[SteveDinDFW]

Hey Gang;
I’ve been looking at getting a sport bike.
A couple weeks back at the Dallas Motorcycle Show, I had a chance to test-ride the Ninja 250 and loved it!
My only concern was that after riding for 10 minutes I started getting numbness in both hands. I could shake part of it off, but couldn’t take my hands off either grip long enough to get rid of the numbness completely. By the end of the 20 minute ride, both hands were totally dead.
I’ve not experienced this on my cruiser. Is this something anyone else experiences? Is it something about the posture/riding position on a sports bike?

Thanks in advance for any feedback, and everyone have a happy and safe holiday!

[Munch]

my only question is how tense were you, elbows locked, white knuckling…. etc.

[gitchy42]

It might be posture and/or riding position. You really need to use your back muscles to keep yourself up or your hands (or other parts) will go numb. Although munch might be right, did you have a death grip on the bars??

[JtownJJA]

my GS500F, I used to get tingly in the hands, too. I do think, just like the others, it’s an issue of relaxing the grip and the elbows. I always think back to the BBM article about keeping your hands and arms relaxed enough so that you can flap your elbows like a chicken. The spot for grip and firmness is in the legs. That will also keep your back supported without resting your weight on the wrists. Helped me immensely this second season when I scooted my feet back more on the pegs, closer to the balls of the feet instead of toward the middle of the foot. Made a world of difference in my comfort and confidence. Best of luck to ya.

[TrialsRider]

20 minutes is not very long for numb anything to set in, make sure your glove straps aren’t so tight as to limit circulation coming from a cruiser sportbike riding position would feel very unnatural so you might be placing very little weight on the legs and transferring way too much weight on the bars and on your privates. In a normal riding position I can lift both hands from the bars without pushing off or shifting any body weight to compensate. I do alternate between an arched and curved spine posture on long rides, that reduces muscle fatigue and numb bum.

Ninja 250 being a parallel twin she will have some engine buzz, someone else can tell us if the stock bars are rubber mounted as they are on many other bikes. It does have a chain and chains transfer an amazing amount of vibration through the whole motorcycle, especially if they are not adjusted correctly. Shame on the dealer if that was the problem.

Gloves can make a world of difference, if you weren’t wearing any that could be a problem, gloves are almost as vital as a helmet. Personally, I like gloves with a single layer of leather on the palm, any built up layers or insulating material on the palm is not so good, can result in calluses or hand cramps, don’t like the padded grips either.

Control lever positioning can make a big difference, just as keyboarding wrong can give you carpal tunnel.
…hope this helps some

[eternal05]

As other people have mentioned, your posture can have a huge impact on your comfort on a bike.

On a sportbike (and really, the Ninja 250 isn’t really a true sportbike in this sense…but that’s a good thing for you right now), because the riding position is aggressive and leaned forward, you need to develop stronger back muscles to lift your upper body up without putting weight on the handlebars. If you just rest the weight of your upper body on your hands, you’ll not only get very uncomfortable with stiff arms and numb hands, but you also won’t be able to accurately control the motorcycle. You can’t really turn the handlebars carefully if you’re also relying on them to stay on the bike.

Again, as others have said, the key is to squeeze the crap out of the bike with your lower body, then support your upper body with your back and other core muscles, all the while keeping your arms flappy and loose, with a light and relaxed grip on the bars. A few specific things helped me a lot when I was just starting:

– Squeeze the tank between your knees. At first, really squeeze to give yourself that sense of security, that you’re not going anywhere. Eventually, you’ll realize that most of the time you’re squeezing, you aren’t at any risk to be thrown, and you’ll learn to relax most of the time.
– Squeeze your heels into the plates in your rearsets. Every sportbike has a plate above and behind each footpeg that is specifically there as a grip point for your heel. Squeezing the lower part of the bike there with your heels will add extra confidence and help you relax your upper body.

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