bicycling damages #3 - this time it’s for real!
After the long ride on Sunday, something felt odd. My fingers were not functioning correctly; nothing hurt, but I couldn’t get my palm straight and close the gap between my fingers. My pinkies took an angle and just wouldn’t come back no matter how much concentration I put into it. Also, the amount of force I can apply with my fingers diminished. Very odd feeling. I showed this to people and they wouldn’t believe me.
I couldn’t unlock the doors unless I used both hands, clip my fingernails, eat with chopsticks (that was embarrassing) and even using utensils was somewhat difficult. It’s been two days and it just got slightly better. I’m starting to be concerned.
I searched online and read that it is somewhat common for this to happen to avid (not me) bike riders (some say it went away only after 3 months!) I also noticed that I was gripping the handle bars wrong and putting a lot of pressure on the bottom left corner of my palm where the relevant tendons go through.
So riders, pay attention to the handle grip and make sure your arms and wrists are straight without exerting pressure on the palms and change grips as you ride. Some say gloves help too.
I hope this goes away soon.
November 16th, 2005 at 3:06 pm
Saar, I believe you, it happened to me, but only on a very long ride (1 month). You might look into a different kind of handlebar and grip. If you have a mtn-bike (flat bars) you might want to get “riser bars” or bars that have a little bend upward in them. A 1.5″ or 2″ riser bar would change your grip a lot. Price varies, but I think you can get cheap ones these days — they were the hot thing about 5 years ago and now are standard issue over flat bars. If you have big hands you might look into Oury grips — they tend to run soft and big. They come in lock-on (clamped) and normal (glued) . I think the normal ones are about $10. Also make sure your bars are up-and-down and not slanted toward or away from you — that’ll help to make sure you don’t put all your weight on your palms instead of your knuckles.
November 16th, 2005 at 8:56 pm
Oh dear! Does this mean no bike riding for the duration?
Sorry I don’t have any advice to offer….