PVC that sits on the top bar that I can lean on a little and reminds me to get my arms bent.

I don't have a way to post a picture, but the rest uses 4 Tee fittings, 4 Elbows, some pipe and two hose clamps. One and a half inch ID pipe fits my top bar almost perfectly and I put in a reducer to one inch for the top rest to cut down on size. I have a "travel neck pillow" strapped on it to lean against. Worst part is that it makes it harder to get on and off the bike. And you cant reach down to water bottles, so I have two cages on the vertical pipe. One tee has the top of the tee sawed in two, then clamped around the top tube with some old inner tube rubber to provide friction and protect the paint. This leaves you with the bottom of the Tee facing up so a vertical pipe can be inserted perpendicular to the top bar, A suitable length of pipe (experimentation is needed) goes up to a Tee that sits with the two remaining openings facing out the sides of the bike. Two tees join that with the shortest possible pipes and short pieces of pipe and 4 elbows make the resting area. I only glued the elbows and top portions of the last two tees, so the resting surface is glued together, but it is free to rotate side to side and the angle is adjustable.

I take it loose from the bike when transporting by car, leaving only the one tee hose clamped to the top bar when it is in my bike rack. I used a strap back to the seat post at first because I was worried about the strength, but that makes it hard to stop and put your feet on the ground. I don't really lean on it much anymore, i just remind myself that when my chest is of the pad, my elbows are bent and I'm not wrecking my wrists.

This has gotten me through 5 MS150s and training for them. People tell me I should manufacture them, but I think that liability would be too high. Again, this worked for me and anyone trying this is on their own insurance. Try willfully changing your posture first before resorting to any crutches such as I did.

[jberryhill]

8. I would love to see a picture of that

Because I can’t quite visualize it from the description, but it sounds cool.

[LakeSuperiorView]

9. I don't know how to post pictures unfortunately.

As far as I know, they have to be already on the internet to post them here.

[jberryhill]

10. Here's a trick

You can drag and drop an image to pasteboard.co, and it will upload and provide you with a URL for that photo.

[LakeSuperiorView]

11. In that case, here goes...

Doesn't seem to have worked, but I was able to right click and copy the URLs from the photo ghosts in this post and then paste into a new window and get the image. This is just PVC pipe, chosen to fit my top tube as close as possible. Band saw the top of a Tee fitting off and line it with old inner tubes, hose clamp it back together around the top tube. I reduced from 1.5" around the top tube to 1" for the rest. 1.5" tube was bulky for the whole thing. Length of pipe, Tee, short pipes, Tees, short pipes, elbows, short pipes. That should create a "square" of pipes on top of a pipe that fits into the modified Tee on the top tube of the bike.

I have the water bottle cages on there as this rig will prevent you from reaching the typical location.

The pad is a "neck pillow" wrapped with the self clinging stretchy tape that is sold alongside Ace Bandages. Depending on the height one makes it, it wouldn't support one's full weight leaning on it. I use it mostly to get my torso down, shoulders down, elbows bent. I don't lean on it heavily. It's almost more of a reminder to have proper posture and get the upper body weight off the wrists.

I used to use a strap, from the top Tee to the seat tube/seat stays to add support strength, but that really gets in the way of straddling the bike when stopped.

As I said before, this is what I use, and anyone as stupid as me to use it assumes their own risks. If it breaks and causes one to face plant, that's their own set of problems.

Oh, one last thing, it makes your chest hot on a warm day...

[jberryhill]

12. .

Off to the right there is another URL:

[the_sly_pig]

6. Thanks people! A lot to work with....

911 dispatcher by trade so the carpal tunnel issue may be unavoidable. I will be trying a combo of all responses, so thank you all!

[jberryhill]

7. Flat bar with Ergon Grips

This is my setup:



Ergon GP5 Grips:



I have a more upright "hybrid" frame configuration, so it may not be appropriate for a road bike posture.

It gets me where I'm going.