After two recent trips... 1) 200 miles straight - particularly the right arm, hand and wrist felt battered. 2) 100 miles there and then later during the same day... 100 miles back - hand/wrist/arm felt OK but still a little uncomfortable. I've taken advice on posture etc but wondered if grip puppies would help relieve any undue pressure on the hand/wrists and arms? Cheers for any advice...
Try using your knees more to take your body weight. Tank grips are good. You'll find steering easier too. U could try kinesiology tape. You'll find on google ways to apply it. Helps with arm pump
The pricey option maybe to try Helibars, I have never used them, But a previous work colleague, also with hand & wrist pains, fitted them to his 08 plate blade, With positive results. https://bykebitz.co.uk/brands/helibars/honda-cbr1000rr-2004-2011-and-abs-models.html
Cheers for the link.... but I’ve a feeling if I have to go to that extent to ride 200+ miles then sadly I’ve got too knackered to keep a blade. I’ll feel like I’m trying to turn a silk purse into a pigs ear
Look at your wrist position when covering the brake during cruise. If should be fairly straight and hence relaxed, it may be just a case of slightly rotating the lever assembly for a more comfortable position
I put helibars on my last blade and will do so with this one. They made a huge difference to the comfort of the bike, without losing any good bits. I'm 6'2 and have a heavy upper body so there was a lot of weight over my wrists, which on longer journeys was less than ideal. As for grip puppies, I got some for my K1300s as the engine is quite vibey, and I didn't like them, made the normally very skinny bars too thick, and I have fairly large hands. The grips are factory fitted heated grips or I'd have put some Progrips on.
Thanks for the advice maybe I shouldn't be so quick to dismiss helibars. Can you pls give me an idea of how big a job it is to fit them?
I got my bike shop to do it, as I'm not very practical with things like that, but I think they have some information on their website, it is not a huge job by any means.
Mmm. I think someone's turning soft. Massive turnaround from your earlier post. Can't wait to see pics of the 'pig's ears'!
Strange as it may seem you could try pushing your butt further back on the seat. The logic is that it has a cantilever effect to take weight off the arms and wrists. It works on a push bike, which I have more experience of, and I'm pretty sure it works on my blade too.
Doesn't with mine because the angle of the seat tends to draw you forward. You're defo right though, It is more comfortable back in the seat!
I agree. I spent years as a triathlete racing on “profile” bars but shoving my arse back any more would mean I’d have to invest in longer pillion seat. The worse time though was filtering through lots of traffic - not conducive to the streamlined approach...
I use grip puppies on my single adventure bike to reduce the vibration. It helps a lot if you get buzzing hands & numb fingers. They are soft foam like and increase th egrip size by about 5 mm. Since you are getting aches, the increased grip size may help you. If you think you have tennis elbow, then elbow support deffinitely helps. Relax you grip; you ride improves and less stress on the said muscles. For wrist ache, the biggest problem is the angle whith the handle bar. This depends on your body geometry so changing the bar height should help.
Sorry, they were fitted along with some other things I wanted done, so I don't remember the break down, but it definitely was not a great deal.
I fitted raised and back bars to my R1, they only moved position by about 25mm each way but transformed the bike, I had wrist and hand issues the same as you.I got mine off ebay they were the adjustable type, Also if you are traveling on bumpy roads it is worth making sure your suspension is set up right as this will increase wrist pain
I forgot to say mine took about 2 hours to fit but included a lot of tinkering, I was not doing it for speed I would say a garage should fit in an hour.
