Rsi

[NC]

Just wondering is anyone else has this problem with their clutch hand?

Been doing some serious KM's of late due to work, and by golly my hand has been playing up, even to the point that the ole tramadol had to be used once or twice.
There is more than enough muscle in my arm/hand to not suffer from muscle fatigue. Anyone got any suggestions how I can dull the pain down a bit?

[Squeak the Rat]

RSI sucks. Mmmmm, tramadol.

My only suggestion would be to make sure your grip and lever positioning is correct. Wrists should not be bent and the levers should be at a straight line from your upper arm....

Or get a more upright bike for commuting......:dodge:

[Edit:] - Also moving the lever closer to the handlebar might help.

PS - A lot of bikers get carpal tunnel syndrome. Try googling, eg http://www.trailrider.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=39&Itemid=30

[Motig]

I have trouble with my left wrist after a work accident and it never really has come right. On even short trips it would ache on the VFR800 and CBX but since getting the GSX with its upright naked riding style its been a lot better. I'm guessing its to do with taking the weight of the wrists. Sorry praps the sportbikes got to go:gob:

[Coyote]

Apehangers :blip:

[scumdog]

Noticed a pain I never had before when riding The Guzzi (Dangerous's) over to Akaroa.
Lotsa gear changes and sprots-bikw riding position I guess.

I would guess setting the clutch-lever to minimum travel (without 'graunching' gears) would help.

And use the outer end of the lever - not near the pivot point.

[Pwalo]

All I can suggest is that you do your best to keep the weight off your wrists (and I don't mean getting to 180kph as quickly as you can).

Try to use your leg and stomach muscles to support you on the bike, rather than your hands, wrists, and arms.

I still get a bit of gyp from my wrists and hands after I broke bones in both hands a couple of years ago, but I find it really helps keeping as much weight as you can off my hands. Pity I can't do anything about the cold weather.

[GR81]

i plan to buy one of those handlever workout things with the spring in it, to build up the strength in my hands.

[crashe]

I had the operation on my right hand about 2 years ago now as it was the throttle that caused it for me... After 10kms my hand was totally numb except for little finger and the thumb sometimes. The operation was a success. here are a few hints to help out until you get it diagnosed or have the operation. I do have a list of all the exercises that I had to do throu a 'Hand therapist' not a physio. Hand therapists deal exclusively with hands.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the meantime:
Hot water as hot as you can take it.. NOT boiling in the bathroom sink.... fill it up with hot water... place hand in the water.. Stretch your hand out and stretch it out even further.. HOLD for a few seconds. Then close into a fist... hold again for a few seconds. Stretch your hand out again as far as you can stretch it.. keep repeating this for a few minutes. Do it as often as you can during the day and night. Do it JUST before going to bed and sleep. This is only a temp relief until you have the operation. If and when you have the op, make sure you get "hand Therapy" physio.... do all the exercises they tell you to do... that is important. They got me to put my hand in 'hot wax' and wow what a difference in the healing process. They advised me to use the hot water treatment at home... This does help relieve the pain etc that you are suffering from. This is NOT a cure but a short term relief. All the best seeing your specialist.




Get your Dr to send you to the hospital for tests to confirm that it is Carpel Tunnel Syndrome..
The waiting time to get that test is a couple of months. You will get the results straight away... Then you will go on the waiting list to have the op... that list isnt too long... as they are trying to get all those with it back up and at work again real quick. I had the op and it worked.


In the meantime........
Put HOT water in the sink.... as hot as you can bear it. Then stretch your fingers out to full stretch... hold for a few seconds and then close into a fist... do that a few times.. and it will help. I had "Hand therapy" physio after my op.... and they put my hand in special hot wax.... and man did that help. They told me to place my hand in HOT water in the sink at home as well. It is a relief but not a cure. If you are at the comp, get a bucket with HOT water in it.. and type with one hand/finger. Soak your hand in hot water doing the exercises as often as you like during the day even just before going to bed.
Do it especially just before going to bed and that will help you sleep.

Another thing to do it is, drop your hand down by yourside and give your arm a wee shake, that help to release the nerves and reliefs the pressure that is being pinched inside your hand.

Change how you use your keyboard as well.....get a keyboard spongegel thingee to put infront of the keyboard. Also look at the height position of your chair at the computer. Are you sitting too low or maybe too high at the table... take time to experiment to get it right.

If when you are typing and you hand goes stone cold.. stop and do the exercises.... as it should not go that cold.

If you are doing the same repetative job over and over all day... you MUST take a break every hour for a 10 minute break and do hand exercises, as that will relieve the pressure as well.

I also have somewhere, the complete set of exercises that I had to do after my operation.


I hope that this info will help you out.

[NC]

It's quite a heavy clutch too, can I make it lighter somehow?

[sAsLEX]

NO such thing as RSI the COrrect tla is oos, or occupational overuse syndrome aint it!?


Maybe a hyydralic clutch? but that what you got aint it?

New lever could help, or a diff style of lever.

[crashe]

NO such thing as RSI the COrrect tla is oos, or occupational overuse syndrome aint it!?


Same thing, just a new modern name for it...

[NC]

NO such thing as RSI the COrrect tla is oos, or aint it!?


Maybe a hyydralic clutch? but that what you got aint it?

