Fingerless Road Gloves

[Carl Kuck]

If you find yourself being less miserable, ride harder.

The comment from a friend of mine regarding time trials: "If you don't puke when crossing the finish line you weren't going hard enough..."

 

[Carl Kuck]

Absolutely forever ago (2013-ish?) I had a thread about this on Epicski - I was getting dropped on downhills. By lighter guys - wtf? And I kept up better on honking '80s and '90s iron than on this-century carbon?

As you can imagine, I was nowhere near aero. And my "aero attempt" position was making the bike so terrifyingly twitchy that I was more scared descending on the bike than on brakeless inline skates.

From a friend of mine that built carbon-fiber bikes in his garage just for fun, including a carbon step-through for the nice old lady down the street:

The most important things for making a bike go faster in decreasing order of importance (and Damon has worked for Trek, Cervelo, and Cannondale):

1. Power
2. Aerodynamics
3. Rolling resistance and other kinds of friction
4. Weight (which, ironically enough, is what many cyclists obsess about...)

 

[Plai]

Short answer: Castelli Arenbergs are very acceptable.

Well, got my longest ride in with the new Arenbergs. Ride was 48 miles, 3600ft gains, and 4 hrs. The gloves held up well. I like the little tabs that help putting on the gloves. The fingerless fingers are a little short, which makes taking them off a little harder. Overall, don't feel much of a difference vs my other gloves (specialized, pearl izumi).

I'm looking for a glove to help reduce hand/finger numbness that seems to appear after 1.5hrs.
Part of the issue is probably not changing hand position enough, and holding the bars too tight.

I'm starting to think the padding is too thick on my gloves. Anyone have a favorite thin pad glove?
I'll review this thread for those already mentioned.

A couple more long rides after this comment, I started getting the familiar pain again, and quicker.

Try loosening the closure strap a bit. Pressure on the back of the wrist can make fingers tingle.

So, I did this and that helped a bit. Where it didn't help was the leather patch over the webbing between thumb and forefinger. The wet/dry cycles had shrunk the leather here, and it was starting to squeeze/pitch. I started to look for a glove with synthetic material over the webbing and a little leather on the palms, specifically the heels. The numbness was in both hands (as in other gloves: pearl izumi, specialized bg with leather over the webbing).

I've said this before and probably sound like a broken record, but: Specialized Grail. Yes, they're marketed as a MTB glove but they're great on the road. I have them in long finger and they are 100% my favorite glove. There's some weird very thin padding to fill in the dent of your palm, but none in the traditional places. I'm just waiting the Castelli Arenbergs to die before I can justify buying the fingerless version.

Bingo! I'm about 3x 1+ hr in with these gloves and don't think they're contributing to my right hand pain/numbness. No numbness in my left hand. Did a short comparison ride w/o gloves and the sensations matched. Thank you @zircon

Anyone know any self help (stretches, self-massage, etc) to help nerve health in the forearm and hands? I think my tennis is taking it's toll here.

 

[markojp]

After trying a bunch of gloves and still having the same problem, it's time to look at your bike set up. Could be too much reach for your core strength and or flexibility. Have you had your fit looked at?

 

[scott43]

Can't emphasize enough how important bike fit is..

 

[Plai]

After trying a bunch of gloves and still having the same problem, it's time to look at your bike set up. Could be too much reach for your core strength and or flexibility. Have you had your fit looked at?

Bike fit was done a while ago, and I keep making minor adjustments/improvements. Given that I've isolated the numbness issue to one hand, I'm pretty confident that it's a nerve issue. That, and the occasional tennis elbow indicator.
That said, I'll revisit with probably a shorter stem, to reduce reach. Older age and less flexibility are also considerations.
Thanks

 

[zircon]

Glad you like the gloves. If there's tennis elbow symptoms in the same hand, that does seem likely that you're right about a nerve issue. Another easy thing to check is to make sure your bike is actually symmetrical. I suffered through weird reach discomfort on the bike for a few months this winter before realizing I'd put the stem slightly off center when I last adjusted it.

However, a refit with a fitter who knows what they're doing is probably worthwhile, particularly if you think your flexibility has changed since your last one. You mentioned in another thread being much faster on recent rides than you're used to, so your fitness has changed as well, which might also indicate a need for a refit. Fit isn't static relative to the forces you're generating while riding. For example, one of my bikes sometimes feels way too long when noodling around in a recovery zone and borders on feeling cramped when putting down suprathreshold power