What am I doing wrong?

When riding my VFR 1200 it gets uncomfortable quickly from my elbow down to my wrist and hands gets numb/sore after even a quick ride.

Am I holding the handlebars wrong, meaning way to tight?

Should I get a new seat?

I have the tank pads installed for squeezing the tank with my knees as well.


I will try everything before considering HeliBars. That would be my last option but at that point I would probably go with a different bike and seating position.

Thank you everyone

 

Go to the health club and lift some weights-your too weakling and get some sliders too!

 

Need more info. How long have you been riding sporty motorcycles? Is this problem specific to the VFR or has it been a problem on other bikes, too?

You shouldn't be death gripping the bars. Gloves with gel inserts in the palms may help.

 

More than likely you are either leaning on the bars or gripping to tightly. What I would do is go out for a 50-100 mile ride on roads you are familiar with. Focus on not gripping tightly and supporting yourself with your core instead of leaning on the bars. Use the short ride to really focus on how it feels to sit that way and you will know when you are doing wrong later.

 

Ha ha ha ha... Just came back from the gym
Not much weight if any to lose...

 

not your weight-lift heave HOO-stop eating at MD!

 

Holding on to tight. Recently heard Scott Russell say that you should hold the grips like a loaf of bread. ..good luck

 

..................

 

Thank you I will do that!
That makes perfect sense. I can already tell that I'm not using my core to support myself. I'm starting to work on it today.
Thank you again.

 

Gyroscopic exercise ball

 

The immediate thought that most have already shared here is that you may be gripping too tightly. You're already aware that that may be a possibility so focus on that on your next few rides and see if that isn't it. Should be easy enough to rule out. Are you getting vibrations through the bars that are causing you to grip tightly? If so, you can find out from other 1200 owners whether they experience the same. If not, could be something going on with the bike that needs adjustment. My hands would start to tingle and go numb on any rides over 200 miles. I installed some vibranator bar ends and they seem to help or at least I've convinced myself that they helped and that's all that matters I suppose.

On a different note, I read a post from SOW yesterday where he said he was done submitting negative posts, that he didn't want to be that guy anymore. I gave him the benefit of the doubt and saw that Randy even gave him a sincere response after that. Then I see his posts to you about hitting the gym and stop eating at what he called "MD" which I can only assume means McDonald's. Fool me once ...

I realize I'm just feeding the troll by even bringing him up. Oh well, he's a non-issue for me but didn't want you to be put off by his nonsense. I hope it's obvious that he's not representative of the membership here. I see you've been here for a month or two already so you've probably already figured all this out. Hope you figure out what's going on with the bike and report back.

 

Another thing to consider is the angle of your wrist when squeezing the levers and/or when your riding. Do you ride with your finger(s) on the levers ? I assume you don't have DCT model, so this means clutch hand too. If so check the angle of your wrist while you ride, if the levers are rotated too far upward, or even parallel to the ground, your wrist will be bent and your back of the hand will be more upward putting more pressure on your wrist. If this is the case, rotate the levers downward so the you don't have to bend your wrist while you have your fingers on the levers or when squeezing the levers.

 

I will go on a ride and pay really good attention to all the details (Are you getting vibrations through the bars that are causing you to grip tightly?)

SOW? Oh well to each their own.

Thank you so much for your valuable feedback and everyone's willingness to help me.

 

Or like a woman's soft breast.

One thing I recall my driving instructor telling us is the tendancy to have a death grip on the bars. Regardless of his advice, I still do. Often enough my right hand will numb and or cramp up. I know I still grip that throttle bar like one might grip a climbing rope. A hard thing to overcome.

 

If it's a short trip, I agree, you're gripping too tight. If it's a long ride, say 300 plus miles a day, expect some discomfort.

 

Why are you so opposed to HeliBars? Considering how much money you will loose/spend by trading bikes, they are a much cheaper option.
They are not that difficult to install either.

 

Words of wisdom from Keith Code & Kristi:

Keith elaborated on that point in the lesson-5 discussion. He said that we shouldn't be holding onto the bars at all. We should be using them to make steering changes and not touching them at all the rest of the time. Unfortunately, the fact that we hold them all the time leads us to believe that they're there for us to hold onto. He illustrated this by telling us of a video of some racer on a bike that was seriously out of shape, the rider desperately hanging on and trying to get the bike under control. He was eventually spat off in dramatic fashion, but as soon as he left the scene, the bike settled down and continued down the track until it ran off the pavement. The lesson: We screw it up when just letting the bike have its way would get back under control immediately.

Dylan also repeated the point first made by Kristi that was to make such a difference in my riding. Once you press the bar to initiate a direction change, you can relax, even move your hands off the bars entirely, and the bike will continue to turn at the same rate. It will not straighten up by itself.

 

you should have got a 800, everyone says go bigger you get more, in this case bigger is just more to push around, look around and start pulling off bike parts-to make lighter, I did that and every little bit helps, perhaps a re gear too and pull off that junk -stock muffler-absolutely hideous muffler. ride with half a gas tank tooo for a while. get busy- and report back to BB.

 

+1 on this suggestion, but then, it was one of the first things I did.

Now, one thing to keep in mind, you can get in trouble with that loaf of bread technique (I almost did) if you're not paying too much attention to what gear you're in, because the engine is so smooth at higher RPM, and say, at 60 MPH you wack on the throttle to accelerate to 70 or 80, well, in 3rd or 4th, by George you BETTER be holding on in a death grip, because otherwise you might go backwards off the back end of the bike... :congratulatory:

 

That is exactly what I did today after work.
I definitely had to focus hard on what I was doing but it worked. I felt like 80 percent better. I guess I have to practice more.

Thank you for your help on this.