Cramps between the shoulder blades below the neck...

[Sarris]

Two words. Mustang seat. I've had one on almost every bike I've owned.

Kinda hard and police looking, but four hours in the saddle is no problem. IMHO, they're the best.

The Mustang will keep you from being :crutches:

Also, as I said, rotate your handlebar so you are sitting more upright with a neutral posture and no weight forward.

[patrick_777]

Okay. There's a lot in this thread already, but I haven't seen anyone actually answer Alan's question in the middle (unless I missed it) - Are there any stretches or exercises you can do during a ride that will lessen this problem?

A "solution" I've been meaning to post about but haven't had the time lately is grip and stress in the shoulders and arms. The tighter your arms are flexed, the more road feel is going to be translated directly to your core. This actually will decrease your feel on the bars and your reaction time accordingly. The idea is to be as flexible in the shoulders/arms and wrists as possible, while gripping only with your fingers and palms onto the grips.

The problem some people have, is they think they control the bike better by literally pushing both hands onto the bars (tensing everything forward) where they get every little bump directly into their wrists. This is bad. BAD. Once you have vibration, both from the engine and the road (thru the forks) into your wrists for more than a few minutes, your nerves that detect that motion basically power down and ignore it. This will significantly decrease what you feel from the bike, but since you're tensing your muscles (nearly all of them), you're going to be tired and sore a lot quicker.

The best way I've found (and read elsewhere) to help this on a ride, is to think about the "chicken dance". If you realize that your arms are tense and you are losing some feeling in your thumbs and fingers, you need to loosen up your hands by only gripping the handlebars with the front joint of your fingers. Then you basically "flap" your arms at the elbow, like you're doing the "chicken dance" minus the thumbs in the armpits. This will automatically make you untense your back and shoulder muscles and you'll immediately feel the motorcycle again. By keeping your elbows slacked, you refocus your energy onto your hands, which separates the different vibrations and motions of the bike to two different inputs on your body (hands and seat) where they should be.

Your hands/arms need to ONLY control keeping the motorcycle in a straight line. Remember also, that the cycle will automatically drive straight, as long as there's ABSOLUTELY no input on the handlebars and sufficient speed to keep upright (>5mph). If you're pushing on both grips, you are inputting way too much into the forks and therefore fighting the motorcycle's own physical nature of keeping upright and straight.

If you have to turn at over 12-14 mph, then countersteer the bike by pushing in the direction of the turn. Try not to pull at the same time on the other side. Some people will say you should do this because they hear that Rossi does it on the track. Don't. You're not on a track at 160 mph.

Remember to flap your elbows to loosen up your grip. Think of it like you're running with a glass of water. Let your arms act like a gyromount to dampen the stress coming in from your hands. Keep them loose to keep that vibration from getting into your back and shoulders so those muscles can do what they are meant to do - holding you upright in your seat.

"Do the Chicken Dance" while on your ride. You'll thank me later.

[alanmcorcoran]

Well, two mentions of the chicken dance in this thread can't be mere coincidence! Thanks Patrick. I hope I can remember all of this for my next long ride.