The last few times ive been out riding for 5 hours or so my right hand seems to lose all its strength. Im unable to even start my car. It takes a good few days to be back to normal again. Anyone else have of had this. Any ideas of what it could be. Thanks.
Tendon strain, carpel tunnel syndrome, or some other nerve compression maybe caused by either gripping too hard on the bars or the wrong bars for your natural position? I would see a Dr and see what they say but at a guess more like nerves which will require maybe a wrist brace to help them repair.
-- Edited by Mike Wright on Wednesday 12th of March 2014 07:14:28 AM
Have you got risers on the bars?
This may sound stupid!
You should only use your arms to operate the controls and steer the bike. You ride with your legs.
If your pulling on the bars when stood up the bars need to be higher bringing your body over the pegs.
I have renthal fat bars so the adaptor bits bring the bars up slightly. I fitted these bars not to long ago. Would the position of the bars make a difference? I never got this on my old bike. Which was exactly the same. Thanks.
As Nige said the handlebars are there to hold the controls for the bike and not for you to hold onto the bike by.
Try standing up on the pegs and placing your thumb and forefinger around the bars. You should be nicely balanced when doing this so as not to need to lean on the bars or hold onto them in order to balance. When standing up in a relaxed position the bars, and the levers, should be readily to hand. Any effort put into holding onto the bike is wasted as all the effort should be going into operating the controls.
Adjust the bars until you can reach throttle brake and clutch levers without having to reach or stretch when in a standing position. Handlebar risers may be needed or it may simply be a case of tilting the bars.
The correct postion for levers is important too. Many people make the mistake of having them set for a sitting position which means quite a stretch when standing up. Better to set the levers so they are where you need them when standing up, even though this will mean they are a stretch when seated. On tarmac you will be seated and balanced so it will be simple enough to stretch a little. When standing off tarmac it is likely that the effort of gripping the bars sufficiently to balance and operate the controls will cause you the problems described after a while if they are not in the correct position.
You will recover quickest if you stop whatever it is that is causing the discomfort in the first place.
Interestingly I had never known any discomfort when riding until I purchased a CCM and my wrists ached after only a a half day ride and took days to recover, and the problem went away immediately after fitting handlebar risers.
