"Bob"

wrote:

I just got started in road biking after a while riding a mountain bike and I
have some questions.

First - my bike seems quite comfortable to me and my hands naturally ride on
the hoods. But after a while - 15-20 mins or so -they start to hurt,
especially the area between the thumb and the first finger. I'm assuming
this is just because riding like this is new to me. I don't notice that I'm
putting a lot of forward pressure on the hoods - I seem to be comfortable,
but maybe I'm just not used to having something between my thumb and first
finger. Do you think this will go away after I get some time on the bike or
what? Maybe I need to build up my hands or something...

Second - after riding a mountain bike, I am kind of nervous about riding
such skinny tires. I am worried that they will slip out from under me or
something. I've ridden over the sand and stuff in the road left over from
winter and am still alive, but it gets me nervous riding over that stuff.
Last summer I wiped out on my mountain bike taking a turn too fast on a wet
road and separated my shoulder, so I guess I'm still getting over that. I
guess as I get used to my my bike that nervousness should go away? Any
comments?

Your hands start to hurt or they begin to get numb? Numbness is usually a
byproduct of poor fit- in the case of hand numbness it's usually too long of a
reach putting too much pressure on your hands- but you say the fit is
comfortable and that your hands *hurt*, not go numb. How hard are you gripping
the hoods? A 15 - 20 minute long death grip will cause some discomfort. Ideally
you should just be resting your hands lightly on the hoods. Another
possibility, assuming you wear them, is poor glove fit. Without further
information it's impossible to address the question in any but very general
terms.

You'll gain confidence as you ride more miles but in the meantime, 23mm or even
20mm tires are actually *less* likely to "let go" on pavement than 1.75" knobby
MTB tires. Loose sand, etc can cause you to lose traction but in terms of
g-forces a properly inflated smooth tread 23mm road tire will outcorner a
knobby of the same compound every time. I hope that helps ease your mind.

Regards,
Bob Hunt