Throttle hand getting numb

[metroplex]

After accidentally grabbing too much throttle about a week ago, I've been more observant of my throttle hand. I noticed that after a few minutes of riding, my hand gets very numb and I lose a lot of fine control/sensation which could lead to grabbing too much throttle. I've heard of compartmental syndrome / forearm pump but I can't seem to figure out how to beat a numb throttle hand. I tend to give it the death grip because the 696 seems to be very sensitive in the numerically lower gears. I put a lot of pressure on the footpegs and the fuel tank, and I notice my fuel tank is getting looser, it seems like my knees can crush the fairing. I can flap my arms while riding. Any tips besides practicing on a less powerful bike?

[thought]

relax your hand... death gripping is making things worse, not better.  once you tighten up like that, it makes it a lot easier for your body to accidentally transmit unintended inputs to the bike.  having a comfortably loose grip on the bars is what you should be looking at doing.  i normally try to have little to no pressure from my fingers on the throttle until i need to make an input... i'll just hold the throttle steady with pressure from a light grip and the base of my palm.  and even when making an input, i barely put any pressure into my fingers if it's a pure throttle input.

you dont need to crush the bike with your legs, just keep a comfy grip on them... and just in general, relax.  the more you relax the more comfy you'll get with riding and the easier things will become.

[OT]

+1 on all of thought's thoughts...lose that death grip!

Try leaning a little more into the tank such that your arms hang loosely from your shoulders...if you're stiff arming the bike you will start to over-squeeze the grips.

Also, check that you're giving the bike enough revs - don't let one healthy grab of the throttle scare you into thinking you need to ride the bike at low RPMs like an S&S V-twin......your engine behaves more like an inline 4 that a large-displacement V-twin

I don't know much about the power delivery of the 696, but on my 1000 I spend most of the time between 4K and 6K RPM.

The 'sensitivity' you allude to may be due to your not revving the bike sufficiently high, plus the gearing may make a difference.

Many Monsters behave much better in the lower gears (that is, at slower speeds) by using a front sprocket with fewer teeth, such as the 'standard' mod of going to 14 teeth from the 15-tooth sprocket on many 900s/1000s.

[Raux]

a few things that help me.

I bought a throttlebody cam from Electraen to reduce the amount of twist my wrist has to go through.
Others have added a slow throttlegrip to calm the nature of the Electraen.
In effect you get a smooth throttle but less turn, about 75% for full throttle
All this to keep your wrist straighter and blood flowing better to the hand

I relaxed my grip (harder with the low clipons) but important

I tend to twist the throttle with only a few fingers at a time and keep the others loose. Even using just thumb and trigger finger at cruising wiht the other straight to keep the blood flowing.

I put the ball of my feet on the pegs. Felt on the instep I was falling forward and putting more pressure on my hands.

This is all specific to my ergos, but keeps working to get your hands as loose as possible. 

[herm]

work on keeping your thumb and index finger touching while you ride. this helps to avoid the death grip.
(thanks to Howie for the original tip.)

[bikepilot]

Yep, relax and don't grip all that tight.  Also don't use your arms to support your body - use your core for that.  Arms should be for steering and operation throttle/clutch/brake only in most situations (sounds like you've got this under control though). The death grip isn't helping throttle control - probably making it worse in fact.

Some find throttle control easier if they always cover the front brake as the front brake lever provides a fixed point of reference for your hand.

There might be a slow-turn throttle available somewhere - usually these use a cam that makes the first bit of throttle pull less sensitive than ramps up toward the end. G2 makes them for dirt bikes.  I actually go the other way and use quick turn throttles, but I've been riding for a bazillion miles.

[Narflar]

I noticed I have had issues with the small grips on sport bikes.  I got a set of Grip Puppies to fatten them up and that helped a lot. 

[matmcd78]

Had a similar problem when I first started riding. Bought a pair of padded leather gloves. Better grip on the throttle and a little extra space between my hand and the bar.

[Hellraising-vtec]

metroplex. do you have gloves??? It helps, good gloves help you grip better without the need of pressing alot. If you dont have any buy some. it will definatelly help

[metroplex]

Yep, all the gear all the time! The grip from my A* GP Pro is good but I wish they had more padding at the palm for the vibration.

[trrwtzl]

I have my 696 for a month in Utah and my hands were so numb coming down the canyons made it hard to enjoy the twisties. I relied some, of these techniques and it was much more comfortable-loose arms and loosened grip helped a lot. Kept making sure I could sl my arms. Thanks for the great suggestions.

[nikkimonster]

i had same issues. i replaced my stock grips with ProGips # 714 and bar-risers. Really helps a lot.

[metroplex]

I have ProGrip 719, may get 717 in the future. They work very well and are much better than the stock grips. I also applied the TechSpec USA tank grips, which helps immensely with gripping the tanks. Unfortunately, the person that designed the template wasn't very tall so my knees just go past the grips. If I reposition myself, they work beautifully.

[dk1six]

I also applied the TechSpec USA tank grips, which helps immensely with gripping the tanks. Unfortunately, the person that designed the template wasn't very tall so my knees just go past the grips. If I reposition myself, they work beautifully.

You can remove and then reposition them.

[metroplex]

They were designed too small. You can't reposition them forward enough without having to modify the design. Bottom line is that the template was designed for short people. If the template extended forward by another 2"-3", it would have covered all of the necessary areas of the tank.