Numb Right Thumb and fingers

Francis B

New member
I ride a LC1500 which is almost the same I got Kuryakyn ISO grips with the throtle rocker built in at the end. Plus a throttle lock and I don't hane any problems any more. I did install risers but that was for my back along with a drivers back rest. When I ride my other bike my whole hand goes num after 1/2 hour.
 
just put ISO grips and throttle rocker on my C50....went on easy.
Did a hundred miles or so today to check it out. VERY different and much nicer on the hands. The rocker is postioned too high tho...and actually made my hand go numb from riding on it for a short time....gotta lower that puppy a bit :-).... but the ISO grips are great. Bought a pair for my husband's bike too....
 
One small "exercise" I do is keep like 3 fingers on the throttle and extend one over the brake. Then just rotate through your fingers one at a time and it keeps them from getting "crampy".
 
4dtvman, that is a nice looking LC1500. I see that you have the passenger floorboards. They look nice, I was wondering if they are considered a worthy improvement to your passengers?
I am ordering the ISO grips tonight.
 
Well,

Everybody is different and certain parts of the bike will affect you in a different way then it will affect me...

From the minute I got the C50 above 60mph I notice there was vibration on the foot board, but for some people here that is non existance... It could be that their particular bike doesn't suffer from this vibration or that they are not as sensitive on their feet as I am...

Also, I have heard a lot about the num thump which I have never experienced on the C50. I always got num wrist on the SV, but so far I never experience any disconfort with the C50 beach handle bars, to me they are perffect. They are confortable and they provide excellent leverage for manuvers at any speed.

Last night I exchange the handle bars based on look only. As I said, I never had any problems with the stock beach handle bars, but I just wanted something more agressive looking so I got a set to T drag racer bars and installed them, let me tell you they look badazz...

Well, today I wrote the bike to work with my new handle bars and guess what... I finally got to experience what num thumb is... The vibration with the new handle bars is so bad, that the stock mirrors which before worked well, now are useless, the vibration through the mirrors is so bad that I can not identify any vehicle behind me...

I ride 25min straight country road to work, I do 65mph all the way non stop with no traffic lights and many times I am the only one on the road... Yes, beautiful country scineray, I do have the best ride to work in the mornings... But guess what, with this new handle bars, by the time I got to work, I could not feel my hands... Total disconfort...

So, what I am trying to tell you is that, Yes, numness can be cure by exchanging parts, you just have to find the parts that works for you, but that might be expensive if you are not lucky and get it right the first time...

I could not believe it that such a simple handle switch could open such a can of worms... I can tell you that the drag bars are going away and the beach bars will regain their thrown. Once you are past certain age, confort weights a lot more then good looks...

Now, after modifying the bike setup a bit, you still find yourself not in confort, then you need to take a look at your sitting habits or any physical conditions that you might have as carpel tunnel or the like... Do excersizes and get fit so that you can outstand the punishment of riding a bike...

If you still have problems, buy yourslef a whole new different bike and if you still don't find confort, then is time to drop the saddle and get yourself a crown vic...

Seriously, what did I did wrong when installing these new bars that they turned out to vibrate so much... ?
 
Man, that sounds like a really bad experience you had!
If you still have problems, buy yourslef a whole new different bike and if you still don't find confort, then is time to drop the saddle and get yourself a crown vic...
QUOTE]
I cant see myself in a Crown Vic for another 15 or so years. I will be a working stiff for at least that long, and hope to be a rider for at least that long...
I guess the thing that gets me the most is that I have noticed it beginning about 6-7 miles into my 9 mile ride to work. It is all urban riding, no nice country backroads or highways. Austin, TX is just a busy city, with an amazing amount of traffic. It is busy (rush hour) from 6am-9pm at night with very little change in volume in many areas.
I know I am a little stressed, and will continue to work to relax and enjoy, I will also try some of the products I have been informed about (Thanks, everyone!) and spend as much time riding AWAY from the city as I possibly can.
Changing bikes is probably not an option, and I do love the C90.
8)
 
and spend as much time riding AWAY from the city as I possibly can.
Changing bikes is probably not an option, and I do love the C90.

If the vibration problem is bad, really do consider looking into different gears that could help cut the vibration, like I said, just swaping handle bars in my case made the vibration on my bike a lot more obvious... So equipment has a lot to do with it...

When you hear that you need to built resistance so that you can stand more, be very carefull how you interpret that... The good interpretation is, to go to a gym and work out so that you become more fit physically...

