Uncomfortable riding position

I have a road bike with dropped handle bars. I feel fairly comfortable on
it and it feels most comfortable to position my hands on the corner of
the handle bars. I do sometimes place them at the side but not for long
periods of time, it feels a little bit like I'm stretching. I don't put
them on the top because I have the brackets for my lights there.

I've noticed that when I do push ups it's very painful on the palms of my
hands and I think the way I ride my bike probably had caused this.

Could the way I position my hands suggest that the size of the bike is
wrong or something needs adjusting?

On Sun, 10 May 2009 12:39:30 GMT
Brown Cat wrote:

I have a road bike with dropped handle bars. I feel fairly
comfortable on it and it feels most comfortable to position my hands
on the corner of the handle bars. I do sometimes place them at the
side but not for long periods of time, it feels a little bit like I'm
stretching. I don't put them on the top because I have the brackets
for my lights there.

I've noticed that when I do push ups it's very painful on the palms
of my hands and I think the way I ride my bike probably had caused
this.

Could the way I position my hands suggest that the size of the bike
is wrong or something needs adjusting?

It sounds like you're not comfortable riding on the hoods, which
suggests that it's too big for you, but this could be caused by other
problems with the set-up e.g. saddle too high. Are you wearing good
gloves with firm padding in the palms?

"Brown Cat" wrote
I have a road bike with dropped handle bars. I feel fairly comfortable on
it and it feels most comfortable to position my hands on the corner of
the handle bars. I do sometimes place them at the side but not for long
periods of time, it feels a little bit like I'm stretching. I don't put
them on the top because I have the brackets for my lights there.

I've noticed that when I do push ups it's very painful on the palms of my
hands and I think the way I ride my bike probably had caused this.

Could the way I position my hands suggest that the size of the bike is
wrong or something needs adjusting?

Or it might simply be that drop bars aren't right for you.

Drop bars concentrate the loading down the channel next to the thumbs (ie,
perpendicular to the knuckle line). Riding on the corners is probably the
worst thing to do for very long, being where the blood vessels, nerves &
tendons run. When I use drop bars, the only comfortable extended position is
with hands balanced on top of the horns - rather than ramming the web
between thumb & finger into the notch, as seems to be the intention of the
design.

Flat bars run sideways across the palms (parallel to the knuckle line) and
concentrate the loads on the outside of the hands between the little fingers
at he hook at the base of the palm (called the pisiform, I think). By riding
on that my fingers & thumbs can be completely relaxed.

My setup is that for flat bars I have a 600mm frame with a 120m stem and for
drop, a standard 560mm frame with 90mm stem so there is isn't any difference
in habitual bottom/body/arm traingle. (Usual comparisons of drop/flat
invariably aren't properly like for like.) The tops of the drop bars only
work for me when climbing out of the saddle - only then does the bar seem to
fall more naturally under the hand and there is marginally more reach.

Brown Cat wrote:
I have a road bike with dropped handle bars. I feel fairly comfortable on
it and it feels most comfortable to position my hands on the corner of
the handle bars. I do sometimes place them at the side but not for long
periods of time, it feels a little bit like I'm stretching. I don't put
them on the top because I have the brackets for my lights there.

I've noticed that when I do push ups it's very painful on the palms of my
hands and I think the way I ride my bike probably had caused this.

Could the way I position my hands suggest that the size of the bike is
wrong or something needs adjusting?

Roadies normally ride with their hands on the rubber hoods of the brake
levers. It sounds like your handlebars are too far forward for you to do
this comfortably, so it may be worth replacing the handlebar stem with a
shorter one, to bring the bars nearer to you.

On Mon, 11 May 2009 00:32:55 +0100
Andy Key wrote:

Roadies normally ride with their hands on the rubber hoods of the
brake levers. It sounds like your handlebars are too far forward for
you to do this comfortably, so it may be worth replacing the
handlebar stem with a shorter one, to bring the bars nearer to you.

If the frame's too big for him or some other aspect of the set-up is
way out then changing the stem could end up with a bike that handles
strangely and still doesn't fit.