Yamaha TRX850 Enthusiasts Forum

When I'm riding longer distances, my fingers are getting seriously numb.
It's both uncomfortable and makes me loose brake and trottle feeling.
As my right hand gets numb first, I guess its a bit of "over gripping" from my side.
I tried loosening my grip, putting in some heavier bar ends and a "trottlerocker" but it did not make much difference.
A set of good old foam grips fixed the numbness, but made the grip kind of ehhh...spongy..
As I don't see many others complaining about this at the forum I'm vondering if my handlebars are vibrating more than usual.
Any thoughts?

Are your hands plagued by this condition in warm weather and cold or is it just cold? I find the only way to maintain 'comfortable' hands in the cold is heated grips. Never again will I ride in cooler temps without them. Only slight downside is that the grips have less give in them due to the need to protect the embedded heating elements. Here endeth my 2p's worth!

Corners

If it happens in all weathers then you might need to take some weight off your hands/wrists a bit with slightly higher bars or try swapping them around left for right, right for left ?

I know just how you feel zod, happens to me too. The fingers go completely numb in the cold or on the bike - mostly down to bad circulation though, it's not the bike's fault. I haven't tried heated grips, although I guess they'd help.

Easy...move to sunny Queensland down under..

Yeah I get that as well, in fact I think most riders do.
Serious numbness could be caused by Carpal Tunnel, (Google it), although I find that glove fit has a lot to do with it, as I reckon if the gloves are a little too snug they cut off the circulation (to your fingers). A throttle lock devise helps ease it, as does a wrist rest thingy.

I sometimes ride without gloves and find that there is no numbness at all.

Spot on Ash, carpal tunnel it is. If it wasn't for the vista cruise control, riding would be a misery.
The only advice i can give is try bending your elbows slightly, you'll be surprised how much weight it takes off of your wrists.

I get numb fingers in cold weather but I think that's more down to my crappy gloves than the bike. The bike was quite uncomfortable when I first got it and I had a lot of pain in my wrists when out and about but when I raised the rear and dropped the front (effectively putting more weight on my wrists but changing the way I sit on the bike) the bike became more comfortable. Lever position is also very important. Set them right for you. You shouldn't have to bend your wrist upwards at all to reach the brake or clutch. One size doesn't fit all.

Hi zod!

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Kevtrx849 wrote: ...
The only advice i can give is try bending your elbows slightly, you'll be surprised how much weight it takes off of your wrists.

methinks that it also has to do with the load on your wrists (and thus the blood circulation); I found that it helps not to bend the wrists (i.e. keep it as straight as possible) and unburden them as much as possible by not leaning on your hands but supporting your upper part of the body by means of the muscles of your back instead of leaning on your hands.

Cured greetings from Munich!

the stompgrip have helped me as its easy to hold on with the legs ,, so some of the weight is off my wrists

Raise the bars to the top of the forks, and put spacers under the allen screws, helped me and I also have rear sets, also drop your levers so that they are angled down about 30 degrees from horizontal so that wrists are not bending so much.

Dave E

Thx for your input.
At least there's some consolation in not being the only one with numb fingers
I'll go for the "right-left handlebar swap"-mod and raise the bars as high I can without getting in conflict with the fairing.
A set of progrips with a few more mm of rubber will be on my list to.

... and for what it's worth, I fitted Capirex (?) grips (available from M&P etc) and think they're brilliant.
Standard grips were too hard. Foam grips were too big and squashy, Capirex are just right.
Love xxx
Goldilocks