gloves and saddles

First, make sure your seat is level, use a broom or carpenter's level to get it right. Assuming the bike is set up properly, a good way to develop proper habits it to set the base of your pointing finger on the hoods, the just let your fingers hang without gripping hard. Now, bent the elbows and roll them in so they sit behind your hands, try top get your forearms about paralell with the ground. In looking at the pictures below, the first is a fairly typical straight arms style, the next is me, sitting up a bit high but still somewhat rotated, the next illustrates three decent ways to sit on the bike, i'm last in line and clearly wost, note the first rider in line has a good rotation of the hips and a flat back. Finally, the last is a fully rotated pelvis and a very flat back.<br><br>
Rotating the pelvis and keeping the arms in good position takes concentration and practice, use store windows and just your own eyes and feel to see if you need to scoot the butt back and rotate the pelvis forward to get the flat back you need. In general, numb hands are a sign that something is wrong with how you sit on the bike.<br><br><img alt="" src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y173/jroden99/tour.jpg" style="border:0px solid;"><br><br><img alt="" src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y173/jroden99/cx03_ont_champs14-vi.jpg" style="border:0px solid;"><br><br><img alt="" src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y173/jroden99/ascention1.jpg" style="border:0px solid;"><br><br><br><img alt="" src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y173/jroden99/gh.jpg" style="border:0px solid;">