Anti Vibration Handlebar Devices

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Numbness (loss of feeling), tingling (pins and needles) and bone pain can be caused by handlebar vibration.
It can affect hands, fingers and arms, the vibration normally comes from the engine.

You can reduce the problem by not griping the handlebar so tightly, relax your fingers and arms, keep fingers off clutch and brake levers until absolutely necessary.
Reduce the weight on your hands by using your stomach and leg muscles more.

The amount of vibration is related to engine speed, load (headwind speed, steepness of hill etc..) and which gear the bikes in.
For example going up a very steep hill at 40mph in 3rd gear, the vibration would be low, but on a flat road the vibration would be terrible at that speed in that gear.

Some gloves have thicker leather or padding in the finger part of the glove than others (downsides are reduced feel and not as good as methods below).

Using a higher quality engine oil, may reduce vibration (depending on engine), see Which Oil quality to use (Silkolene Pro 4 Plus section).

Foam Brake and Clutch Lever covers
The largest amount of vibration comes from the brake and clutch levers since they are metal with no padding.
You can buy universal motorcycle round foam lever covers that will remove all the vibration (costs around £1 to £2 in the UK).
I do not recommend them to people with short fingers since they increase the size of the levers (if your glove size is medium to large you will be ok).
The foam lever covers will also increase grip and control of the levers.

The foam has rubber inside and can expand by a large amount to go over the lever end,
put a small amount of washing up liquid over the rubber to allow it to slide over the levers,
let it dry for up to a day before use to stop the excessive sliding.
Do not stick the foam covers on with glue, they need to slide forwards and backwards in places when you use the levers.

Motorcycle foam covers can be bought from Hein Gericke (they have many shops in the UK, see Links page) and very few other places.
I found some pedal cycle foam covers in Halfords but I'm not sure if they will fit (the motorcycle ones also look very small until they expand with washing up liquid).

Foam Handlebar Grips
If you are still suffering vibration problems from the handlebars after fitting the foam lever covers above you will need to fit foam handlebar grips.
The grips are what your hands hold when you are riding the bike.

I do not recommend foam grips to people with small hands since they are larger than the original grips (if your glove size is medium to large you will be ok).
Foam grips are not as good as normal grips in many ways so should only be used if vibration is a real problem.
Some people will much prefer foam grips due to the lack of vibration, but some people will not be able to live with the side effects.
To reduce the side effects, stick the grips on correctly and do not squeeze the grip tightly for to long when riding (to stop hand muscle ache).
Foam grips only cost around £6 and you may be able (see below) to put your old grips back on if you do not like them.
Many UK motorcycle dealers sell http://www.bikeit.co.uk/ products who supply foam grips.
The foam grips remove so much vibration it's very easy to over rev the engine if you do not have a rev (rpm) counter,
see MPH to RPM page if you have a Honda CG125 (its easy to over rev the engine in 4th gear since you think you are in 5th due to lack of vibration).

To remove old grips you may have to cut them off,
but you probably can get them off by sliding a screw driver under them and spraying some WD40 or anything else that will let the rubber slip off.
Make sure you clean anything slippery off with petrol / white spirit or turps or something before putting new grips on.

Honda CG125 Front Disc brake model.
The only big problem was getting the handle bar end weights off the bike (round metal weights at the end of the handlebar).
The screws were so tight I could not use a normal screw driver, I also needed a tool to hold the round metal weight still.
I had to use a plumbers water pump pliers to hold the round metal weight (I put some cloth between them but still managed to scrap some black paint off).
Luckily my socket set had a screw driver bit that fitted and an adapter to fit the ratchet handle, so I had much more leverage than a normal screwdriver.
I do not know if someone helps you, if you could use another set of pliers on a normal screw driver instead to get the leverage.

The throttle side grip was not glued on, it was wrapped over a plastic ring at the end furthest away from the handlebar end.
I simply pulled it off without any tools or any liquid.

The clutch side grip was only glued on at the furthest end from the handlebar end, I had to use some liquid (I used WD40) and a screw driver to remove it.
I pushed the screwdriver under the grip at the end that used to have the handlebar weight, I then sprayed a little WD40 around the screwdriver,
I then moved the screwdriver around the inside of the grip and sprayed some more WD40. I kept doing that until all of the inside of the grip had WD40 on it.
Even though the screwdriver did not reach all the way down the grip, gravity let the WD40 run down it.
The WD40 lubricated the rubber and made it slippery, it also dissolved some of the glue, so the grip became very easy to pull off.
I then had to clean the WD40 off because it made the handlebar to slippery for the new grip to stick, I used some turps (used to clean paint brushes) to clean it off.

The foam grips need to be glued on totally (all along and around the grip) even the throttle needs this else it will slip and slide and cause at least hand muscle ache.
This is because they are not as strong as solid rubber grips and do not create a seal.
Hairspray is often used but if its not strong enough you can use a universal glue that's designed to stick rubber + metal + plastic.
I advise against the very strong glue that comes in 2 bottles that has to be mixed before use, this is so strong you will never be able to remove the glue next time.
Motorcycle grips have a different internal size for the clutch side compared to the throttle, the throttle side is larger,
try to slide them on the clutch side to work out which is which.
The foam grips can be stretched or shrunk sideways on the handlebars simply with your hands before the hairspray or glue sets.

I found the clutch side foam grip was to large inside to grip the handlebar using hairspray, I did not have any glue around so did the following.
I found an old pedal cycle tyre inner tube (700x32C), I cut it to size and really stretched it (it's rubber) over the entire length of the handlebar were the grip goes.
I found it went over the handlebar far easier with hairspray inside and gripped even better when the hairspray had dried.
The pedal cycle tyre inner tube probably results in a better fitting grip than using glue.

To fit the foam grips I simply sprayed loads of strong hairspray inside the grips (along the whole length and all the way around) and put them on the handlebars.
I left them for over 24 hours just in case for them to stick as much as possible.
I do not know if the hairspray will work over months or years or what happens in the rain but I can always use glue if needed.
The only thing to be careful of is to make sure the throttle can open and close perfectly without any of the grip trying to stop it.

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