The wrong interpretation is that if you write for 1/2hr and your wrist and thumb get num, that then you need to stick it out and ride for 2hrs to over come that issue.... Be aware that if any part of your body is going num, then there is some kind of vibration from the bike that is real, that it exist, and the prolonged exposure to this vibration can cause nerve damage...

You should work on correcting what is causing the vibration, not on overexposing yourself to it. You should be able to see via your rearview mirrors with no problem, so if you mirrors are shaking so bad that you can not make out what is behind you, then you have a problem with the handle bars and it needs to be fixed.

Good luck, stay healthy...
No worth it to damage any of your sensitive nerves...
 
Probably nothing......well maybe. ;)

A piece of pipe has a natural resonant frequency, depending on the length, cross section and stiffness of the material. Your new bars just happen to resonate at the same frequency as the engine.

Bigger bar-end weights might help; then again, smaller ones might help too.
They even make a gel "snake" that you thread inside the bars to dampen the vibrations but I think those are kind of expensive and I haven't seen any reports on whether they really work or not.

I'm guessing you're gonna end up going back to the old bars.
 
Has been the bane of my life for aeons, however, something I discovered whilst riding my pushbike was Gloves....

When I was gripping the handlebars, hurtling down a hill at 25mph, my gloves were bunching, only very slightly, and this was causing discomfort, I then observed my gloves whilst driving the grown up bike and hey presto! exactly the same.

Problem. In Scotland gloves are required all year round..

Solution.. "North Face Windstopper" fabric gloves in the Summer and "Sealskinz" Winter cycling gloves, for the other 51 weeks of the year.

Both pairs being a thinner glove and a nice snug fit.. no bunching.

The only numbness I have experienced of late has been after a long journey and I can only assume this is due to vibration, this is cured in the same fashion as described earlier in the thread, changing the grip position slightly.

Hope this helps..

Buster
 
I'm sure you'd love it, the balmy summer breeze, open roads, sheep sh1t, etc.
However today.. August 8th it is 10 deg/C, 35MPH winds and absolutely Spankning down with rain...
To use a colloquialism.. "It is B4st4rd Baltic!"

But Still, I am riding:bluethum:
 
Here in Texas, we seem to have just finished the wettest summer for a long time. We had rain, sometimes flooding rains, almost everyday for the first 2 months of summer, which is VERY unusual for us. By this time of year, the grass is usually straw colored, dry, and brittle, but this year, I've got to mow just about every 5 days! It did, however, keep the temps down about 15 F lower than the normal highs for the day, and we have yet to hit 100F which we usually hit sometime in May.
I dont trust my riding skills enough yet to ride in the torrents of rain that we have had, but as I say, it seems to have abated!:bluethum:
 
Ok, new problem- I felt the same thing while driving my car on Saturday.. So it isn't the vibrations doing it. It has to be CTS or Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.
I see a lot of risers, aome bring the bars back closer to the rider (pullback risers?) and was wondering if anyone had used this as a solution. That or tried bars with a totally different shape to change the angle your hands grip the bars. Is there any site that works out the geometry of riding to find out what position would be most 'ergonaumic' for the rider??
Thanks again, doug
 
BCblvd.
I also have had risers for some time now....long before my ISO grips..... They made vibration slightly worse on my C50.

The old handlebar riser was held only in a solid rubber bushing...but I found that the base of the new riser is so large that it comes up hard on the triple tee when you bolt it down. I think that allowed more vibration to come thru.
It is not terrible...but that is when I really started seeing blurry mirrors.

Annie
 
Greetings,
At the risk of flogging a dead horse, as I have seen this original question on several threads here.
My numbness is resolved, and I guess it is to an extent alot of the advice I got here.
Yesterday, I took a nearly 200 mile ride, just to see how it felt. I rode alone, thru some of the small towns in this area. About 20 minutes into the ride, I noticed the numbness beginning again. I eased up on the grips (Throttle mostly) and used the throttle boss for repositioning from time to time. In no time the numbness had resolved! Now, instead of Carpal Tunnel Syndrom, I attribute most of my problems to my near death-grip on the throttle.
BTW Tallannie, I love my ISO's and really like your risers. I think they will go on my list of wants/needs, as I am still working out the ergonaomics to make the bike fit me better. I see that may take some time.
I am now, no longer fearful of taking a trip on the bike - I eagerly await it!
doug
 
Hey Carlos,
I would have to go up north, definitely to see that... It was a hot 90 degrees here today, with no cooling off in sight! We only have at most about 3 months of coolness around here - winter. The rest of the time is pretty much like your summers, or hotter! If the trees change colors, it due to them dying from lack of h2o ;o)
doug
 
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