Pain and Numbness

In my left thumb.

Nowhere else.

I can't, for the life of me, figure out what I'm doing posture wise or
how I might be holding my hands that could cause numbness only in my
left thumb and pain only at that one joint.

But, that's why God created Usenet. So, one can ask these sorts of
questions.

-M

(The local riding club has two members who are fluent in English. I'm
one of them. The other just graduated university and is leaving
tomorrow. I _can't_ ask them. I don't even know what the Chinese word
for "thumb" is.)

It's your saddle. Switch to a Brooks.

Or stop sitting on your thumb.

Chris - *ducking*

p.s. I got a thumb thumb (not on a bike) with a longbow handle that was too
thick. The pressure on the "meat" between thumb and forefinger was pinching
"something" - blood flow, nerve? Solution: narrow the grip. Might I suggest
taking the grip tape off your handlebars and seeing if the narrower tube
helps? (I'm just taking a guess...)




"brucianna" wrote in message
oups.com...
In my left thumb.

Nowhere else.

I can't, for the life of me, figure out what I'm doing posture wise or
how I might be holding my hands that could cause numbness only in my
left thumb and pain only at that one joint.

But, that's why God created Usenet. So, one can ask these sorts of
questions.

-M

(The local riding club has two members who are fluent in English. I'm
one of them. The other just graduated university and is leaving
tomorrow. I _can't_ ask them. I don't even know what the Chinese word
for "thumb" is.)

brucianna wrote:

numbness only in my left thumb and pain only at that one joint.

Road bike? Do you ride with your hands of the brake hoods?

It could be the position of the brake lever or the shape of the brake
hood. I have Dura Ace (9sp) levers on one bike and 105 (9sp) levers on
the other. The 105 levers sometimes causes pain in the joint where my
thumb joins the hand. The shape of the DA brake hoods feel a lot more
comfortable to me.

Try varying your hand placement (tops, drops, etc.) during your rides.

Art Harris

I had that problem when I switched to an MTB from a road bike for my
around town rides and commuting. What I found was that by adding bar
ends, and changing hand positions often the problem went away for the
most part. I still get a bit numb on LONG rides. But in addition to
changing hand positions, I do the one handed ride thing and
exersize(sp?) the other while on the bike.

Ken

Reminds me of a mystery pain I had in the ring finger of my left
hand...turned out my wedding band was too tight -- wayyyy too tight. Nyway:
you wearing gloves? There might be an unfortunate variance between the
glove and your anatomy, ie: the glove is a wee bit tight there and your
thumb is a little larger than "standard" size...

Just a thought

Yeah gloves help a bit, but I find that it's just too darn hot to wear
gloves in the summer in Florida!

Ken

Art Harris wrote:
brucianna wrote:

numbness only in my left thumb and pain only at that one joint.

Road bike? Do you ride with your hands of the brake hoods?

Road bike.

Are brake hoods the hood-shaped thingywhatses on the drop-bar brake
levers?

I ride with my hands on the top of the handlebars. Near the brakes but
not on them.

It could be the position of the brake lever or the shape of the brake
hood. I have Dura Ace (9sp) levers on one bike and 105 (9sp) levers on
the other. The 105 levers sometimes causes pain in the joint where my
thumb joins the hand. The shape of the DA brake hoods feel a lot more
comfortable to me.

Try varying your hand placement (tops, drops, etc.) during your rides.

I've tried going down on the drop bars a few times in the month since I
bought this bike. It was a comfortable position at fairly low speeds
on my last two bikes. (Can't give exact speeds cause they didn't have
speedometers BUT I know what kind of shape I was in.)

On this bike, it isn't until I get up over 30 kph that it feels "right"
balance-wise to be down that low, and even then it is still somewhat
awkward.

Brian Sanderson wrote:
Reminds me of a mystery pain I had in the ring finger of my left
hand...turned out my wedding band was too tight -- wayyyy too tight. Nyway:
you wearing gloves? There might be an unfortunate variance between the
glove and your anatomy, ie: the glove is a wee bit tight there and your
thumb is a little larger than "standard" size...

I am wearing gloves but I've got a reasonable amount of wiggle space.

I should note that I did not have this left-thumb numbness issue a week
ago. A week ago I had a wrist pain issue (in both wrists) that was
fixed when I showed up at my first group ride and had a dozen people
tell me that my handlebars were rotated funny.

-M

Sounds to me like you are riding with your hands on the bars just above
the brake hoods. I found this to be a comfortable position for me. Just
a thought, but you might try riding on the hoods, or this will sounds
strange, but check your saddle height and angle position. This can
often cause pain in other places.

Ken

Yeap, sometimes just a silly little thing like that can cause a whole
lot of discomfort.

Ken