Hello! I’ve been biking for about 6 months now and I’ve been having some pretty serious sharp wrist pain on the outer side of my wrists near my pinky on both hands. I know that biking is causing the pain, but I’m not sure if it’s a fitment issue or something else. Most of my rides for the last 4 months have been over 20 miles with quite a lot of uphill and techy downhill, and it’s getting to the point that I can’t even ride anymore.
I keep a very neutral wrist position while riding both uphill and downhill, I’m careful not to overgrip, I always wear gloves, and my shocks are set up great for my weight. I also rock climb a lot and generally have very strong wrists. I’m open to any advice at all!
by selborannaes
32 Comments
Check out bars from Syntace and or SQ-Labs and get either a 12* or 16* backsweep bar. Can help a lot with wrist pain. Could be something else, but this helped me a lot. Very comfortable.
try rolling your bars forward or back. I was getting elbow pain on my new bike until I rolled the bar a degree or two up/away. I couldn’t believe how much difference that small adjustment made
Try playing around with different grip thickness, handle bar angles and even the angle of your brakes. I was having the same issue when I started and thicker grips along with adjusting the angle on my brake levers worked for me
I would start with bar width. Most people never cut their handlebars down. Most bars come over 800mm wide. Which is crazy wide for most riders. I’m 6′ tall and have my bars cut to 760mm. After that I would start looking at stack height.
You could try rolling the handle bars back / forward to see if that makes a difference. Or the handlebars themselves could be the wrong shape for you, try some with different upsweep and backsweep angles.
Grips can be a factor, personally I get wrist pain if I don’t have ergonomic grips.
There are a lot of possible causes. Regardless of changing touch points on the bike, I’d suggest doing wrist strengthening exercises, mostly Rotational stuff, look up some wrist rehab videos, they can offer a good place to start.
Specific training aside, I had a similar issue when I started. I tried fatter grips, which helped, but ultimately, exploring increased bar backsweep was the winning solution for me. While you may feel like your wrists are neutral, they probably aren’t, because if they were, you likely wouldnt be experiencing pain. Salsa cycles makes a very affordable bar called the “Rustler”. I recommend trying it out. If it helps, but doesnt resolve the issue, SQlabs makes a rather expensive bar with even more backsweep.
Generally 11 degrees of backsweep (as is found on the Rustler) is more than enough to help. From there you can play with bar roll to try and optamize your bar position for ergonomics. If 11 degrees works for you, PNW makes the bar I choose to run.
Of course, you can also pair this with thicker or thinner grips, which may help as well.
The last consideration is raising your bar height. It helps to take pressure off the hands, but not every bike works well with a high stack. It takes weight off your hands, but it also takes weight off the front wheel and can impact the bikes handling quite dramatically, so proceed with caution. 5mm more of spacers makes a big difference.
Unfortunately, when it comes to touch points there is no single answer. You’re just going to have to experiment and see what works for you. I went through 4 or 5 pairs of grips, 3 bars and every conceivable bar roll before I found the position that eliminated most of my pain. That said, strengthening exercises are one thing that absolutely will help, regardless of what you do to your cockpit.
Good luck
For me solving this was trying a bunch of things, I think sadly you’ll have to go on your own journey doing something similar until you land on what works. There’s also professional bike fits that could help. Here’s a few things to try anyway-
– If it’s caused by time in the saddle (as opposed to time descending), try different saddle angles and front back positioning on the rails.
– Handlebar height, try higher or lower, can be achieved with spacers under the stem or high rise handlebars.
– Backsweep on handlebars- standard bars tend to not have much back sweep, you can go much more extreme on this.
– Grips, I use the ergon ones with outer hand support, they’ve helped alot.
– Form, I should have put this up higher because this is likely to be the issue. If you’re putting lots of weight through your wrists it’s gonna hurt, you should holding yourself upright with your core. When descending you should have heavy feet, light hands, chin over the stem. The habit of holding yourself upright takes some time to build, just keep reminding yourself. You might want to do some core work at the gym.
Hope that helps! If you’ve just stepped up volume stuff is gonna ache no matter what, the body needs time to adapt. Just try to give your tendons the space to remodel, it’s slow.
I fixed mine by playing with bar roll. Try that!
Looks like too wide handlebar
It could be your bar size, many times handle bars are too wide from stock. I like to size my bar using a method from Charles Murray ( World Cup EDR rider for Specialized) — do pushups while changing the width of your stance and find the width you are most comfortable/powerful. You can do this with a tape measure to find that width, and have your bars cut to close that width.
Riding style and type of riding can inform this as well. For example, I race xc and Enduro. On my Enduro bike I ride with a 770mm bar width, XC bike ride 750mm. This difference is purely preference, being a bit narrower allows for a few things, but I am more powerful with the enduro position. For reference I am 6’5 (194cm). I found 800mm bars that were stock were way too wide.
Here’s some options…
1) Cut the bar width down to decrease reach and move weight off your hands. Those bars look a bit wide for you.
2) Riser bars help shift some weight off of your hands as well.
3) Carbon bars have some built in flex that can help with comfort over bumpy terrain.
If cutting your bars down doesn’t help enough, you may want to look into carbon riser bars. I had 20mm rise aluminum bars at 800mm width. When I switched to OneUp 35mm rise carbon handlebars and cut them down to 780mm it completely solved my wrist pain after long rides.
