Sore/inflamed fingers after cycling I consistently get soreness/inflammation in the knuckles of my right hand the day after even short rides (e.g. 16km yesterday, with a ~2h break in the middle). Bike is a Scott Speedster with Tiagra 4500 STI levers.
Applying some mechanistic reasoning (and from the feeling in my fingers when I'm foolish enough to ride with them still slightly inflamed), it's likely to be from shifting to the larger cogs in the back. I realize that modern levers are supposed to be lighter to shift and therefore older ones require more force and this could be a contributing factor, but I literally cannot find a single other complaint like mine online. All I'm able to come up with is complaints about hands/fingers tingling/going numb. At this point I figure it's either bad technique or bad equipment, am I missing other possibilities? How do I tell which one the problem is?
Sounds like you are shifting at a bad/uncomfortable angle, need too much force or your hands are just not used to the work. Are you sure it’s not from braking or your hand position in general?
I had problems shifting after I injured my middle finger while climbing. What helped most was using as many fingers as possible for shifting (in both directions).
When you are on the big chainring you generally need more force to shift on the rear derailleur. So I’d try shifting to the small chainring earlier (which also means less work for the right hand).
You could install new, good cables and cable housing to reduce friction. In my experience good, properly routed cables make much more difference for quality and ease of shifting than the price/tier of the groupset.
As a last resort you could change to a different type of shifters. Either twist-grip shifters, bar-end shifters or electronic STI shifting (Shimano Di2, SRAM eTap), though it’s very expensive.