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Some Basic Tips For Noobs

05.28.2013 by Ray Niekamp // 3 Comments

I decided not to ride Sunday morning, because it was pouring rain when I woke up. Dumb move. Things were pretty well dried out by 9 a.m., and if I’d been a little more patient, I could have gone. As it was, I did a short ride with my wife, as I mentioned in the last post.

But I wanted to make up for the lost B ride, so I posted that I would go Monday morning, since it was a holiday. We would do the Same Fitzhugh route that the A’s did on Sunday. Three others came out to join me, including Yasmin and Frank, two new B riders who rode with us for the first time last week.

Both of them have recently bought new bikes, and they’re both strong riders who will only get stronger and faster as they keep riding. As we negotiated the rolling hills along Fitzhugh Road, Frank stayed with Buddy, who moved well out in front. Yasmin got ahead of me, and while I had some trouble sticking with her, we were closer together than Buddy and Frank were to us.

At the turnaround, about 16 miles out from the start, Yasmin complained that her saddle was bothering her. She’s a tall woman, and the bike frame she had appeared to be sized for a man. But the saddle was a narrow racing style. I could relate to her distress. I rode a narrow racing saddle for about a year, when I finally ditched it some something wider and more comfortable.

“When you take it back to the shop, ask them to fit you with a wider saddle,” I suggested. Because of women’s wider pelvises, they need wider saddles than men, anyway.

At another rest stop farther on, both Yasmin and Frank expressed concern about their hands. They were getting numb, and they were shaking them out periodically.

In Frank’s case, he was riding with his elbows locked. “One of the guys told me to ride with my elbows bent,” he said. “I’m trying to get used to that.” Bending the elbows takes weight off the hands. The saddle should have been positioned in such a way that the elbows naturally bend when the rider is in his standard riding position. When I had my bike fitting some years ago, the fitter said it’s more common that people have their saddle too far back rather than too far forward. For most people, he said, moving the saddle forward will provide that elbow bend and make for a more comfortable riding position.

Fitters often use KOPS, or Knee Over Pedal Spindle, as a way to determine saddle fore-aft position. But the other day I was re-reading Peter White’s excellent contrarian article about bike fitting, where he pooh-poohs that notion. It’s all about balance, he says, the kind of balance between power and comfort. The article inspired me to do some tweaking on my saddle position.

It turned out that Yasmin was pushing her hands against the brake hoods. While that seems like a normal position for a new rider, it can cause the hands to go numb quickly. I showed them how to position the hands so the pressure is on the outside heels of the hands, not the webbing between the thumb and forefinger. “It usually doesn’t take much of a shift in position to relieve the pressure,” I said.

We wrapped up the ride and went our separate ways. I hope the tips about saddle width, bending the elbows, and hand position will help Frank and Yasmin enjoy their riding. I fully expect it will have negative consequences for me — it’ll just make them stronger riders, and I’ll be left behind again.

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Categories // Bike fit, Tips Tags // hands, numb, saddle

Where to Place Your Hands

08.19.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 12 Comments

Recently, I was on a longer-than-usual ride, and after awhile, things started aching. Since the group I was with had already gone 35 miles without stopping, I thought a break was in order, and picked a shady spot under a bridge to rest a bit.

“All my contact points are sore,” I told one of my co-riders.  “My feet, my butt, and my hands.”

The feet weren’t a problem. A few minutes rest would take care of the hot spot, and I would make sure to pull up rather than push down the rest of the way in.  My butt wasn’t a problem, either, because the rest would help that, too.  But the hands — I’ve had sore hands before, and they don’t go away so easily.

The wrong way. My weight is centered between thumb and forefinger.

I stumbled across the answer several days later. My hands hurt because I’ve been putting them on the bar in the wrong place.  I spend 90 percent of my time on the hoods, and the web between thumb and forefinger naturally wraps around the hood.

That’s not what you want to do.

A post on Bike Forums suggested that your hands should bear all the weight on their heels.  That takes pressure off the tender webbing, and allows you to ride in comfort for hours on end.  The forum poster even asserted that you could ride without gloves and still be comfortable, if you kept the weight on the heels of the hands.

The right way. Weight to the outside.

I decided to try it.  The next weekend, I took a club ride about the same distance as when I had the soreness.  Several miles into the ride, I remembered that I was going to try the new hand position (I learn slowly, sometimes). I shifted the hands slightly to the sides, to where I could feel the heels absorb the weight.

It was pretty good.

This really works.  Problem is, I shift my hands a bit when I have to brake, and then forget to put them back in their new positions.  “Move your hands!” I kept reminding myself.

The weight-on-the-heel position doesn’t work only when your hands are on the hoods.  It’ll work anytime, anywhere. Want to rest your hands on top of the bar, near the stem?  Pay attention to where you put the heel.  Want to move the hands around just for some variety? Try putting them on the tall part of the shifter enclosure.  The heel naturally falls on the hood that way.  Again, you might have to shift the hands quickly if you have to brake, but that’s not an issue.

And I can vouch for the claim that the heel will support your weight regardless of the amount of padding.  On another day, I wore my backup gloves, with only a piece of synthetic leather over the heel of the hand — no cushioning inside.  I rode for over an hour with no discomfort.

These pictures show local crit racers who position their hands correctly. The guy on the left points his forearms in.  So does the guy on the right, who also shows that you don’t need gloves to ride comfortably.

With heels supporting your weight, you aren’t going to put a death grip on the bars.  In fact, you ought to be able to wiggle your fingers and wrap them lightly around the bars.  That will eliminate tension from your hands, and you’ll ride comfortably for hours.

Criterium pictures via Facebook.

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Categories // Technique Tags // hands

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