New lever could help, or a diff style of lever.

occupational overuse syndrome, someone pay me to ride bikes! heh

[RT527]

I got a problem with both descriptions for the condition, I had carpel tunnel In both wrists and I`d have to say that Carpel tunnel is a condition one has that gets worse with any type of work/hobby what ever you do.
The condidtion causes the wrists to swell beyond normal conditions so that your nerves and tendons are crushed to gether in the carpel tunnel which causes them to rub together which in turn causes pain and even more swelling.
This is something that you dont just get it is usually because the carpel tunnel is allready to tight and you need an operation to relieve, I had both wrists done at the same time With some succes however i may need a further operation and if that doesnt work the next step is for them to surgically break both forarms just below the elbow and remove a section of bone so the gap in my wrists increases.
The other thing to consider is getting some wrist supports made for you , enquire with a Physiotherapist about this.
this keeps the wrists straight and less likely to swell.
or do some exercise to make the wrists more supple.
Again see your doctor or physio for the exercises.
I dont have much trouble with riding unless Ive done a lot of driving then i get it in my left wrist from changing gears.

[avgas]

I swear my wrists are just piano hinges now. I notice it really bad when i have constant throttle (i no i no, buy a throttle boss).

[WRT]

Three good suggestions in there for minimising the problem (from Speedie, Scumdog and Squeak). Make sure the levers are on the right angle for you, also use the end of the lever not the inside (move them inwards if you have to), and try shifting without using the clutch. The clutches on TLR's are not light, but they are not overly heavy either so its just a case of minimising the impact of using it. Definately not worth all this crazy talk of getting rid of the beast!

[NC]

Three good suggestions in there for minimising the problem (from Speedie, Scumdog and Squeak). Make sure the levers are on the right angle for you, also use the end of the lever not the inside (move them inwards if you have to), and try shifting without using the clutch. The clutches on TLR's are not light, but they are not overly heavy either so its just a case of minimising the impact of using it. Definately not worth all this crazy talk of getting rid of the beast!

Thanks guys..
having small hands is a pain in the butt too

[Wasp]

i have a problem with my right hand that when its cold i cant clench/unclench it very fast (alot slower than my left anyway and im right handed).

I think my problem came from playing to many computer games in the cold.

[sAsLEX]

Thanks guys..
having small hands is a pain in the butt too

Maybe a mechanical fix with a different type of lever is what I was getting at
<img src=http://www.hardracing.com/images/0011.jpg>

something like that might fix it!

[SDU]

The others are all pretty well on to it. Set up of bars, levers, or changing the clutch lever if you can & going to the Dr to check out your wrist. If it is just carpels than it is fixable with Surgery. Get your prob sussed early cause you don't wanna have to put up with the pain for life, the sooner helped more chance off a fix.
I ride with RSI/OOS in both hands, micro rests are real helpful. Relax that wrist whenever you can while riding & maybe on bigger rides more stops are needed to take some weight off them. Also what you do off the bike (job, cleaning etc) may need modifying to limit interfering with ride time. Gotta get the priorities right eh!
Check this thread out, a few options others have done to ease the probs they have with RSI.
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=83312&page=11

[Smokin]

Thanks guys..
having small hands is a pain in the butt too

No doubt but I bet big hands would hurt ya butt even more :gob:

I had carpel tunnel release surgery on both hands about a year ago and If i had known how bad they really were I would have done it alot sooner mate.
No more broken sleep and I did the day trip to the Brass monkey without even a niggle, I couldn't even make it to hokitika without a break before that.
Well worth getting it done bud.

[NinjaBoy]

I initially had a sore clutch wrist when I first got the ninja. Eventually I learnt to grip the lever closet to the top of the left bar to minimise the lever to bar distance. This seemed to get rid of the pain.

I also eventually got these CRG levers which are fully adjustable. But then I had to get a matching brake lever as well :innocent:

[NC]

No doubt but I bet big hands would hurt ya butt even more :gob:

I had carpel tunnel release surgery on both hands about a year ago and If i had known how bad they really were I would have done it alot sooner mate.
No more broken sleep and I did the day trip to the Brass monkey without even a niggle, I couldn't even make it to hokitika without a break before that.
Well worth getting it done bud.

Did you want your roof done or not? LOL

[Smokin]

Did you want your roof done or not? LOL

I had best start behaving myself now :shutup:

[HDTboy]

If you want to get really technical with the clutch. You could put a bigger master cylinder on it, you'd have less feel for it but it would make it light as.
Adjustable span levers might help too but would probably cost more

[far queue]

Just wondering is anyone else has this problem with their clutch hand?Yep, but only when riding off road, especially in the tight stuff when using the clutch lots.


... i plan to buy one of those handlever workout things with the spring in it, to build up the strength in my hands.I use one of those, and also one of these ... http://www.powerballs.com/ , and also MTB riding to improve fitness and strength - it all helps.


... NC try upshifting without using the clutch ... Dont do that for downshifting tho, but at least it will reduce some of your "clutch time".Yep, I do this too. Not practical in the tight off road stuff, but do it whenever possible to cut down the number of clutch uses.

So, there's a number of things you can do, they all add up.

[sAsLEX]

I use one of those, and also one of these ... http://www.powerballs.com/ , and also MTB riding to improve fitness and strength - it all helps.
.

I was winning the NZ league of the powerballs comp thingo for a while!

[Oakie]

It may be that it's not the clutch use at all that is the problem. It could be that it's just a symptom of something else going on in your life that's causing damage. I mean if you use a keyboard a lot it may be starting to cause damage but while the damage is not yet apparant while keyboarding, it may be with the increase effort of using a clutch.
It's like once when I was talking to an optician. He said he got pissed off with people coming in complaining of eye strain caused by looking at a PC monitor when what it really was was people with normal eye weakness that became APPARANT when (not because) they used a monitor. Just something to consider.
Oh, and don't just look after it by dulling the pain. Pain is the message that something is wrong so you're better to remove the pain by removing the problem (unless the problem is the biking and then by all means, pop those painkillers)