Ergonomics help!!

[MurphCO]

Just turned 3,000 miles on the bike today, and have been having sporadic problems with numbness in my right hand


I have risers, that eliminated the uncomfortable position for my back


Bought a Corbin seat, my booty is doing great


Now the last thing is this weird numbness....I'm 6'-3" and weigh about 240lbs. I made sure the end weights are nice and tight, it doesn't seem like vibration, but it's a possibility....I'm still running the stock battle wings

I bought a set of grip puppies and am going to put them on...



Any ideas/ similar experiences from the peanut gallery? What did you do? What do you suggest trying?

 

[sail2xxs]

I'm going to throw out a couple of things that have helped me on prior bikes.

If the grip puppies are basically foam tubes that go over your existing grips, they should help - I put them on my 800 GS, and they were magic. 1200 mile days were not a problem after that. I think having the wider gripping surface, in addition to the cushion of the foam helps a great deal.

Hold the bars loosely - if you can flap your elbows, your grip probably isn't too tight. When I first get on a new to me bike, I tend to grip more tightly - I found the elbow flap technique helps remind me to loosen up a little.

Check your gloves - if you have heated winter gloves, try wearing them and see if there is any difference. I've noticed that some of the summer gloves that have extra padding in the heel of the palm can put the base of your thumb in a weird position until they break in fully. The weird position leads to tingling. Another thing I've noticed on gloves - some have a tendency to bunch up at the forward base of your thumb, which leads to tingling/numbness.

After the seat and the risers, the angle of your wrist and thumb relative to the bar has most likely changed. Sometimes the change in riding position means your elbows are in a different spot, which tends to accentuate the angle on your throttle wrist and thumb. Try bringing your elbows in a bit so your hands and forearms are perpendicular to the bars - if this takes you from numb to tingly in fairly short order, it's an angle issue. It might just be a matter of getting used to a slightly different position, or possibly even changing the bars. One other thing that can make a difference is your posture - hunching your back can increase the pressure on your palm.

Thumb on top of the throttle grip can give you a break during test runs.

Good luck - I've had this experience several times with bikes in the past, and it took a lot of small adjustments and tinkering, as well as a fair bit of riding to get everything right. It's frustrating at times, but worth it!

Chris

 

[Combo]

These two things worked for me on more than one bike.

http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/1/4/68/18462/ITEM/CrampBuster-Wide-Motorcycle-Cruise-Assist.aspx

http://www.2wheelride.com/throttle_pro.html

 

[coastie]

Yea I would try that cramp buster.

 

[MurphCO]

I have a throttle pro and use it liberally, and i also am constantly moving my hand and stretching my fingers


i got the risers because I felt like I was leaning forward too much on my hands, and now I'm thinking I should have gotten the risers that pull the bars back a notch too, I might still be leaning heavily on them

 

[klunsford]

I added the ROX dirt bike risers. They bring it up about an inch and back towards the ride an inch. Really made a big difference and didn't have to extend the cables and tubes. I also use a Go Cruise which is great for those long rides.

 

[groundhog]

I know this is an old post but wanted to just add something for anyone who has this problem as the advice helped me.

Often numbness is simply tension in the hands. So to anyone who has this problem - next time you are on your bike experiencing this problem just grip your fuel tank tightly with your knees for a while and you should find the numbness disappears quite quickly and if it does it is definitely tension and you are gripping the bars too tight.

Sorry if this has been said elsewhere on here but I'm a newbie