Rainy Day Off

With the area rains, I took Friday off from training. Yesterday was gym day, so this was a good plan. I couldn't just sit around, though.

I’ve been having problems with my thumb joints. The joints closest to my palms have been sore and stiff off-and-on over the past couple of weeks now. It wasn’t until my ride last Wednesday that I made the connection that it’s coming from the bike. I thought maybe I was getting arthritis! My thumb was actually going numb during that ride and the joints were achy and stiff the next day. So, I thought I’d finally get around to putting on a pair of Ergon grips that were given to me months ago to see if they help.

I don’t know if there is a more miserable job than changing out bike grips. Grips are designed not to slip. Yet removing them requires you to slip them off! Thus, it can’t be easy to do! This was the result after about 25 minutes of twisting, pulling and cajoling…



Whew! By this point as I had created a blister on the palm of my hand. No jokes about my rosy palms please. By the time I got both grips off, my wrists and forearms were sore!! Wow.
Luckily the new grips are lock-ons, so they slipped right on…



I took a short spin with the new grips, and they are really comfortable so far. I’ll know more after a long ride tomorrow.

UPDATE: I wasn't sure how I was going to like these. Seemed kinda gimicky to me. But I L-O-V-E them. I had experimented with the angle of the grips a bit, but once I found the comfortable spot, they were awesome. No more soreness. Comfortable.