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I've started to get pins and needles in my little finger and the finger next to it some times after riding for over an hour. The roads are quite rough and vibrate my handle bars quite a lot. I also wake up some mornings with tingley fingers. I think that might be related to cycling, but it could also be that my fingers spend a lot of time typing.
Is this something that I should be worried about and is there anything I can do to prevent it happening?
Talk to a doctor
The symptoms of waking up with tingly fingers make this sound consistent with carpal tunnel syndrome to my non-doctor opinion.
Basically, as I understand it, a little bit of that now and then isn't a problem, but too much over time causes damage which can be permanent and cause some major hand problems.
There's a bundle of nerves and tendons that run through a narrow channel in your wrist. Pressure on that area, or using the tendons with the wrist in a non-neutral position can, over time cause problems. That can mean biking and typing are causing you trouble. Pressure on these nerves will tend to cause numbness and tingling in the thumb, index, middle and part of your ring finger. Vibration of the hands (such as from rough ground) could be the main problem instead of pressure.
There's also the ulnar nerve on the "pinky" side of your hand that can have the same kind of problems. Pressure on this nerve (or stretching/hyperextension) will tend to cause numbness and tingling in the pinky finger and part of your ring finger.
Diagnosing exactly which problem you have is best done by a doctor, not the internet.
Assuming you talk to your doctor and they suggest avoiding the hand pressure your bike is causing, some things to help avoid these problems on your bike include:
Some references:
As a physician myself, also a commuter and a guy who works with computers, I would advise the following:
I don't think stopping riding is a good solution: it does not even count as a solution.
Hope this helps.
Pins and needles are felt when blood flow is restored to an area. If this is only from riding, you may be putting too much weight on your hands.
Ideally, all of your weight would be borne by your legs, but in the real world, people put some weight on their saddle and lean on their hands. Padded cycling gloves can help alleviate this problem.
In the long-term, you may want to get a proper fitting for your bike. Look at factors like saddle height, reach (the distance from saddle to handlebars), bar height, and saddle angle. Once you can distribute your weight in various places, you may find that hand pain/tingling is reduced.
If this related to typing, you'll want to make your computer setup more ergonomic.
You might want to see a physician about this; hand problems can become quite serious over time. I go to one that specializes in sports medicine, and he's given me good advice about bike setup, stretching, warming up, and so on.
It's unlikely to be carpal tunnel, though that's a possibility.
A major nerve in the hand, feeding the fingers, runs across the palm, right where one tends to lean on the bars. Constant pressure on this nerve irritates it and causes the numbness and tingling that cyclists often experience. I'm not sure how much irritation it takes to cause actual damage, but I suspect in most cases the situation becomes intolerable before serious damage is done.
In addition, pressure and the constant cramped grip that especially new cyclists tend to use cuts off blood flow in the hand. There are several (relatively) major blood vessels that run across the palm.
The solution, of course, is to relieve the pressure on the palm. Padded gloves help, but beyond a modest amount padding can be counter-productive since it spreads the pressure out over a wider area, causing a wider area to be deprived of blood and numbing out more area such that a minor change in hand position doesn't achieve a "fresh" grip.
I once had some special gloves that were really good -- they had "Sorbothane" padding (a sort of rubber), but, more than that, the padding was in the form of narrow ribs, so that they sort of "massaged" the palms as you rode. But they wore out and I've never found replacements. (I've often thought someone should make bar grips with similar ribs, but I've never seen anything.)
Otherwise, the best solution is to relieve the pressure on your palms by adjusting your riding position. Raise the handlebar and move it closer to you (more to the rear). And maybe move your seat forward a bit.
The other thing to do, of course, is to change hand positions frequently. Traditional drop bars give you several good positions for riding, and with straight bars you can get bar extensions to give you alternate positions.
Added: One problem I've noted with bikes these days is that they're built to "look mean" on the sales floor, with the handlebar unrealistically (for most people) low. And with the threadless headsets raising the bar beyond a half-inch or so is apt to require changing out parts, something people often don't know is even a possibility, even if they aren't reluctant to do it for various emotional and financial (and macho) reasons.
