carpal tunnel

[Facington]

any way to prevent carpal tunnel in wrists.... I've had my bike for about a week, cbr600f4i, and my wrists are already killing me, woke me up in night last night. put about 130 miles on so far.

how effective is a throttle rocker? any other way to reduce the pressure on wrists other than abs and back. thanks

[Psycluded]

Grip the bike with your legs and keep weight off your wrists. This will have the added effect, besides curing the fatigue issue, of giving you more control over the bike, due to the fact that your weight is off of the handlebars.

[poppygene]

Throttle Rocker won't help in this case. However, GenMar offers a bar riser which would take some of the weight off your wrists, but I don't know if it would be enough. Probably cost around $100. Might be worth it.

[Sev]

Sounds like you're definately keeping your weight on your wrists. This is a big mistake. Trying holding yourself up with your upper body instead of your arms.

[oldnslo]

This might be nature's way of telling you to bypass sportbikes. And GenMars don't help a bit. If you have to hold yourself up with your legs all the time, you will never be comfortable on that bike. Move to one with a more upright seating position.

[Facington]

***This might be nature's way of telling you to bypass sportbikes***

that would really suck considering i just got the bike.... thanks anyway

[oldnslo]

Now your option list consists of finding a way to raise the bars so that all your weight is not on your wrists. Helibars are considered one of the better solutions, there are others found by googling "handlebar risers". There will always be a certain amount of front lean bias on your bike, just by virtue of its ergonomic design, but bar risers can help. Also, using your lower body as others have suggested can alleviate the pressure somewhat. It takes determination and practice for it to become as close to second nature as it can be. Considering you've only ridden your bike a few miles, as the miles roll up your body will compensate and get stronger, so pain and misery just from riding it will likely decline over time, too.

[TheReaper]

So, now I've got a question concerning the wrists. I've got about 550 miles on my FZ. I don't get sore wrists when riding so I guess I'm getting the hang of using my legs and upper body. However, I just went out to the parking lot and practiced some u-turns(figure 8's) and quickstops. I notice after about 20 minutes of that my wrists are sore. Am I doing something wrong or is this just a result of trying to steer a 430 pound bike at slow speeds? When I did this during the BRC I didn't have any problems, however I was also on a dual sport that weighed half as much as mine.

[oldnslo]

I imagine normal riding on the hiway or street provides a relatively neutral riding position assisted to varying degree by upward wind thrust with speed. Trundling around a parking lot doing low-speed exercises and stops is probably more stressful on your wrists and hands than anything on the road. You may be unconciously loading weight from your upper body onto your wrists and hands while focusing on the exercise at hand.
That's just my opinion, though.

[TheReaper]

Thanks for the input. That's a definate possibility. I don't have enough experience yet to make the riding position as natural as I want it to be, so that's a good hypothesis. I was so focused on my practice skills and doing the exercises correctly I was probably trying to manhandle it more than I should. Will have to keep practicing I guess.

You know it just sucks to have to spend all this time outside riding and "practicing". NOT!!!!!


God I love riding.................