DocWong
Well-known member
Several riders have been asking me about wrist problems while riding, here are my recommendations:
I find that wrist, hand or finger problems such as pain, numbness, tingling or swelling come from two major sources.
One would be equipment or riding position problems and the other would be actual problems of the wrist that are triggered by poor equipment or riding position.
Poor equipment would include things like:
1. Gloves the wrong size, cutting off circulation.
2. Handle bars at a wrong vertical (too low) location and you're commuting on the bike.
3. Handle bars at a wrong horizontal (forward-backward) angle putting pressure on your wrists.
3. Missing bar end weight making the bars vibrate more.
4. Suspension not set up correctly, transferring the jarring into your wrists.
Poor riding position usually takes the form of:
1. Just laying on the handle bars, especially on sportbikes, whcih puts pressure on your wrists. If you commute on your sportbike and have a tendency to put pressure on your wrists, you can try using a tall enough tank bag to rest your chest on for those rides.
2. Gripping the hand grips too tight. You only need just enough pressure on the grips to just keep the throttle from closing.
For rides thru twisty roads, there's no need to put pressure on your wrists or grip tight while riding. In fact this is unsafe and detrimental to the stable control of your bike around corners. So to take pressure off your wrists, learn how to anchor your lower body on the bike, making it unnecessary to put any pressure on the handlebars. My monthly Doc Wong Riding Clinics cover this topic along with other key riding techniques.
You would have to make pretty big errors in equipment or riding to really cause problems with your wrists, hand or fingers, so most riders I see actually have actual wrist problems which are triggered by the above.
Actual wrist problems include:
1. The mis-alignment of the wrist bones which puts some pressure on the soft and tender tendons, blood vessels and nerves on the bottom side of your wrists.
2. Problems in the neck. I've been finding that a lot of wrist problems also involve problems with the neck also. I've found many riders with a pinched nerve in their neck that affects the wrist. This is called "Double-Crush Syndrome" involving pinched nerves in the neck and wrist.
3. Repetitive stress or strain from overuse from keyboarding and then riding incorrectly. Even in these cases, the person has wrist problems because he/she was predisposed to wrist problems from the above.
Of course when the symptoms get bad enough, it's called Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.
If you've been prone to wrist pain or know you have wrist problems such as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, feel free to e-mail me at: docwong@aol.com for a free exam and evaluation. If it's just the wrong riding position, ride down to my office in your bike and I'll check you out on your riding positon.
Doc Wong
www.docwong.com
office: 650-365-7775
I find that wrist, hand or finger problems such as pain, numbness, tingling or swelling come from two major sources.
One would be equipment or riding position problems and the other would be actual problems of the wrist that are triggered by poor equipment or riding position.
Poor equipment would include things like:
1. Gloves the wrong size, cutting off circulation.
2. Handle bars at a wrong vertical (too low) location and you're commuting on the bike.
3. Handle bars at a wrong horizontal (forward-backward) angle putting pressure on your wrists.
3. Missing bar end weight making the bars vibrate more.
4. Suspension not set up correctly, transferring the jarring into your wrists.
Poor riding position usually takes the form of:
1. Just laying on the handle bars, especially on sportbikes, whcih puts pressure on your wrists. If you commute on your sportbike and have a tendency to put pressure on your wrists, you can try using a tall enough tank bag to rest your chest on for those rides.
2. Gripping the hand grips too tight. You only need just enough pressure on the grips to just keep the throttle from closing.
For rides thru twisty roads, there's no need to put pressure on your wrists or grip tight while riding. In fact this is unsafe and detrimental to the stable control of your bike around corners. So to take pressure off your wrists, learn how to anchor your lower body on the bike, making it unnecessary to put any pressure on the handlebars. My monthly Doc Wong Riding Clinics cover this topic along with other key riding techniques.
You would have to make pretty big errors in equipment or riding to really cause problems with your wrists, hand or fingers, so most riders I see actually have actual wrist problems which are triggered by the above.
Actual wrist problems include:
1. The mis-alignment of the wrist bones which puts some pressure on the soft and tender tendons, blood vessels and nerves on the bottom side of your wrists.
2. Problems in the neck. I've been finding that a lot of wrist problems also involve problems with the neck also. I've found many riders with a pinched nerve in their neck that affects the wrist. This is called "Double-Crush Syndrome" involving pinched nerves in the neck and wrist.
3. Repetitive stress or strain from overuse from keyboarding and then riding incorrectly. Even in these cases, the person has wrist problems because he/she was predisposed to wrist problems from the above.
Of course when the symptoms get bad enough, it's called Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.
If you've been prone to wrist pain or know you have wrist problems such as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, feel free to e-mail me at: docwong@aol.com for a free exam and evaluation. If it's just the wrong riding position, ride down to my office in your bike and I'll check you out on your riding positon.
Doc Wong
www.docwong.com
office: 650-365-7775
