Lots of Rough miles and Hands "aching"

[Mrj35]

Hey everyone. Wife and I got SC Heckler SLs 6 months ago and we have right at 1,000 miles on them (each). The Heckler SL in Medium has about 10mm more reach than my old Patrol. The bike feels MUCH bigger though than 10mm. Right away my hands were going numb from the weight forward. I rotated the bars and moved the seat up and that seemed to fix the "numbness". Fast forward to March-April, we spent 2 months 42 rides in Hurricane and Moab crushing slickrock. Slickrock is anything but smooth. Bombing down sections hitting every option I could find, manuals, drops, etc etc.

I am SOO much more active on the ebike vs my patrol as I'm always able to be in that top energy category so I'm constantly hitting everything which means I'm using my hands a ton more to more the bike around under me. I have smaller hands and prefer larger diameter grips in general. My hands started aching and it lasted at least the whole month of April. I mean after rides, in the evening watching TV, in the morning when I wake up etc. Its not a numbness but just aching...overuse maybe?

Buddy suggested the Ergon grips. put some on today and they made my hands NUMB right away, adjusted the position of them a few times and couldnt find a comfortable fit.

I have a 42mm stem on the bike and looking to go shorter as a solution but figured I'd ask if anyone has any other ideas or had the same thing happen to them with increased riding on an E-Bike from regular.

I run full 800s and love the wide bars, I believe the rise on them is 30mm as well.

heavy feet light hands. try to focus on using your legs more as suspension. it should take some pressure off your hands.

 

[Mrj35]

How can "correct bar width" be determined?

You can ride a very wide range of bar widths but if its too wide you will notice nagging should issues over the long term and it puts you in a weaker position. We used to ride 580mm handlebars for freeriding and no one even thought about bar width, we were more hoping the bar was thick enough so that we wouldnt snap it in half lol.

 

[Sherman]

What is the reach on your old bike and what is the reach on your new bike? Inches or cm.

Reach isn’t everything. For seated position you need to have a look at the good old effective top tube measurement.

 

[irie]

Reach isn’t everything. For seated position you need to have a look at the good old effective top tube measurement.

Which is why I earlier said:

You can measure stuff ad infinitum, but @Wildman13 has another bike ("my old Patrol") so, assuming that is comfortable for him, (IMO) he would be best advised to set the new bike up using his old bike as a starting point.

 

[rod9301]

You should not have a lot or any weight on your hands. Use your core to support your weight.

 

[rod9301]

And absorb with your arms instead of the suspension. Legs of course too.

Or a coil fork.

 

[theremotejuggernaut]

So much focus on handlebars.

What fork have you got and what are your settings? If its an air fork, running the pressure too high or too low will give you sore hands. Low pressure and loads of volume spacers is the worst thing you can do. Similarly if you've got too much high speed damping or too much rebound damping then that can lead to sore hands too.

You say you like a wide bar, so do I. Narrower bars ride better for me though. Wide is fine when I sit on the bike but cutting them down made the bike much more comfortable to ride.

 

[Onetime]

I would try higher rise, narrower bars, shorter stem and smaller diameter grips. You need a more upright riding position with less reach to take weight off your hands and smaller diameter grips will be easier for your smaller hands to grip.

 

[Gavalar]

Hey everyone. Wife and I got SC Heckler SLs 6 months ago and we have right at 1,000 miles on them (each). The Heckler SL in Medium has about 10mm more reach than my old Patrol. The bike feels MUCH bigger though than 10mm. Right away my hands were going numb from the weight forward. I rotated the bars and moved the seat up and that seemed to fix the "numbness". Fast forward to March-April, we spent 2 months 42 rides in Hurricane and Moab crushing slickrock. Slickrock is anything but smooth. Bombing down sections hitting every option I could find, manuals, drops, etc etc.

I am SOO much more active on the ebike vs my patrol as I'm always able to be in that top energy category so I'm constantly hitting everything which means I'm using my hands a ton more to more the bike around under me. I have smaller hands and prefer larger diameter grips in general. My hands started aching and it lasted at least the whole month of April. I mean after rides, in the evening watching TV, in the morning when I wake up etc. Its not a numbness but just aching...overuse maybe?

Buddy suggested the Ergon grips. put some on today and they made my hands NUMB right away, adjusted the position of them a few times and couldnt find a comfortable fit.

I have a 42mm stem on the bike and looking to go shorter as a solution but figured I'd ask if anyone has any other ideas or had the same thing happen to them with increased riding on an E-Bike from regular.

I run full 800s and love the wide bars, I believe the rise on them is 30mm as well.

I had a similar problem, different bike, I opted for PNW's Loam Bar, 38 rise, no more hand fatigue or arm pump.

 

[darwink1]

This'll only work if you like fat grips but they do make thinner models of the foam ones and you don't need to incorporate the lock on...

I peeled the rubber off of a set of sdg lock ons then slid a pair of Wolftooth fat paw foamies over them. In conjunction with a oneup carbon bar the numbness has gone away.

