Tendinitis from clutch overuse....

[erik]

I'm not wondering whether it was just the angles and setup.

Lately I've been wondering if my clutch hand pain was because I had the levers positioned quite low. With the lever low, I think I was grabbing it more towards the tips of my fingers. I've adjusted them to a more normal position (maybe that's why manufacturers position them like they do...) and when squeezing the lever, it's positioned closer to the first joint on my fingers. I think this ought to reduce the stress on the tendons. I've got to change the clutch actuator/lever thing at the other end of the cable back to normal and then go for a longer ride to see how my hand copes with the higher positioned levers. I had increased the actuator/lever length to reduce the force at the clutch lever, but it also means there's less movement at the clutch so if the cable is a bit loose when the engine is cold, when it has warmed up the lever doesn't create enough movement to fully disengage the clutch. So it'd be good if I could go back to the standard actuator/lever (also it'd be good because then I won't have to modify my new sv650's clutch as well).

[PrincessBandit]

This has been quite interesting reading. I type quite a lot and don't get hand/wrist problems from that; I do get what I suspect is rsi in my pinkies when I do a lot of piano playing. With my bike the only time I get a painful left hand is when doing a lot of slow speed crawling - clutch in, release, clutch in, release ......You get the picture. Funnily enough I don't get this problem when faced with the same situation on Balu's Burgman. Gee, I wonder why that might be. Although because his is such a fat-ass coming to a complete stop on my bike is much more comfortable as at least my feet aren't on total tippytoe to do it!!!

[Spuds1234]

Make sure your lever's are set at such an angle that when you go to grab them your hand a and wrist are in a straight line.

If there is a big kink in your wrist your doing yourself damage and making things harder for yourself.

[crash harry]

FWIW, I sometimes get tendonitis in my left hand, and there's no question that it's caused by the clutch lever. There doesn't seem to be any pattern that I've noticed as to when it happens though, and it usually only lasts a week or so. I guess it may not be so much of an RSI thing as some sort of injury that recovers within that sort of time, but it's bloody painful and it makes riding a bastard. Which is not a good thing seeing as how my bike is my only transport.

I've had it on all my bikes I think - some of them have had nice cluthes or heavy clutches, higher or lower bars, levers in different orientations, it doesn't seem to make much difference.

What does seem to help most is to give it a rest as much as possible and let it recover - a bit of deep heat, keep your hand warm, and try not to use the clutch as much - clutchless upshifts (I do now anyway which may be part of why it hasn't recurred recently), and if it hurts to use it in a particular way avoid it. I have been reduced to pulling the clutch with all 4 fingers and no thumb on the bars - just using my hand like a hook and pulling on the lever with my whole arm. But as I say, that's because I have no other choice to get to work.

FWIW, HTFU pills don't work on this kind of injury - but treating your hand carefully will help a lot. Those stress ball things or grip-strength excersises may help, I've had mixed results.

[quickbuck]

...or do clutchless shifts on the way up the 'box.

Haven't used the clutch for up-shifts for well over 20 years on any of my bikes (well over 99% of the time), and had no issues.

Constant mesh sequential transmissions don't require them