I find the outer edges of my palms suffering the most on my '90. I have Heli risers, and it's not so much the height of the bars, it's the angle; I would like to adjust them so the outer edge of the grips is not swept so much farther back than the triple tree.

I keep toying with the idea of cutting that locator pin off the bars and spinning them around the fork tube a bit, but keep talking myself out of it.

 

Wow, this is a blast from the past topic for sure. My humble advice is to avoid the death grip on the throttle. Sure, softer grips or bar risers can ease it a bit but that's not really solving the problem. If your shoulder isn't shot (mine is) and you can hold your hands out while sitting on the couch the same as riding position and your hand doesn't go numb, then it isn't the position of the bars or the grips. It's too much squeeze ... save that stuff for your wife or gf

A bit looser grip will make your ride more comfy and will also make cornering smoother.

Edit: Forgot to mention that keeping your core in shape so your hands don't take all your weight will also help.

 

When I feel a twinge from my hands (which takes quite a distance on the road), I hold the throttle open with the web between my thumb and index finger, and stretch my fingers. This helps relieve any hand cramps and keeps me moving. Laying your fingers on the levers also helps....
The cold gets to me more than the cramps - having broken all my fingers in sports (soccer)
my finger joints hurt when it's really cold or wet. I s'pose I could fit heated grips, but I'd feel like a wuss in our climate on the odd day when it goes below 6C

 

Sorry Pete, but you said sports and then said soccer ... you want broke bones play 'merican football. Besides, I thought the object of the soccer was to NOT use your hands ?

Heated grips are just a lil piece of heaven. I have ridden in 14F conditions and it's way better to have them than to not have them. Still, if you grip it like it's about to fall off you'll still get hurting hands ...

 

ah it's so good to be back .......... wiser words no man has ever spoken !

Oh and with 'Merican Foootball - Fightin' Irish kicked Navy's butt today in the land of the Green - where the Aviva Stadium where real football is played aka Rugby ..lol

Right Pete ? lol

 

'Hatter's advice made me sit down and ponder my gloves. My everyday gloves are lined leather and well broken in. They're just right. My cold weather gauntlets are the real problem. Thick leather and the extra insulation require some effort just to make a fist in them

 

First off - American football is for girls - all that padding and helmets - pffft - come and play rugby Union - no helmets, no padding.
And you have two teams each (attack and defense) so the players only play half the game.......
30 guys running into each other and two guys throwing and catching the ball is strange indeed.....

I thought the object of soccer was to NOT use your hands ?

Not if you're the goalkeeper. HEHE

On a serious note - I put tape on my bars to "thicken" them then push the grips over the top - I find this helps - I'd fit 1" bars to my bike if I could. (I guess having size XXL hands would explain that) I find the standard bars are like toothpicks...........

 

Had this debate once with some British soldiers (King's Own Borderers and some Welsh Guard)

I'll give Rugby credit for the constant motion and the lack of padding, but I asked these guys.

You have body armor as part of your kit. How does it make you feel?

Bloody invincible, they all said. Adamantly.

I said. So now take a man who is 6'4", weighs 16 stone, can bench press 400 lbs., run a 40 yard dash in 4.5 seconds and put him in body armor.

What you get is human bullet.

Until somebody has the snot blown out of them and saw stars for the rest of the game, will they understand the potential power of an impact in American Football.

I've put motorcycles and bicycles on the pavement.

Hard.

Sometimes with nothing between me and the road but lycra, but never in my life, have I hit or have been hit, as hard except when playing American Football

 

I'll grant you one thing - A friend of mine at high school was a guy called Dan Arkin, who was an exchange student - he was from Texas and played as a quarterback. He brought an American football with him........
He threw the ball to me one day from about 40 yards and it hit me in the chest and I couldn't breath for about two minutes, and he was a senior from high school, so what it would be like getting a "pass" from an NFL quarterback doesn't even bear thinking about.
I think the difference is that in American football, the two sides are coming directly at each other as opposed to angled runs etc.
I still like the idea of American football being played by one team, attack and defense both the same guys - you call it - "Iron man football" ?
I have a problem with all those guys on the field and most of them hardly ever touch the ball.........do they just like to bash into each other ??
And if you think a 16 stone guy in padding is big, talk to some of the "front row" forwards in rugby Union, 18-20 stone,- they go at each other directly in the scrum, and not a shoulder pad or helmet in sight. Funny, they seem to enjoy it.....

I guess it's what we grow up with and what we're passionate about. I still watch reruns of Joe Montanas games........ If my father had taken the job offer in Texas in the 60's I would've been an American But here I sit in a mud hut with a leaky grass roof and a postman who has a bone in his nose and wears a loincloth.......no wonder the place is in such a mess

But back on the subject, cold isn't something we have much of - it's a bit like Hawaii here.....the guys from our inland areas get the cold - minus 10C is normal in the winter, with black ice in the shady areas, and quite a few fit heated grips. When I ride into the highlands I have a pair of thin nylon undergloves that do a good job keeping my hands
toasty. The knees do get a bit creaky though...

 

When I was a kid playing kiddie football, we had a day where Bobby Douglas, then the quarterback for the Chicago Bears, came out to give us a talk and throw the ball around. We all lined up to get a pass from Bobby, even the big, slow, dumb kids (yep, me) who only hit other people and never actually caught a ball in a real game.

Somehow, I ended up first in the line, ran out a bit, turned, and Bobby positively DRILLED the football into me; it was like catching a missile, that was on fire, right in the center of the chest. Knocked me down and back about six feet, and when I looked up (still clutching the football, just to be fair) the coaches all were gathered round; they thought he'd killed me.

Then they took Bobby aside and must have explained the physics of throwing pro football league passes into 70# bodies or something, because after that he was lobbing them in like donuts. Still, I got to catch a 'real' Bobby Douglas pass, even if it nearly crushed my young and developing body....