ROADHOUSE ATLANTA
HOW’ S YOUR
BACK?
BY: T. R.
Picture this with me. You’ re leisurely riding on the open road. Maybe you’ re on a journey to somewhere specific or maybe to nowhere at all. Either way, you’ re on your way to having a big time, or at least that was the plan. Then, out of the blue, your back starts hurting. You’ ve never had a back injury, nor have you had any back problems, chronic or otherwise. Do you know why? Do you know any preventative measures you can take? Although you may have been riding for years, you may not know how to take care of your back while riding.
Most of the time if a rider has lower back, neck, and shoulder pain; they’ ve got a problem with tension in their muscles. It might not even be the fault of whatever is sore. Muscles are connected, so if you are causing tension to one, you are probably tensing many. Really take a good look at how you are when you ride if you’ ve got any of this confounded pain. If you’ ve got a strangle hold on the handlebars or have your shoulders up around your ears, you just might be riding a bit more tense than you originally thought. Now that I’ ve got your attention, I’ m going to teach you a little something about how to prevent riding pain. Take my word for it, if you just follow a few simple rules of thumb, your rides could end up being again … and maybe even pain free.
First, posture is always important,( your mom probably told you growing up). Even when you make the effort to keep your spine straight, your back may be“ giving out” while on a long ride. The biggest part of having good rider’ s posture is where you’ re handlebars and foot pegs are relative to both you and each other. They gave this the fancy term,“ ergonomics”. Hell, they’ ve got ergonomic keyboards, fishing rods, hand tools, tooth brushes, and just about every other thing out there. I’ m here to tell you that there’ s ergonomics in motorcycles as well. It all starts with the style of bike we choose to ride
On a cruiser, like you see most bikers on, the rider is slightly reclined with his or her feet positioned ahead of the knees, and the handlebars are generally higher than on a standard bike. The reclined position opens up hips and helps to prevent lower back and hip pain caused by tight hip flexor muscles. But reclining on a bike also causes problems if you’ re going above a low or moderate speed, as on a highway. To keep the air pressure pushing you back, you need to lean forward by pulling on the handlebars. This can cause shoulder, neck, and upper back strain. On the other hand some riders like to have their handlebars high enough for their hands to be at head level with their elbows hanging down. It surely looks pretty tough, but high handlebars can cause shoulder pain. Then you’ re tough as nails look can end up causing strains and spasms that turn twistin’ and grinnin’ into grittin’ and cursin’.
To help keep this from happening, handlebars should be high enough to prevent the rider from having to overreach( strain) or bend forward to use them. For instance, if you have shoulder or upper back pain riding a standard bike, you might need to raise your handlebars. If you’ re one who has lower back and hip pain, it might be because of improper foot peg placement. You see, if the pegs are set too far back, your upper body will pitch forward and your hips will have to work hard to keep your legs in place. Also, foot pegs should be close enough to the rider to properly support the leg. If they are too far away, the leg and hip muscles will need to work to keep the leg from falling. This unnecessary muscle use can cause strain in the hips, legs and lower back. Taking that a step further, you can prevent a lot of the back, neck, and shoulder pain just by reminding yourself to loosen your grip and keep your shoulders relaxed.
Considering that many call riding“ wind therapy”, it’ s probably not a great idea to add tension into the mix. After all, the whole point is to eighty-six the tension that life crams down your throat every day so we can put off losing our minds a bit longer. In the end, if you take the time to learn what might be causing your pain on two wheels, there’ s a better than average chance that you can do something prevent it too. Then we can all get back on track trying to find that big time. Resources include author: Ameel and Back pain soultions
32 Thunder Roads Magazine Louisiana / Mississippi | November 2017 | www. thunderroadslams. com
2017 Rally Wrap up
On September 21st through the 24th we attended the first Louisiana Rumble Rally in Arcadia, La. This was a 21 and over adult rally and was definitely not for the faint at heart! Bikers and campers came from all over to join in the party which included some of the oldest biker games ever to be played at a rally. Some of the stage contests were, Best ass Contest, Peach eating contest, Wet T shirt contest, Pole dance contest, Pantyhose bowling, worst tattoo, and a hilarious group of performers for the Sexy devil contest.
A few of our Thunder Roads Crew attended and in our opinion the bands were the best and made for a great weekend. My personal favorite was Tom Rhodes and the band Road House Atlanta, and The Hillbilly Orchestra from Texas. There were some awesome food vendors, and a special“ bar on wheels” where the drinks were made to order by one of the most entertaining bartenders I personally ever experienced. Fun and games were had by all and I’ ll tell ya for the first of its kind bike rally in Louisiana, these promoters did an amazing job. It doesn’ t stop here though. By popular demand, the promoters decided to do it again in the spring of 2018! Reserve your spots now for the weekend of April 26th through the 29th @ www. louisianarumble. com – See ya next year!
ROADHOUSE ATLANTA