gloves...

Do you mean where your thumb meets the rest of you're hand? It sounds as though you are putting A LOT of pressure on your hands. I was told that you should have equal pressure on your butt and your hands, and you'll know it feels right once you have adjusted your setup properly.

Here is a pic of my glove to compare to what you are talking about...

ya... those are like all I have seen. if you look right where the thumb and forefinger meet there are 3-4 diff materials meeting there!!! makes a big knot and that is like the highest pressure point on the handle bars when shifting, braking, riding large bumps.

yes you are correct I should probably have more height back, but even then that knotty area will bother me after a bit of time riding.

I used to get numb hands, usually on the outside of the palm (the side below my pinkie finger). I adjusted my bike using a guide I found on the www, and voila...gone. I should hunt it down and find that website...

Ahh here it is...

The website is www.discovermountainbiking.com
Click on the link to go directly to the set up I am referring to. I did the whole thing in about an hour. Mostly because a good portion of the way I was already set up happened to be correct.

have never had much issue with numbness -- maybe experienced it a handful of times. as for riding with equal pressure hands and hind, it sounds rather suspect to me. i know that i put nowhere near as much pressure on my hands.

ideally, your grip should be fairly loose. i know that, especially in rough but non-technical sections, i tend to essentially have no grip at all. i keep my hands loose and close them just enough to keep the steering accurate. this works well on small bumps like washboard. in more technical sections you want a firmer grip as you need to be able to muscle your front end around more.

i think mikeg may be on the right track when he asks about your bar. with the proliferation of riser bars, it's less of an issue, but "sweep" -- the degree to which your handlebar is bent back toward the rider -- has a lot to do with arm and hand fatigue. a lot of flat bars had very little sweep.

i can't say that i've done much experimenting with different sweeps, but i understand that somewhere in the range of 8 degrees is ideal. too little sweep (less than 5 degrees) tends to put more pressure on the hands and wrists as does too much (more than 10 degrees). a lot of cruiser bikes have an extreme sweep that either forces an odd angle at the wrist or wide-spread arms.

i think mikeg may be wrong about the position of your hands, however. i think you're probably flexed the other way. think of it like this: you're going to be putting the most pressure on the part of the bar that's closest to your body. if the pressure is near the thumb, your hands are going to turn inward, probably indicating a bar that has too little sweep and/or is too narrow. you might also try a stem of a different length / rise.

beyond any of that, or perhaps before, try adjusting your grip. make a point of spreading it evenly across your hand, and when you're cruising or climbing move your hand and wrists around. a lot of pain and numbness is due to nerve and blood restrictions from lack of motion.

lastly try some new gloves.

yeah NVMBiker, I'm only guessing here, so the arm position was quite possibly wrong. I am just starting out here.

I have heard lots of talk however about bike positioning, and how important it is. Often times, your LBS will set you up with the right bar, stem, etc., based on their fitting experience.