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06/23/10
You’ve Got…That Numbing Feelin’
Filed under: general
Posted by: The Cyclofiend @ 10:34 am

Well, at least now, it’s gone..
gone..
gone..

Woah-uh-woah-oh….

(Bom. Bom-bom. Bom-bom…bom. Bom.)

Lemme ’splain. 

I h’ain’t talking about that seemingly pervasive numbing malady which has never actually afflicted any cyclist I know.  (Though, I must admit that in my mumble-mumble number of years cycling, I’ve never actually posed that direct question to any cyclist I’ve known.)  Back when Specialized brought out Dr. Minkow’s “Body Geometry” saddle, with the cut-out slot designed to encourage normal blood flow to “sensitive” regions, I was working in bicycle retail environs. Some customers called, came in and bought the thing with the furtive quickness I’d only heretofore seen down at the video store, when certain folks exited a particular back room, heading to the checkout counter with a tape box curiously devoid of cover art.

But many of us pondered it and opined aloud, “Dude. If you’re number’s going numb, you change your saddle, or your tilt or SOMETHING…”

And as long as I’ve drifted this fully off the subject, it always struck me that someone should design the VeeGrah! saddle (note how I cleverly riffed on the name of a popular cardiovascular/blood pressure trial medication which had a side effect of causing erections in male subjects) which used discrete electrical prods to actually stimulate the binary reaction, rather than simply not restricting it.  The marketing would be proud to claim “When you always need to be ready for that big move on a bike ride…”

However, again, this is not at all what I’m talking about.

What happened to me occurred about 4 hours into the day.  I was rolling lazily homeward Sunday on what would end up being a 72 ish mile ride when I thought maybe I’d been stung by a bee.  Picking up my hand from the bars, I realized that my ring finger (especially) and my middle finger were absolutely numb (I’ve now learned that these were the Apollo and Saturn fingers, respectively).  They moved but I couldn’t feel a damned thing.

The numbness ran from the middle and proximal phalanges through the bases of the knuckles into the top (most distant) part of the palm.  It did freak me out a bit.

The weird thing was I handn’t (heh-heh…) done anything.  I was in the classic sense, “Just Riding Along…”

The first thing I did when I realized it was - and I’m not making this up - talk.  For some reason, I associate sudden weird numbness to stroke, and figured that if I could form sentences easily, that could at least be taken out of the equation.  Luckily, the bike path was fairly devoid of other users, and chattered and emoted for a few moments.  Then I thought, “Well, if I’d had a sudden stroke, wouldn’t the words make sense to me and no one else?”

Since I was able to engage in such lucid and free-ranging paranoia and hypochondria, I was probably OK. But, it took a couple changes of the light and a goodly bit of anti-cycling-position bending before the feeling returned. It’s felt a little goofy since then, a bit like after one tweaks their neck nerve where things are slightly specifically sore and wonky.

Other than that, it was a great day to ride!

 

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