Friday Fun Poll: When you go on a long ride, what part of you gives up first?
 

Long rides are fun, but just about everyone has at least one particular body part that checks out, gives up, signs off or otherwise runs away from you.

For me it starts with a couple of numb fingers (thanks for the crappy job there wrists...yea, both of ya...i'm talking to you!)

what part of your body is the first to give up when you go on long rides?

The Anti iron-butt

My butt is the 1st to give out.{yes I can hear the manlove jokes being typed} stock seat. I'm deathly afraid of catching rapid's seat addiction. rumor has it's contagious from truck stop toilets.

The knees, so I use the cylinder heads as highway pegs. It works

my butt. I'm still young enough that most of those other parts still work pretty well so the limiting factor here is how long I'm actually sitting. After about 500 or so miles, the butt is always to first to show signs that I need a break.

Knees here too, ... feet out resting on the cylinder heads, If I twist the Throttlemeister I can put my hands up like apehangers, and get a wave or two from the cruiser crowd... On really long days my mind starts to wander and I lose concentration.... Time to slow way down when that happens or stop and take a break.

I try to stand up every hour or so for a mile, to let blood circulate to the buttocks muscle tissue, helps prevent sore spots.

...ah yes, the "moo saloot".
 

on some group rides i've been on, we've done "the moo saloot".

most often, we've chosen a black cow (voted during morning rider's meeting).

when you see a black cow during the ride, custom dictates that you stand up and salute the cow (at speeds below about 60), or when at speed, swivel 90 degrees to the cow's direction and salute.

the moo saloot helps keep the blood going. tends to keep your brain from taking a sideroad on ya too.

doesn't seem to do much for the cow. they tend to just stand and stare at ya like you're stupid or silly or something...

Cows are clever

I wear a black one when riding.

...and none of are AT ALL interested in how you salute that cow from the inside.
really. we're not.

well, okay, maybe carlton wants to know, but the rest of us.....not so interested.

For me its the knees. I noticed something strange too. After about 400 miles my knees begin to hurt, but what is strange is that no break short of a nights sleep gets them back to normal. I tested this once coming back to Houston from Amarillo (abot 650 miles). After about 350-400 miles my knees were hurting, so I stopped at a mall. I had lunch, walked around, saw a movie, all in all about 4 hrs off the bike. When I resumed my trip home my knees were hurting again after about 75-100 miles. Only a nights sleep will bring things back to par.

P.s. I too use the heads for stretching; it helps a bit.

knees are easy to fix:

spray wd-40 on 'em, then swab them with DMSO (available where horse tackle is sold).
the dmso will drive the wd-40 in there like danger dan dives into corners.

you can replace the wd-40 with ben-gay or other topicals. even aspirin or that "I be propen!" stuff.

and yes, it's dangerous. but yea, it does work.
did i mention it's dangerous?

(you'll get a rusty nail taste in your mouth from the dmso. ignore it. everyone around will ignore/run from your horrendous breath anyway, so it's a wash).

Definitely my knees. Everything else is good for a long time.

Re: ...ah yes, the "moo saloot".
 

Cows know what's going on, dude....it's all a huge scam.

This Fatigue thing also depends considerably on the roads you ride... when riding North Georgia mountains your arms and legs get a real workout from hanging off, and working the bike throught he twisties. Very hard to get a 300 mile day in unless you are in good physical condition. You can ride for an hour just playing on the dragon at Deals gap and be shot. Riding on the interstate however can have you looking for kervorkians number in your mapsource software after a few consecutive days of droning.

Track days, the quads from "squatting and shifting the weight hundreds of times

Days in the Smokies with loaded saddle bags, the wrists and forearms, from trying to flick it through the turns

Normal back road riding, the eyes/brain, when I start to zone and not see stuff, time to stop for a nap, or the night.

Interstate highway- Brain after about 10 miles, superslabs SUCK, unless you can ride 90+ to keep the brain stimulated playing "hide and seek" with the LEO.

Well given my nome-de-web da butt is beyond reclamation. I voted neck and shoulders for most long days. But if I do more than 200 miles of twisties in a day, even at my conservative pace, my wrists and forearms tend to go.

Where's the option for my wee wee... uhhhh, errrr... bladder?

I thought all you California guys that rode with Carlton, got plenty of resting time while he was setting up cameras, and having you wave and things?

Only 2 600 mile days in my life, one on a Commando, the last 20 years ago on a 1000 Ninja. Time for things like that not one of the joys of the self-employed. I ride every day, just not very far.

Jim

I'd have to say butt. That's where the most changing of position is needed. Stopping for gas gives me a fresh start. When I ride with Brad or Jeff, it's the neck and shoulders from looking back so much to see if they're still there...