All of the above could be fixes. Also look into your Fork Setup. In all the Pictures you don’t use full Travel. Might be the Terrain, might be a too progressive Fork. Have Fun trying Stuff 🤙🏼
I would seek out a physiotherapist. I was having some wrist issues and it turned out to be a couple of things.
Are you only having the pain when you are riding? Putting pressure on the affected area?
When it comes to your hands, they are a very complicated area to diagnose. I know lots of people here have good intentions, but changing handle bars, grips or stance might not fix the underlying issue.
I had the same issue, I switched my grips to the Ergon GA3 and it’s been a game changer… no more wrist pain.
Do you wear padded gloves? Would recommend those if you don’t.
Also I found the esi foam grips work really well for me. I use the thin ones as they match the size of my hands better.
Seems like bike fit has been hit hard and is likely to make a huge difference.
You said you have only been biking for 6 months and you have been doing many 20 mile rides. This wrist issue could be an overuse issue, you might have ramped up too fast. Might try doing a volume deload and shake out your wrists more often while riding. Basically you need to stop pushing through the pain, or get off bike and take more breaks. Best of luck, I deal with this alot as well.
If you aren’t using them already… Ergonomic Grips! They are a game-changer. I use Sram grip-shift (1×11) with ergo grips (also helps to prevent misshifting). I’ve been riding for over 30 years now, have tried everything, and I will have it set up no other way. It’s simple, always works and my fingers don’t have to leave the bar to shift. Also, I recommend a shorter handlebar and a longer stem to help improve both steering and balance. Have fun!
I don’t know if this is you but my son rides with a death grip so much so he broke the plastic tube inside the grip. Try to loosen up ride loose so your arms and legs absorb most of the bump. Hands firm but light.
trim bars a little bit or get bars with more backsweep.
What is your bar width? 9/10 wrist pain is caused by too wide bars. Your wrists are turned in in the first photo.
I’d say your bars are a smidge too wide looking at the angle your wrists are at in the pics.
Try trimming them down a little at a time, say 5mm per side and see how it feels.
You could try rolling them forwards a touch to get a bit more back sweep but it does look like they’re too wide.
You could also look at the damper settings on the fork. Hand and wrist pain for me is usually down to jarring from either too much HSC or not enough air pressure. Those manifest themselves through pain in my palm or knuckles though rather than wrists.
I would try new grips and also on longer rides when the road is stable enough try putting your hands on top of the brake levers instead. It will straighten your arms up and it takes pressure off your wrists.
And by new grips I don’t mean because yours may be worn, I mean literally try a new style. I switched from shimano pro grips to deity and I started having wrist pain in my thumb which seems weird because the pro grips are really firm and the deity are soft so you’d think it would be better with deity, but it could be the circumference difference that causes it.
Tour of the white mtns!!! Was a great ride – I live in pinetop!
Based on the photos you sent, something seems off on your bike fit. Your saddle seems a little low. Also, and this seems counter-intuitive, but lower your bars on the stem. You have a very upright position, and I think if your upper body were to be lower (a more aggressive stance) you would be able to use your core and bent elbows to absorb more impacts.
Also, concentrate on engaging your core. It’s something I have to actively think about and I’ve been a NICA (youth MTB) coach for four years.
Practice ready and attack positions and only sit when you are ascending.
Edit: after looking at your photos some more, you definitely need to get your head over the stem and bend your elbows, regardless of being seated or standing. Your almost locked elbows are causing lots of strain in your wrists.
Grips and correct sized bars make a huge difference, also don’t ankle your brakes too low.
For me the odi longnecks are still the best grips out there, but this really is personal preference. I have wide shoulders at like 175cm and cut my bars to 780mm on all bikes.
Tbh it also comes down to how much you brake. Once you get to know the trails, become faster and brake fewer times then the wrist pain is also getting better 🙂
Edit: also your brake levers look pretty close to your grips, maybe put them further inward so that your index finger just about gets straight to the bend in the lever
Looks too wide to actually be neutral, imo.
Dude. Don’t make it complicated. Ergon grips.
Nobody pointed that you have to rotate down your brake levers a little bit, and you have to rotate your wrist accordly, to have them straight with the arm, not rotated on the bar.
If you have 35mm bars, swap to 31.8mm and get Revgrips. That pretty much solved my wrist pain. The 11mm backsweep PNW bars help too.
Are you quite flexible or double jointed? My wife suffered a lot as well and we got her a bar riser and it’s sorted it.
Watch the YT video by Lee Rides (edit, might be Joy of Bike) and the calculator to determine bar width and backsweep. Also look at a bar with some rise to help alignment.
I have had an issue with my hands going numb for years. Not being able to feel the brake levers. Turned out to be two things. Not enough backsweep on my bars. And, more importantly, terrible posture at my desk. Too much chaining my neck back. Adjusted my posture by getting a standing desk. Major improvement for numb hands.
Not that the later is your issue. But other things can contribute.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSD7AkY4Ycc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSD7AkY4Ycc)
SQlab bar with 12 degree backsweep + Ergon GS1 grips helped immensely for me, in addition to proper bar width and height.