Forearm/wrist tendonitis
 

Anyone ever suffered with this? For the past 2 months I have used the bike everyday and have spent most of my spare time on my mountain bike.
About 2 weeks ago I woke up with an ache in my upper forarm on my clutching hand but thought nothing of it. I cut down the motorbike to commuting only and haven't touched the mountain bike since.
It has slowly got worse to the point I went to the minor injury clinic and they told me I had tendonitis and told me to rest it (which i kind of do but i still need to work or i'll be homeless).
Today I have woken up in agony and I can't even hold a cup of tea in my left hand. Obviously the anti Inflamitories aren't working.

The good old tinter web and the injury clinic nurse said i have to ice it every 20 minutes for the rest of my life and take at least 3 weeks rest. Both of these options are not possible.

Any thing you can recommend?

Re: Forearm/wrist tendonitis
 

I had the same problem as you not too long ago after I had a mental IT project to finish. Does your work involve a lot of typing? The pain in my wrists pretty much went away after I got one of those ergonomic keyboards and mice......and stopped typing on a laptop keyboard.

Re: Forearm/wrist tendonitis
 

I have been diagnosed with tendonitis in both wrists.
I do need to go back to the doctors as I suspect I have carpal tunnel in my left wrist.
I should wear wrist straps when I ride the bike (I was advised to stop riding)

You get used to it after a while. If it gets worse try can operate but I think that's a last resort.

Re: Forearm/wrist tendonitis
 

I'm a firefighter so zero typing or desk work.
Last shift we didn't get one shout but the shift before we had two car crashes and I was operating heavy cutting equipment for a long time which hurt like hell.

Re: Forearm/wrist tendonitis
 

if you have the cash try going to a sports injury clinic. one of the mates is a professional mesure (sp) and when i burgerd my tendons and he sorted them right out, was bloody painful to have done but worked a treat. the problem was still there but about 1/4 of what it was.

Re: Forearm/wrist tendonitis
 

Try not to grip so hard ont he bars.

My cousin suffered from a similar thing for half hsi motorcross career, first he tried to beat it by strengthening the wrist muscles but that just made it worse, the only thing that eased it was learning not to grip so hard or for as long while riding.

Re: Forearm/wrist tendonitis
 

I think it's using the clutch as I barely have any weight on my arms when riding. The mountain biking is worse (as I can't hold on with my legs). I was supposed to be out on an observed ride today, the sun is shining for the first time in months and I'm off work all day. Life is ****

Re: Forearm/wrist tendonitis
 

There will be as solution mate. Keep hunting. Is it possible to reduce tension on a clutch lever? Where is the spring? I wonder if it would be possible (and save) to modify it so that the clutch is much easier to pull in.

Also mate, get a Cramp Buster for your throttle side. I know that's not a problem at the moment, but it's a cheap bit of plastic and it may prevent issues starting there too.

Re: Forearm/wrist tendonitis
 

from what I can gather it's not so much weight ont he arms as grip levels.

That being the case a lot of clutch work will exacerbate it, perhaps you could look at longer levers or can it be lightened some other way?

Do you find that you grip the bars quite hard when not changing gear?

Re: Forearm/wrist tendonitis
 

May not just be grip though, check your lever positions as well, they may need rotating (down I'm guessing) I had something similar ith the triple when I bought it, had a look when using the levers and sussed that to use them I had to rotate my fingers up and over the lever (by rotating my hand towards me) Rotated the levers down a bit and now don't need to move my wrist to use them, you want to be able to use them whilst keeping your hand/wrist/forarm in line.

I was in no way as much pain as you, but after a day they would ache. It may be something small like this that has built up over time.

Or just learn clutchless shifting ;)