Bike Fit Conundrum - Staggered Hand Position

[yinzerniner]

So just to start off, had a bike fit done last year with Justin at Black Oak Velo, and the somewhat small changes he made to cleat and saddle position, spacer stack, and stem length helped out a good amount with my overall body fatigue for longer rides.

My goal was to get in a position on the bike that might not be the fastest, but one where I had the least amount of strain / pain after longer rides, 5+ hours. The addition of a few spacers, shortening of the stem 10mm, move saddle back about 5mm and move cleats back about the same distance make it so I don't have any real back, arm or shoulder pain even on the longer efforts, while before the fit they would feel tender/strained.

However with that all figured out what I've noticed, especially the past couple months, is that my past injury history and subsequent anatomical weirdness has materialized in an odd way.

Quick history - I separated my shoulder pretty badly about 25 years ago when I was still a teenager, and it was right on the cusp of needing surgery to fix (between a grade 2 and 3). However, instead of opting for that surgery and missing large swaths of playing time in two different sports, I decided to go the intense rehab route. Rehab went pretty well, and although I still have minor pain at certain movements strength is equal to my right shoulder/arm, and when in a normal standing position there's no real discrepancy in arm length. However on a bike in a comfortable hoods grip position my left hand naturally extends roughly 10-15mm farther than my right. So when I'm gripping the hoods in a comfy way with relaxed shoulders and arms, I might have three fingers wrapped on my right hand, but two on my left.

I guess I never really noticed it before since there were a few other items that caused pain/strain/numbness/etc. And although there's no real discomfort it just feels....weird that my grip is so different between right and left due to the hand position difference.

I wonder if it makes sense to maybe angle/position the left lever further down so the grip stays the same, or should I just keep the levers where they are (same positionally to each other) and just learn to live with having a different grip between right and left hands. Or if anyone has experience with a similar condition what did they end up doing?

A search of the PL showed a few links with suggestions for differences in arm length, from the moderate:
https://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=147365

To the extreme:
https://forums.thepaceline.net/showp...06&postcount=9

[Peter P.]

Your solution is to angle the bars so they're off-axis, as if they're not aligned perpendicular to the centerline of the frame.

Then you will reorient both levers so they point straight ahead.

I don't think rotating them individually on the curve of the bars is the correct solution, but it won't hurt to experiment.

[fried bake]

Originally Posted by yinzerniner

So just to start off, had a bike fit done last year with Justin at Black Oak Velo, and the somewhat small changes he made to cleat and saddle position, spacer stack, and stem length helped out a good amount with my overall body fatigue for longer rides.

My goal was to get in a position on the bike that might not be the fastest, but one where I had the least amount of strain / pain after longer rides, 5+ hours. The addition of a few spacers, shortening of the stem 10mm, move saddle back about 5mm and move cleats back about the same distance make it so I don't have any real back, arm or shoulder pain even on the longer efforts, while before the fit they would feel tender/strained.

However with that all figured out what I've noticed, especially the past couple months, is that my past injury history and subsequent anatomical weirdness has materialized in an odd way.

Quick history - I separated my shoulder pretty badly about 25 years ago when I was still a teenager, and it was right on the cusp of needing surgery to fix (between a grade 2 and 3). However, instead of opting for that surgery and missing large swaths of playing time in two different sports, I decided to go the intense rehab route. Rehab went pretty well, and although I still have minor pain at certain movements strength is equal to my right shoulder/arm, and when in a normal standing position there's no real discrepancy in arm length. However on a bike in a comfortable hoods grip position my left hand naturally extends roughly 10-15mm farther than my right. So when I'm gripping the hoods in a comfy way with relaxed shoulders and arms, I might have three fingers wrapped on my right hand, but two on my left.

I guess I never really noticed it before since there were a few other items that caused pain/strain/numbness/etc. And although there's no real discomfort it just feels....weird that my grip is so different between right and left due to the hand position difference.

I wonder if it makes sense to maybe angle/position the left lever further down so the grip stays the same, or should I just keep the levers where they are (same positionally to each other) and just learn to live with having a different grip between right and left hands. Or if anyone has experience with a similar condition what did they end up doing?

A search of the PL showed a few links with suggestions for differences in arm length, from the moderate:
https://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=147365

To the extreme:
https://forums.thepaceline.net/showp...06&postcount=9

I have the same problem from the same injury. Effectively, my left arm’s reach is shorter than the right. I have tried angling the bars but finally settled on moving the shifter higher on the bars on that one side. Works fine


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