How to manage wrist pain/ stiffness due to RA while riding a road bike for longer distances?

[CyclistWithRA]

Cycling with Rheumatoid Arthritis

[Amnesiac3637]

I am in awe of you riding a road bike with RA! I can only suggest wrist supports, a large gin, not doing it at all, another gin (by which time you’ll have fallen off…..) and some advice, as a last resort, from a rheumatologist who may be able to help with the mechanicals.

That’s quite a strain to put on wrists anyway even without RA complicating things as you must be leaning quite heavily on them and the road vibrations can’t do a lot of good. Hope you find some answers. Good luck.

[CyclistWithRA in reply to Amnesiac3637]

Thanks for your reply. 😊. Gin sounds perfect 😃. I have already tried wrist supports. They do reduce some out of road vibrations but dont help with the pressure on the wrist that much.

I already spoken with my Rheumatologist who suggested adapting bike positions to reduce the pressure on hands. Still work in process on that front. Just taking it slowly for now.

Its quite depressing sometimes for not being able to ridw outdoors as much as I would want to. Anyways riding indoors on trainer for now. I believe its only because of cycling for so many years that has managed to keep this disease at bay (ofcourse and the medications too). So don’t want to give that up ever!

[Scottishlad]

It might be worth looking into getting a bike fitting done. Tweaking the setup might give you some relief. Changes to the bar height, stem length etc could help.

Small changes can make big differences. I know when my saddle is by as little as 10mm.

[CyclistWithRA in reply to Scottishlad]

thanks.. Ya. bike fit in progress.

[Ali_H]

Warning - this is a very expensive solution....

road.cc/content/buyers-guid...

All the best

Ali

[Ali_H]

Less expensive suggestion 👍🏼

road.cc/content/feature/how...

[CyclistWithRA in reply to Ali_H]

Thanks a lot. Will go through these.

[Naomie-NRAS]

Hi, we have a number of Cyclists in our Exercise and back to sport group which meets online. They've even had Ian Stannard join them on a meeting. For more information click here: nras.org.uk/jointogether/ and you can also email the group on [e-mail] I hope that helps

😀

[CyclistWithRA in reply to Naomie-NRAS]

Thanks so much. Would love to 👍

[bones1]

What I found helped me was to sit upright on the saddle , this prevented me slouching forward putting pressure on my wrists and hands . I immediately sense now when I am slouching and adjust my pelvis position [ A gentle tilting forward of the pelvis ] which instantly corrects things, that and just very gently gripping the handlebars . It takes a little bit of practice and experimentation but it works.

P.s You could practice this sitting on a firm chair , all the best.

[Hurdles88]

I do alot of cycling, although it is a struggle I find it really uplifting. My husband changed my handlebars to ones that had a wrist rest on, and also put on a comfier seat found this helped to reduce the pressure on my wrists and bum.

[Hidden]

I've looked at these before. Expensive but lovely:

jorviktricycles.com/?gclid=...