D

 

[Downhillr]

Imagine you go for a long hike (all day) or you just get a super good workout (however) and your body aches.

Its mostly in my fingers, not palms and not numbness. The bike weight 45 lbs with pedals and contis so it's a lot of weight to move around underneath me. We've been doing a ton of riding and on ALL the rides I'm always riding super aggressive. That doesn't mean super huge it just means, as fast as possible a lot and manuals, bunny hops, jumps etc. every time I do these things I'm having to grip the bar tighter than a "loose grip" because I'm actively engaging the bike. This is a lot of strain on my hands/fingers. Its 100% due to the amount of use but I'm hoping that by moving the bar closer to me or changing the angle I can reduce that strain. The reach is much further on this bike so the amount of energy i need to use to move that front end is more than my old bike due to this 1 factor alone. then add in the extra weight, I have more energy so more aggressive etc.

Just trying to see if anyone else has experienced this issue before I got by a whole new set up to experiment with

Pretty sure folks will offer various suggestions but hard to say what applies to one person applies to next.
SC bikes in general have bit shorter reach than many others so first off hope you're on right size for your height/leg/arm length.
Cutting bars down a little, try widths like @790,780 which brings your hands closer, weight up and rearward a tad. (I took some older grips I could cut end off to change positions before actually cutting bar).
OneUp Components carbon
e-bar is more vertically compliant on trail chatter and I believe has bit more rise too.
Im 6’2” with long arms (wife says “Neanderthal”) and cut my OneUp bar to790mm. I also repositioned brake levers a few times and switched to MTX Gold pads (stronger, less fade) since my Bullit overpowers stock brakes and I find the strain after a long day riding/braking/gripping causes some hand ache.
Good luck!

 

[RickBullotta]

I did an XC race (on my Amish bike) yesterday at one of the rockier places in our area. My hands would usually be beat up after an event like that, but I made one change recently that seems to have made a huge difference - I swapped out my fork for a new Fox 36 with the Grip X2 (not Grip 2) cartridge. Much better small bump and big bump behavior. It's not really necessary to swap the fork out though if you wait a couple months for upgrade cartridges. Anyway, it made a noticeable difference.

 

[Montana St Alum]

If you have grips that can slide inward, move them in and experiment with different widths. Also, take a look at saddle position and see if front to back position and tilt make a difference. If you can find someone with bars that have more sweep, that would be nice to try. While it's true that we all need recovery time from exercise, you shouldn't be experiencing this much specific pain unless there's damage to the bones, ligaments or tendons. If you think that might be the problem, seeing a doctor wouldn't be a bad idea.

 

[gmoss]

I did an XC race (on my Amish bike) yesterday at one of the rockier places in our area. My hands would usually be beat up after an event like that, but I made one change recently that seems to have made a huge difference - I swapped out my fork for a new Fox 36 with the Grip X2 (not Grip 2) cartridge. Much better small bump and big bump behavior. It's not really necessary to swap the fork out though if you wait a couple months for upgrade cartridges. Anyway, it made a noticeable difference.

After reading thru this thread, this is what I was looking for or was going to post. Recently got my new Fuel EXE. Rode it once stock for a shakedown of what I liked and what was getting replaced. At 55, deal with somw aches, arthritis type hand pain and I havw become very sensitive to set up. My cockpit setup has been my go to for several years. So, after that first ride, I was beat to death shoulders and hands killed me. I got right to swapping parts. The biggest factors in aches is contact point and susp. Got to get the fork sorted first. My Fox 36 is dialed and it made a HUGE difference in that bike. The bars on the Fuel were a combo stem/bar in carbon so I could not adjust, ditched them for my trusty I9/Renthal Carbon Lite 35's. Next ride was worlds different and was back to what I was used to on my other bike.

I don't really put a lot of thought into measurements. I moved my parts from my Reeb SST to trh Fuel, and run similar set up on my Hightower LT, though it has a 60mm stem vs 50. I am comfortable on all of them with the same bars and fork. I run thinner grips on the HTLT as well. They havw not bothered me. Susp is key for me, and making sure my pressure is set each ride seems to be more important than clicker settings.

My Fuel was unrideable for me when I got it. Now its as comfortable as any bike I have had.

As far as bar width, find your most comfortable position for doing a push up, this is where you will likely be most comfortable for bar width.

 

[mike_kelly]

I second the SQ Labs 30x and raise the SQ Lab grips.

 

[gmoss]

This'll only work if you like fat grips but they do make thinner models of the foam ones and you don't need to incorporate the lock on...

I peeled the rubber off of a set of sdg lock ons then slid a pair of Wolftooth fat paw foamies over them. In conjunction with a oneup carbon bar the numbness has gone away.

View attachment 140077 View attachment 140078

D

Interesting solution to a problem that keeps me from running foam grips anymore. They are one and done for going on, coming off. Like what ya did there.