Arm Pump

[Culshaw95]

I was just wondering if there are other riders who also suffer from arm pump or anyone who's found a solution to it. I started getting quite bad strains in my forearms a couple of years ago after cutting my arm open. Once i recovered from that i wasn't too bad be then after being asked to do a show my forearms started to lock up after a few sections. 2/3 years on i'm still getting it quite bad and im not sure if its due to being out of practice on the bike or set up. I've currently got a 150x30mm stem and Clean Carbon bars (I had trialtech highrise previously) but i am quite tall and feel relatively comfortable with my current set up and this is probably the most stable i've felt on my bike but just need to know if theres a solution 

[vRS]

How's it going bud, I started getting arm pump a couple months back and I was constantly changing my bar angles to try different riding techniques and I thought that might have been the problem but I thought it was due to my grips in the end because they were either too big or too small to get a perfect grip on with out feeling like I was death gripping them haha. I ended up buying loads of different kinds, even ergonomic ones to try and help and eventually got a set that felt right and either my hands and arms have adjusted or the grips helped :/ so no real conclusion, but something maybe worth trying 

[Culshaw95]

1 hour ago, vRS said:

How's it going bud, I started getting arm pump a couple months back and I was constantly changing my bar angles to try different riding techniques and I thought that might have been the problem but I thought it was due to my grips in the end because they were either too big or too small to get a perfect grip on with out feeling like I was death gripping them haha. I ended up buying loads of different kinds, even ergonomic ones to try and help and eventually got a set that felt right and either my hands and arms have adjusted or the grips helped :/ so no real conclusion, but something maybe worth trying 

hmm grips could make sense as I went from Trialtech foams to hope lock ons. I'll try the Trialtechs again and see what happens. Cheers 

[ogre]

have a play with brake angles and distance too. i've found having the blades close to the bar helped with my arm pump. do you do anything to strengthen your arms? pullups and that could be quite helpful.

[Culshaw95]

2 hours ago, ogre said:

have a play with brake angles and distance too. i've found having the blades close to the bar helped with my arm pump. do you do anything to strengthen your arms? pullups and that could be quite helpful.

I go climbing every weekend so use my arms a lot :L i'll move my blades in a bit and see how that goes first then order some grips if its no good

[Dift]

As above I think it's all been covered... grips and brake lever angles. 

[cwtrials]

In a non-setup related point.  Do you think you may be just grabbing onto the bars too tight / unable to relax?  I find sometimes if I either get back into riding after a few months off the bike or am really stressed out I end up clenching onto the bars / un-relaxed /  and not breathing well.  Takes some mental coaching to relax on the bike.

That being said.  Grips / angle matter a lot.

[Ali C]

Arm pump was the single biggest problem I had in comps! I still get it now if I enter one or ride DH.

I found no difference in brake lever positioning but having them pull closer to the bar helped slightly as did thinner grips. Another thing that can help is an elastic band around the lever and bar to make it easier to pull.

There was one thing that got rid of my arm pump overnight though...a rear V-brake!

You can adjust the spring so it's even easier to pull than a magura with water plus a V-brake has better backwards holding power too which is the direction brakes nearly always slip, this means you don't need to actually pull the brake as hard which is obviously good for arm pump. 

[Culshaw95]

7 minutes ago, Ali C said:

Arm pump was the single biggest problem I had in comps! I still get it now if I enter one or ride DH.

I found no difference in brake lever positioning but having them pull closer to the bar helped slightly as did thinner grips. Another thing that can help is an elastic band around the lever and bar to make it easier to pull.

There was one thing that got rid of my arm pump overnight though...a rear V-brake!

You can adjust the spring so it's even easier to pull than a magura with water plus a V-brake has better backwards holding power too which is the direction brakes nearly always slip, this means you don't need to actually pull the brake as hard which is obviously good for arm pump. 

I've just come off v brakes thinking hydraulics would be easier but i always seem to get issues when i go back to hydraulic so far i've not had any faults... I adjusted my levers so lowered them as they were quite high and moved the blades in but still no luck. I may order some grips and see how that goes but if not i still have my xt rim brakes as a back up