Added: I once ran some back-of-the-envelope calculations to see how much pressure the body was placing on the hands, vs blood pressure, and what I worked out is that upper body mass and leg/back strength (which affects how much weight relief the legs offer) are critical factors. When someone is over roughly 200 pounds with poor strength (which I have due to polio) then it's impossible to spread the weight out enough with padding to keep from cutting off blood flow. If you're lighter or with better leg/back strength then you're probably wondering what all the fuss is about.
FWIW - Here's my experience with a very similar issue.
Symptoms - Numbness and tingling (pins and needles) in my pinky, ring finger, and palm of my left arm. Also, tingling in the left elbow. A bit extreme since half of my left hand was semi-numb and tingling.
Diagnosis
Solutions
For cycling, I needed to make adjustments with the seat and handlebars. For the computer ergonomics, which turned out to be the main issue, I had to raise my seat height, lower the monitor, and a few other tweaks. For sleeping, I wound up with my arm wrapped in a towel so that I didn't sleep with my elbow bent. Additionally, I was prescribed several exercises/stretches in order to alleviate the pressure on the ulnar nerve.
Final thoughts
Like Freiheit said, see a doctor (which apparently you plan to do). The resolution of this type of issue depends on the cause (the cause is not necessarily cycling) and the individual. So, see your doc and get it figured out. My symptoms are far better after making changes.
Lastly
Anyway, I woke up one morning after a very long ride during the summer with my left arm half numb and tingling. Thought I was having a stroke or heart attack. Nah. Ulnar nerve compression. However, your issue may be different. Good thing to see your doc about it.
Not lack of circulation but this: http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=a00069
How much weight do you put on your hands while riding? If you've got a bike that has you leaning forward and putting weight on the hands, you may want to consider a bike with a more upright seating position. That will cut down on the weight on the hands issue.
I think I know what you're talking about. I spend all day behind a computer too, and if I spend much time on my race bike, I get tingly hands. If I put most of my miles on my MTB, then I don't get the tingly hand episodes.
I had a similar problem - numb/tingling hand after riding for 20min or so. What fixed it for me was to fit "moustache handlebars" to my bike. These are not to everyone's taste, but they worked for me. It's either the multiple hand positions they offer or the fact that, thanks to the curve of the bars, there's much less pressure on the heal of my hands.
It's not exactly clear to me if you were wearing gloves or not. I would try a few rides without gloves and see if the problem persists.
I had the same issue as you when I would wear padded gloves my fingers would get numb and stay that way for up to 24 hours. I ended up not wearing gloves on most rides as a result but the numbness and tingling went away.
Recently, I started using gloves that have no padding whatsoever and have had no issues with the numbness and tingling. The gloves I use now are the Giro Zero's and the Specialized XC Lite.
I heard that people's hands can hurt or become numb from the vibration.
I ride a suspensionless Alu frame on cracked city streets for 2 hours/day at 20 km/h average, on a 'hybrid' bike with flat handlebars.
The bars have thin rubber. I always wear cycling gloves.
The gloves are fingerless (made by Giro), have a breathable back, are washable, and are padded at the heel and ball of the palm where I grip the handle bars.
I'm no anatomist or doctor but IMO the padding (illustrated):
(source: giro.com)
covers the superficial ulnar, and leaves a gap at the base, at the centre of the inside wrist, between the ball of the thumb and the edge of the hand, where it doesn't press on the median nerve, but rather raises it away from the bars instead of my gripping with it.
(My previous gloves had a woven mesh back, goatskin palms and foam rubber sewn into the palm.)
I recently bought new tires, Marathon Plus. They're heavy and improve the suspension a lot. They are much more comfortable at high speed (measuring by the shock I feel in my hands) than my previous thinner tires.
I had the same problem but it went away after I changed my sitting postion on the saddle. I was having tingling and numness in the smallest finger left hand and the second smallest toe left foot. It generally started about 20 minutes after riding started and stopped when I got off the bike. I tried moving my hands and also my bum on the saddle. It worked. I noticed that it was actually when I concsiously noticed which side of the centre line of the saddle was my bum actually making contact. It was on the right side of my tailbone. I made a deliberate effort to keep re-positioning my bum so as to make the saddle centre line be placed on the left side of my tailbone. It's only a shift to the left of a couple of centimeters at the most. I did notice also that my natural propensity (habit) was to then shift unconcsiously back to the right side again and it took some practice to make myself alert to this subconscious action and to counteract it. This worked immediately to fix the numb and tingle in both my left foot and hand.
