Bicycle Hand Injuries & Winter Bicycle Riding

Since I'm left-handed, my right hand is often used as a notepad.

Now that I'm logging about 2000 miles a year with bicycle commuting instead of driving a car, my hands are beginning to complain.

Last night I took myself out to dinner to celebrate my 65th birthday.  It was a clear night, but unseasonably cold for Delaware and the temperature dropped to the low 30's by the time I left the restaurant and pedaled four miles in the dark to my home.

Cyclists know about hand pain when cycling for long distances or in cold weather or just because you happened to turn 65. The tingling.  The sharp hot pain as if someone is poking your hands with a cattle prod.  It's ugly and enough to discourage cycling under such conditions.

With only a mile left to go on a dark, cold night, my hands threw in the towel and stopped working despite the cashmere-lined, lamb skin gloves I was wearing.  And despite the paddle shaped hand grips on my handlebar that takes the pressure off the heel of your hand.

Here's the scoop on such injuries from two sources, one from THE HUGHSTON HEALTH ALERT and one from SPORTS INJURY BULLETIN.  Both sites offer some very good information about the causes of hand pain and possible solutions.

The Hughston Health Alert offers the following graphics to explain why it HURTS.

So, what are we to do about hand pain when cycling?  Complaining doesn't help and only serves to alienate your friends who aren't cyclists.  Drugs are only a temporary reprieve and not much of solution.

There are always the bar mitts by CozyWinters.

There is always taking some tips from Molly on winter electric bike riding.  This should be a very strong hint at what I bought myself for my birthday that will arrive next week.  Be still my heart.

Another solution that I'm pursuing to alleviate the hand pain comes from Grab On Grips.  Mike Tillay of Grab On Grips loves two things, God and his bicycle grip business.  Bicycles and God happen to be my two favorite things as well, so I'll be emailing him about his reference to Romans 8:28.  Glory Be.