This is probably a stupid question, but I thought I’d ask anyhow.
All through my DAS course, my hands were getting tired - especially in the evenings after I’d finished riding, when my hands were little more than claws. It got so bad I couldn’t straighten my ring fingers. I put that down to suddenly riding a bike for six hours a day when I’d never been near one before.
But I rode my new SV650 Sport for about 50 miles on both days this past weekend (picked it up on Saturday morning), and the same happened - and my wrists are still sore and stiff today (Tuesday).
I know I’m probably putting too much weight on the bars, but it feels like more than that. My wrists do seem bent back a little on the bars when I’m riding. Is that something I can rectify through my body position, or will the clutch and brake levers need dropping down a little to make things a little straighter between elbow and fingers?
Or is it just a case of putting up with it until whatever muscles I’m now using strengthen up?
changing body position on the bike (raising handlebars for example - this only requires an alleyn key normally, but you might want to ask for a friends hand before you do it the first time)
sitting closer to the tank
relaxing your shoulders and arms a little (are your arms very straight and locked when riding?)
Brill… thanks! It’s nice to know I’m not some kind of weak-wristed freak.
Unfortunately I can only ride my bike at the weekends at the moment, so I shall have to wait until Saturday to try all that.
I know my arms are tense, though, which I put down to a combination of inexperience, being on a new, bigger machine for the first time and the inevitable oh-my-god-this-thing-feels-powerful feeling. I’ll try to relax them next time I’m in the saddle, as well as moving closer to the tank.
Getting the toolkit out is a last resort, obviously!
You want to be barely holding the grips, nice and relaxed from your finger tips all the way to your shoulders. Your position on the bike should be maintained using core muscles; your abs, obliques and back muscles (esp lower back).
Your input into the front wheel is sharper and more controlled when your hands, arms and shoulders are relaxed. You also get much better feedback about what is going on with the front.
You’ll get used to the bars… it’s the seat I’d worry about - It’s fine on my Sv for my daily commute but after about 90 mins it starts to hurt a bit… and I’ve got ample padding
Another thing you can look at is the position of the brake and clutch levers, in the sense of how far they are rotated around the handlebars. Try this exercise: sit on your bike (on centre stand) in your normal riding position. Extend your arms straight out from your shoulders so they are parallel with the ground, with your fingers extended. Then lower them from the shoulders, keeping them straight. Your fingers should touch the levers at the same time your palms hit the grips. So, if your fingers hit the levers before you reach the grips, you should rotate the levers downwards slightly.
Other than that, really emphasise all the other answers… sit close to your tank so you can easily reach the handlebars without having to be leaning forward really hard on your wrists. Very gentle grip. Keep your elbows loose, which also really improves your steering input. And when braking, grip a bit harder with your thighs and keep your body upright to keep the weight off your wrists.
as duncan says here, Gripping the tank with your thighs helps massively with this, takes the weight off your rists and arms, especially when braking as it stops all your weight going forward on to them, making it hard to turn and wearing you out too… relaxing is key too, if you ride white knuckeled you’ll be pooped in no time…
Stomp grip, superb stuff to help with this, look it up… i should be a bloody rep for them the amount i mention it, i think its excellent stuff…!
Thanks so much, everyone! (Hi, Duncan - welcome to LB!)
As soon as I get back on the bike on Saturday morning I’ll put all these suggestions into action. I’m storing it in my parents’ garage at the moment for insurance reasons, so I can’t get to it until then…
At least it’ll give my hands a chance to recover from last weekend.
I’ll update you all when I get back from a (hopefully) nice long ride!
Check the position of your levers, sit on the bike in your normal riding position, rest your fingers on top of the levers and if the positioning is correct, from your fingertips to your forearms should be a straight line. If its not, adjust your levers till you get this straight line. Otherwise you’re placing strain on the tendons in your wrist when you’re braking or using the clutch, which would result in the soreness/stiffness afterwards.
I suspect it’s a combination of all of the above, to be honest! Tense arms, sitting too far back on the tank, not gripping with my legs enough, holding the bars too tight and the levers needing a little adjustment.
I’ve been out for a 50-mile spin, and taken all the good advice. I rotated the levers down a tad, made sure to sit closer to the tank and kept my shoulders and arms (more) relaxed.
They still hurt a bit, and my fingers are still a bit gerty, but nowhere near as bad as it was last week.
Thanks, everyone! Hopefully with experience it’ll get better and better.
Oh, and Johnse1 - I know what you mean about the seat now… :blink:
