What's the weakest link in stopping you from riding longer?

Lightcycle

Lightcycle

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Yeah, yeah, barring all the smart-guy comments about: wife, kids, boss, other interests, your bike breaks down often because it's a Harley/KTM, poor tank range, can't afford insurance/gas/etc.

I'm talking about physically. I figure most of us on GTAM are of the age where the mechanicals between the seat and handlebars are starting to wear.

What hurts the most that makes you have to stop and have to take a break?

Most people say it's the butt, specifically sitting bones or riding position causing sciatica, lower back pain.

Others it's windblast/buffeting from not being able to find an appropriate windshield, so it causes head/neck fatigue.

Cold hands from inadequate heated grips. Reynauds, etc.

I've struggled with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome for years. I wear wrist braces pretty much full-time during riding season when I'm off the bike. Then the problem magically goes away in the wintertime... :rolleyes:

It's not the vibrations or ergos, as I get it from every bike I ride: thumper, twin, in-line four, cruiser, dirtbike, sportbike, etc. Heavier bar ends, bar snakes, rubber-mounted risers, moving the bars front/back, changing the sweep of the bars, etc. Eventually my hands will go numb if I ride long or hard enough. Then, worse of all, it keeps on happening during the day and when I sleep...

Been to the doctor and she says surgery might be the only option to fix it permanently. Met a guy at the track and he got it done and says it works perfectly. If you do it at the end of the riding season then you should be ready to ride again in the spring. Thinking about getting it done this winter.
 
Lightcycle said:
What hurts the most that makes you have to stop and have to take a break?
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For me is a combination of my ass (or lack of it) and my knees. Although, as many have mentioned here, I definitely experinece an improvement when I regularly work out.


Lightcycle said:
If you do it at the end of the riding season then you should be ready to ride again in the spring. Thinking about getting it done this winter.
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Is there really a riding season in the Vancouver area? I’ve heard it only snows for about 10 days a year. I’ve seen some of your posts with you dirt biking and mountains covered in snow, but what’s the deal with regular road riding?

Every now and then, I thought about moving to the Greater Vancouver Area to get more riding in throughout the year, but my wife works in finance, and most jobs are in downtown Toronto. If at some point she pivots to something else, I might seriously consider it.
 
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Here's a weird thing....
'Few years ago i "tweeked" my lower back somehow...
Sitting/driving in a car for more that an hour was agonizing, but I could still ride my FJR for hours.
'Must have had something to do with whatever stresses the two different positions but on my back muscles...
Luckily a few physio sessions fixed my back, but for a few months driving was a chore.

Currently the only things that interrupt my riding are gas stops and pee breaks... I'm 59.
'Easily cured with an auxiliary fuel cell and a catheter 😁
 
Lightcycle said:
Been to the doctor and she says surgery might be the only option to fix it permanently. Met a guy at the track and he got it done and says it works perfectly. If you do it at the end of the riding season then you should be ready to ride again in the spring. Thinking about getting it done this winter.
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Guy I work with had extremely bad carpal tunnel in both wrists. He had surgery on one hand last year and was told the recovery was going to be 6-8 weeks and he said he felt really good after 6 weeks. He just went under the knife for the other hand a couple weeks ago and said same thing - the surgery went very well and he’s recovering super fast. He follows the rehab stretches and exercises and does everything he’s told to do.

In my line of work carpal tunnel issues are very common and I know many people who have had the surgery and I haven’t heard any negative experiences about it.

If it allows you to ride pain free and for longer, then sounds like a no brainer to get it done this winter.

For me the thing that hurts the most used to be my ears, because the cheap foam earplugs would hurt so much after 8 hours on the bike. But I got custom ear plugs this year and feel no pain anymore, so it’s much better.

When I’m as old as some of you, I will feel other pains, so this thread is very helpful to plan for the future.
 
My arse is what gets me, once I start having to adjust every few minutes I know it’s time to park it for a little while and take a break.

When I get to that point even standing up on the pegs is little comfort
 
Lightcycle said:
Most people say it's the butt, specifically sitting bones
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ToSlow said:
My arse is what gets me, once I start having to adjust every few minutes I know it’s time to park it for a little while and take a break.
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PacoT said:
For me is a combination of my ass (or lack of it)
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Same...these bum bones ache like hell after an hour or so.
See example of my ass indents (bones poking through my ass into the gym bench lmao:

v2yIC2q.jpeg
 
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Fatigue gets me. I have lots of achy stuff, but that stuff hurts whether I’m riding or driving. A couple of years ago I wouldn’t think of taking my car during riding season… now it’s a toss up if the drive is more than 5 hours. I just get tired, sometimes sleepy!

The ride between my place in Markham and my place in the north is about 8 hours, I make the commute about 8 times from April to November. This year I brought a bike north on a trailer and have made most trips back and forth by car.

I still ride a ton, but anything over 4 hours is often in my car lately.
 
