Why not give yourself a hand? You\’re a cyclist, after all! Let\’s applaud that.

You hands, however, need some care. When you think about it,  those paws of yours work hard: they\’re the ones that hold your bicycle on course; let you hydrate and fuel yourself while riding; and let you apply sunblock.

Here are some tips for hand care:

Gloves for cycling seem quite the no-brainer. Certainly I wear them; I\’m not about to skip them! There are short-finger and long-finger gloves for rides in different temperatures.

First, the short-finger type. No matter how hot the day might be, no matter how short the ride might be, I want my gloves! Short-finger gloves have the great advantage of allowing normal finger dexterity. You can easily grab a bite to eat while rolling during long rides. I always miss that during long rides on cold days.

When it gets cold, though, I have to wear long-finger gloves simply to keep my hands from freezing. That makes on-bike eating awkward. Some long-finger gloves now have finger tips especially designed for touchscreen use; but does that help when you\’re trying to dig a piece of Clif Bar out of your top-tube pouch? Maybe some day I\’ll get to try it!

Chapped hands are a big problem for me as soon as the weather starts to get cool. The skin dries up, and the corners of my nails start to get painful splits. So, when the mercury starts to drop below about 70 degrees, I haul out the materials for making my hand cream. It feels better on my skin than any commercially available hand lotion that I\’ve ever tried. And smells better, too. On top of that, it\’s probably cheaper.

I suspect that we forget to appreciate just what our hands can do. Could we ride without them? While giving yourself a hand for riding, let\’s not forget to give those hands some TLC.