Janky Elbow

I rode up to Rick Mayer Cycle in mid-April for a custom seat for the Beemer; a fun ride, but the friction zone on the clutch was too far out (even adjusted all the way in), which left my forearm and elbow a bit unhappy.

I replaced the levers with Wunderlich Vario adjustables, which helped a bit...

Stock clutch lever:

Vario lever:

But I continued to ride, and continued to aggravate the nerve, and now I have Janky Elbow.  

Janky Elbow is a distant cousin, I believe, of my old friend Angry Shoulder, except that Janky Elbow is at least predictable.  I pretty much can't pick anything up with my left hand, and forget about squeezing anything with my arm extended....y'know, like a clutch lever.

So, here's Janky Elbow currently.  

It's incredibly frustrating, to understate the obvious.

The wrist wrap and forearm strap help a bit, but I still can't do anything nuts like ride a motorcycle.  Astute readers might remember that I don't actually own a car, so I've been hemorrhaging money for the last two weeks on a rental car.   I'm also doing daily heat/ice cycles, ibuprofen, and regular chiropractic visits.

I seem to be able to play hockey without pain or inflammation (though backhands can sometimes really tweak it unexpectedly), so at least that's keeping me marginally sane.

In the meantime, I added Rox bar risers to the Beemer, which did bring the bars back farther, but I think the bars are fundamentally still too high and too wide.  

Peter gave me the suggestion to sit on his Airhawk, which actually did help my posture -- who knew I'd ever need a HIGHER seat?? So I might be heading back to Rick Mayer to add some more height back onto the custom seat (well, when I can even consider riding 250 miles, that is).  

I'm also looking into swapping narrower bars on; I like how the wide bars feel more stable in turns, but it's clearly keeping my elbows at a, well, janky angle.

So, the short story is that I'm incredibly frustrated but, hopefully, Janky Elbow is on the med and I'll be riding again soon...fingers crossed.

I swear, in my next life, I'll be averaged sized and not have ergonomic problems with every single thing I try to do.  Rarrr.

Comments

[Doug Faunt N6TQS]

Oooo! we have matching elbows, although yours sounds worse than mine. As far as I can tell, mine just happened. A few years back, it was bad enough that I had to have a steroid injection in my left (non-dominant) elbow.

[carolyn]

Ouch! I'm hoping mine doesn't get that bad. I had an epidural steroid injection in my neck a few years ago for pain in the same shoulder as Janky Elbow. It did help (eventually) but damn, that hurt (the injection, I mean).

[Steve Miller]

Have you tried dropping something heavy on your foot so you don't notice the elbow?

Just throwin' darts here.

[carolyn]

I'm about to try that! Peter whacked himself good with a tire iron yesterday and stopped complaining about some muscle pain, so maybe it's a viable solution....

[Guido]

Hopefully this is getting better now! Miss your bike in the parking lot!

[raider]

There was a great discussion after my last post on tennis elbow straps. While the article we discussed dealt with the efficacy of straps, there was some discussion on treatment in general, including the use of eccentric exercises.

[lateral epicondylitis]

I am also a rider. My bike has a very soft clutch that is why I don't feel any pain on my elbow or even on my fingers. I think you must adjust you clutch to make more comfortable to use.