PacoT said:
Is there really a riding season in the Vancouver area? I’ve heard it only snows for about 10 days a year. I’ve seen some of your posts with you dirt biking and mountains covered in snow, but what’s the deal with regular road riding?
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I live in the Okanagan Valley, which is 4 hours east of Vancouver and 7 hours west of Calgary. We're as close to Vancouver as Ottawa is to Toronto.

Very different climate from Vancouver. We're live just north of the only technical desert in Canada. It's semi-arid which gets less than a foot of rain a year vs Vancouver, on the coast, which gets less than a foot of sunshine a year...

Because we live in an elongated valley, there is a natural convection effect which makes the valley about 10 degrees warmer than the surrounding area. Our temps never dip below -10C during the winters and it's dry as heck, so you don't get that damp, cold effect that the eastern provinces get. Average temps in Jan/Feb are around 0C. If it snows, the snow never stays on the ground for more than 48 hours.

However, just a 10 minute drive up the mountains will get you in the heart of ski country, where a snow base of 2-5 meters is a normal season. It's quite the diversity of climate and terrain.

They also put down sand on the roads instead of salt for grip in the wintertime, so if you're okay cleaning your vehicle every once in a while, you won't suffer salt corrosion. You can ride 11.5 months out of the year in the Okanagan if you stay in the valley, but it's a very confined area and you'll hit deep snow very quickly the minute you try to ride anywhere up the surrounding mountainsides.

PacoT said:
Every now and then, I thought about moving to the Greater Vancouver Area to get more riding in throughout the year, but my wife works in finance, and most jobs are in downtown Toronto. If at some point she pivots to something else, I might seriously consider it.
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Personally, as a motorcycle rider, I don't like Vancouver. It's got all the major city problems, the transportation infrastructure has not kept pace with the population growth, so the traffic is horrendous. Worst of all, the Greater Vancouver Area is made up of a few islands so crossing bridges is a necessity to get from borough to borough and those have become terrible bottlenecks. There is virtually no more space to widen the highways or roads. That and the incessant amount of annual rainfall make owning a motorcycle a bit of a chore (unless you're an all-weather rider, which most Vancouverites tend to be).

Save for the Sea-To-Sky Highway between Vancouver and Squamish/Whistler, all the good roads are over an hour away from the city, just like Toronto. If you really want to ride more, you've got to move further inland. There are a few populated valley-ranges as you move eastwards. The closest one to Vancouver is the Fraser Valley, so around the Chilliwack to Hope area. Next valley over is the Nicola Valley, where the town of Merritt is, and then the Okanagan Valley, where we live. Those are the spots to own a motorcycle.

In addition to the vast tracts of unused land, the weather is much drier and the BC Interior also has a very libertarian political attitude of "Don't much like the guv'mint tellin' us whut to do!" So activities like trail riding and hunting are not especially regulated. It's very much Land Of The Free / Don't Tread On Me territory. You can pretty much do whatever you want here, but if you get in trouble, you and only you are helping yourself out. People are much more resourceful and capable in the Interior than in the cities. They may be the first to die off in a pandemic because of all the anti-vaxxers, but when the power grid fails, they'll be one of the few remaining pockets of human beings still standing their ground in this country.

We're just here for the riding.
 
I usually take off for the day when I go riding and I'll cover 600-1000km in the day depending on how much dirt exploring I do. I usually end up stopping about every 2hrs either for food/drink/pee. If it's just to pee I'll just scope a quick roadside spot and leave the bike running then be off again for another 2hrs. I bring my own food so those stops are quick also.
I've never really been one to take lots of breaks but the addition of padded shorts certainly has helped with comfort so that's my one piece of advice.
 
I had surgery on my carpal tunnel on my left hand ( one reason I had switched to the Burgan 650 - no clutch ). It was successful and I was riding again quickly. Did not do the right hand tho recently some of the numbness has returned. Throttle lock helps and Grip Buddies ( not Grip Puppies ) plus I'm not riding enough :( for it to matter much.
I found sore butt the most debilitating for enjoyment. As I've lost 35kg in a couple of years my posterior padding has thinned.
Switched back to stock seat which works fine for the first hour then put the AirHawk on for further riding seems current best fix. Was out for a long day earlier in the week and happy with that after all the medical shite been dealing with.

Having a bit of a motivation issue on the longer rides...need to start photographing from the bike again. Not doing anything off pavement restricts my choice of routes here tho what is here is superb and drivers are reasonable.
Enjoying the shorter rides for cheap lunches at Jacks, nothing hurts and the bike is solid. Got gunshy with the "maybe I won't start" 310GS tho it always eventually did. The Honda fires perfectly every time and it's set up now how I like it so more confidence in the bike than the body.

Hoping to make it to 80 still riding and right now I see motivation as a possible barrier.
Drugs are dealing with any of the "**** getting old" issues. 1757130906479.gif

I concur - the latest round of padded shorts has helped a bunch. Also better gloves made me feel safer as any sort of an accident would likely be very hard to recover. Still not 100% after the broadside on the scooter in Canada when I was 74 tho it does not affect riding - walking is not smooth and stairs going down a struggle.

