Not sure what to do.... but I fear the FJR is out the door

OK guys. I am asking the guys who have solved so many problems for me and my Gen 1 over the last year.

I have been fighting off a serious LEFT shoulder neck pain after riding for over 2 hrs. It is ALWAYS the left shoulder shooting up the neck. In an effort to solve this here is what I have done.

Physically I am a freak. I am long waisted, which means of my nearly 6 3" height the majority is in my torso and not my legs. it seems that most of you guys have a far more normal physique.

Prior to the FJR I rode. A Vrod (35k miles) no pain. Before that a Honda Valkyrie (65k miles) no pain

1. Larger/Taller windshield (thinking I was fighting the buffeting of the smaller windscreen

a- All the way up all the way down, and every position in between

2. Seats... I have tried 2 or 3 seats until I ended up with a Russel Day Long

3. Handlebar positions

a- All the way forward, All the way back, and 1/2 way

4. Helibar risers

a- All the way forward, All the way back, and 1/2 way

5. Riser plate w/ Helibar risers (double riser)

a- All the way forward, All the way back, and 1/2 way

6. MCL Peg lowering

7. Open face 3/4 helmet (thinking my Shoei full face was to heavy)

8. Read and studied the Dick Frantz' Riding Position posts

I bet I have put close to $1,500 into making this a bike I can be comfortable on, but I just can't seem to crack the code.To me it feels like maybe I am stretching my short arms to reach the bars from my long waist.. Does anyone have any experience similar to this and figured it out. I feel I am running out of options.

Take two Advil an hour before you start riding ?

Works for me on long trips.

Join Planet Fitness.

Working on upper body strength did it for me.

See a doctor.

If a lot of your riding is on open roads with few stops, try riding no hands.

I'm serious.

I sometimes get shoulder pains when I put in some distance, when I take them off the hand grips and place them on the fuel tank it gets a lot better. If you don't have real cruise control on your bike, try fitting a VistaCruise, or some other type of throttle lock to hold the throttle open for you. It won't be the same, but will let you try this technique.

Good luck

Brodie

All that above, and do you have grip puppies or Grip Buddies to make the grips larger so you don't grip as hard?

Yeah, did all that too, the Russell helped my "Butt Range" but nothing helped alleviate my hand numbness and pain. Then I installed an Audiovox CCS-100 Cruise control and problem solved. If you aren't sure you want to take the cruise control route, then try at least tray a Crampbuster or Throttle Rocker for a few rides. If one of those help even a little, then a cruise will really help.

Now I can ride for hours, or until the bladder says it time to stop, pain free.

Greenham said:

1. Larger/Taller windshield (thinking I was fighting the buffeting of the smaller windscreena- All the way up all the way down, and every position in between

2. Seats... I have tried 2 or 3 seats until I ended up with a Russel Day Long

3. Handlebar positions

4. Helibar risers

5. Riser plate w/ Helibar risers (double riser)

8. Read and studied the Dick Frantz' Riding Position

Click to expand...

I am the same height as the OP, but not as long of torso.

Cee Baileys XL reverse contour, grip puppies and throttle lock did the trick for me.

I had the same problem on my last trip to Colorado. My solution was a natural hot springs fed Jacuzzi combined with Ibuprofen and a few beers. Probably not the solution you are looking for.

I would however really analyze your riding posture, try to alter a few things. I do find from time to time that I'm sitting a little twisted in the seat and am able to identify it by feeling the pegs, and one feels further forward than another and shifting around fixes that. Not sure if that was my problem or yours, but it's worth looking into, and really is free if you can figure it out. I do know that on my FZ1 I tended to slouch a bunch and found that focusing on sitting more up and rotating my torso helped a lot with my longer riding.

This may not be your problem but these exercises help me:

https://www.artofmanliness.com/2015/05/19/hunched-back-exercises/

Have you tried taking your hands off the bars? Does the bike immediately lean to the left? Many of these bikes do - subject of several threads. If so, to keep the bike upright you are maintaining continuous very light pressure on the bars, either pulling on the left or pushing on the right or both. This doesn't bother most people at all, but some peoples' muscles don't like that. Try adding enough weight to the right bag to stop the lean when you let go of the bars. It might solve your problem. (In my case, pulling on the left caused a minor but annoying pain inside the left shoulder by the end of the second day. Switching to pushing on the right caused a similar pain between my spine and right shoulder blade. Carrying all my heavy stuff in the right bag fixed the problem.)

Hold the bar like you are holding a small, live bird. Don't try to kill it.

I used to have this problem when I first started touring on KZ 400.

Some good suggestions above. You may also wish to consider the following. Talk to your doc about a referral to occupational therapy (OT). A good OT person can really take a look at what's hurting and how to resolve some of your complaints. Take your FJR to the parking lot of the OT, put it on the center stand, and show the OT your riding position and where the hurt is. They will know what muscles you need to strengthen, how to work with physical flexibility and hand grip, etc. This information, along with farkle expertise available on this site, can probably go a long way in helping you resolve the issue. If for some reason you can't take the FJR to OT appt.,maybe have someone take a picture of you siting on the FJR and you can show this to the OT. The OT may be covered by your health insurance.

Pain really sucks. Good luck!

Great suggestions. Might want to check the tracking of the bike. If you have to constantly press on one bar to keep the bike straight might be part of the issue for you. I put some grip puppies on mine a couple of months ago, the increased grip diameter made it much easier to hold the bars and maintain throttle, and the extra padding also helped the palms of my hands. If you do any distance riding at all, you might consider the CCS100 or Rostra electronic cruise control, worth it's weight in gold imo. You can relax your grip and maybe even ease your posture up a bit. Best of luck

Cruse control and switch hands holding handle bars to rest arm and hands will help

This may not be about the bike, but may be only about you. Could you go back to the V-Rod or Valk at this time and ride pain-free? IMHO it's likely got something to do with the position of your head/neck.

Seeing a doc or PT may be the best advice...or not. I, too, had extreme pain and numbness in my left arm/shoulder the last year I rode my Blackbird - torso forward, some weight on my hands (even with risers), head at a cocked angle relative to my spine and out in the windblast. An MRI revealed arthritis in my neck and build-up around the canal where the main nerve to the left arm exits the spinal column, i.e. pinched nerve. Doc wanted to do surgery (this is radical; surgeon enters from the front of the neck, trickiness with nerves and veins). I said no. Steroid injections were suggested, also quite tricky. I said no. PT actually made the situation worse. I gave up the Blackbird and went to the Gen 1 FJR and let nature settle things down. Eventually, much better. I have risers, C-Bailey reverse flip, Russel DL, Grip Buddies and I can pretty much go where and how long I want (did an SS 1,000 last year with my spouse; did 2.5 hours without a break a few weeks ago) but the key for me is OTC pain meds (I really like the extra strength Excedrin) about 30 minutes before take-off, then about every three hours afterward. Without the meds, I will ride in well distributed pain all day. Pain is fatiguing and distracting; fatigue and distraction is dangerous. In the end, yes, you may need a different bike. Good luck with finding the solution.

Damn...there's too much wisdom on this board.

I wonder if this is the same type of advice offered on the "Black Death motorcycles for Satan" website.

Sell it and go back to the Valkrie, or better yet a F6B.

kieefjr said:

Sell it and go back to the Valkrie, or better yet a F6B.

Click to expand...

Sadly if I can't figure this out, I'll have no choice but to sell and move on to something else. I've always like day long rides of 200-300 miles. I can't do more than 100 without this horrible pain.