Thursday, September 3, 2009

Just A Tiny Bit Of Panic

The camping trip left me with a numb right arm. From the end of my pinky and ring fingers all the way up to my elbow. I've known these bars/grips aren't quite right and they've done this to me before, but it's alway been temporary. 5-1/2 hours on the bike within a 24-hour period must have put me over the top, cause it's not going away, and it's now been 4 days.

My knee-jerk reaction has been to cut off the silicone grips and put some expensive ergonomic ones on, but I'm afraid to try them out, for fear that I'll make things worse. I'm pretty sure they won't help anyways. It was just a desperate attempt to throw a few bucks at a problem to try to make it go away.





If it turns out the bike's un-useable and I have to put it out of it's misery, no way it's going alone. It'll be a murder-suicide. When they interview my neighbors, I'll bet you a million bucks they say we looked happy together and they had no clue that anything was wrong. You always read about this type of thing in the paper and wonder how such a seemingly beautiful relationship could ever go so horribly wrong. Now you know.

7 comments:

FBC Spokane said...

From the looks of the picture, you have them on backwards. That extra bit goes under the heel of your hand.

Pat S said...

Damnit, Jeff. On top of the humiliation and despite the fact that my neighbors have once again witnessed me running out to the garage in my skivies after midnight to make an urgent correction, I owe you a beer. Why do I blog.

They feel way better now, btw.

Hank Greer said...

Too funny, Pat. Of course, I probably would done the same thing. Hmmm, they remind me of pistol grips.

I found that adding bar ends helps by giving you more options for hand placement.

Joe said...

Ergons + H-Bar = Happy Hands...

Alan said...

It might not be the grips causing the numbness. Maybe you've got a pinched nerve in your shoulder area. That can be caused by having your shoulders rolled instead of flat.

So now your shopping list could be: new stem, new seat post, new saddle, new handlebars.

And with a list that long, maybe it is just the grips...

Rob Brewer said...

I have regular numbness after riding in my right arm and hand. I added the Ergo grips (did install them correctly the first time, thanks to instructions) and made the switch from a backpack to panniers. The grips came first and made a substantial difference and of course moving away from a backpack made a HUGE difference. I still get numbness, but usually only after riding for several hours now.
Kind of wish they offered the Ergos with the bar ends when I bought mine, but oh well.

Mike S said...

I'll offer you a trade of your right leg for one of my good good arms (take your pick).