Still with a world class Gillies ride 20 minutes away...260 turns in 19 Km with 1,000' climb through the rain forest...the enjoyment is keen even if the lean angle timid. There was even a dinosaur contemporary on the road the other day.
Gillies-Highway-from-the-air.jpg

1757132293266.jpeg
The James Cook Highway up the coast is also a delight. I would think long winter breaks could cut short a career.....one reason I tended to ride all year in Canada.
Seeing riders at the Forks in all seasons was inspiring...Brian could usually be counted on to show up in light winter conditions.
 
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For me it's typically just fatigue, between work and property maintenance. By the time I have time to ride I'm exhausted.
 
Lightcycle said:
Yeah, yeah, barring all the smart-guy comments about: wife, kids, boss, other interests, your bike breaks down often because it's a Harley/KTM, poor tank range, can't afford insurance/gas/etc.

I'm talking about physically. I figure most of us on GTAM are of the age where the mechanicals between the seat and handlebars are starting to wear.

What hurts the most that makes you have to stop and have to take a break?

Most people say it's the butt, specifically sitting bones or riding position causing sciatica, lower back pain.

Others it's windblast/buffeting from not being able to find an appropriate windshield, so it causes head/neck fatigue.

Cold hands from inadequate heated grips. Reynauds, etc.

I've struggled with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome for years. I wear wrist braces pretty much full-time during riding season when I'm off the bike. Then the problem magically goes away in the wintertime... :rolleyes:

It's not the vibrations or ergos, as I get it from every bike I ride: thumper, twin, in-line four, cruiser, dirtbike, sportbike, etc. Heavier bar ends, bar snakes, rubber-mounted risers, moving the bars front/back, changing the sweep of the bars, etc. Eventually my hands will go numb if I ride long or hard enough. Then, worse of all, it keeps on happening during the day and when I sleep...

Been to the doctor and she says surgery might be the only option to fix it permanently. Met a guy at the track and he got it done and says it works perfectly. If you do it at the end of the riding season then you should be ready to ride again in the spring. Thinking about getting it done this winter.
Click to expand...
Get the surgery..... I had both hands done at the same time and recovery was just fine.
 
Brave boy doing both at once tho the art has progressed. Good friend and a surgeon had his career cut short....one carpal tunnel fix was excellent ...the second not.
One reason I only had one done but for sure 100% I'd recommend the procedure. In and out in an hour for one.
 
Surprisingly at 70 I'm usually good to ride until my bike needs a fuel stop, which is typically around 450 km. Grab a drink, hit the washroom and refuel and I can be off again until I reach my destination. I think a lot has to do with the Corbin saddle on my ST, which is very comfortable and fits my butt perfectly. I occasionally have some hip pain while riding, but that can be eased with a few stretches while still in motion.
 
My legs bother me the most.

One thing I learned this spring on my ride to Halifax is that how long I can ride has more to do with how much I can relax. Sitting up straight, relaxed arms. I rode with cruse control, with my open hands resting across the top of the grips and the leavers for hours and felt great.

I'm also more relaxed riding solo.
 
My penis. I think with it.
 
My knees are my limiting body part.
I have osteoarthritis in my knees. My left knee was scoped 10 years ago and it has limited range of motion and starts to ache after a while, and my right knee became supper painful this year to the point that it would wake me up. Since January I was sleeping in 1 hour increments as the knee would start to hurt and I'd have to move. I made it worse by missing a curb in Holland and planting my foot heavily, resulting in excruciating pain. Sometimes the only relief was sitting bolt upright in a chair with both feet flat on the floor. Walking was a roll of the dice, it might ache, after a couple hundred metres or piercing pain might develop after a couple steps.

Pain killers hardly helped, Cortisone did nothing so I got a referral to the surgeon who did my left knee. He recommended an injection called "enstride" which is synthesized from 60ml of your blood mixed with specific proteins which slows (often stops) the degeneration and reduces pain. After 4 weeks there is significant improvement and it gets better daily. I'm going to ask about the left knee during the scheduled follow up.

Needless to say, since it is effective it isn't covered by OHIP, so the (one-time) injection costs $1650, but given the experienced reduction pain I would have paid a lot more than that.

The only downside is that it is injected directly into the joint without anesthetic and it takes a while and some movement to get the solution into the joint. I can't adequately describe the nature and level of pain I experienced during the injection.

Before the right knee acted up I was able to ride comfortably through a full tank, and multiple tanks with only a quick(ish) stop for a pee if necessary. I'm back to being able to do that on the street, but I can't ride off road at this point.

I put a lot of attention into making my KTM1090 fit me and be comfortable. A wider Corbin seat spreads the load and avoids the tailbone, a taller touring screen did wonders for the buffeting noise and Knight Designs 7/8" lowered foot pegs made a HUGE difference for the achy left knee. I also added folding highway pegs to the OEM crash bars that land near the top of my calf muscle to provide some stretching room.

I'm more comfortable on the bike than in my truck or my wife's SUV.
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