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Cruise Aid Throttle Rocker - Dave Blendell makes long journeys much easier on the wrist with this simple but effective device

Painful wrists after a long ride? Then try a throttle rocker Sometimes the simple ideas are the best, sometimes they're a cheap solution to a long-standing problem and sometimes they can make a difference out of all proportion to their cost and simplicity. On a good day they're all three and such a device is the Cruise Aid Throttle Rocker.

Basically this neat little device is a hand rest which clamps onto your throttle. With a bit of practice you can ride resting your fingers on your brake lever and controlling your speed with downwards pressure from your wrist. I must stress the "with practice" part of that statement as gripping the bars is a long-ingrained habit with most riders and a bit of time experimenting and getting used to something quite drastically different is wise for safety reasons. And is it safe? Well if you want to you can keep four fingers on the brake lever at all times which cant be a bad thing.

Biggest plus for me is not gripping the throttle, as longer trips could be quite painful. Any osteopath will tell you that gripping anything for over an hour isn't going to do you a whole lot of good. Not only will you get an insight into what life with arthritis might be like but combined with the unnatural wrist-bending a bit of fancy throttle-work entails can lead to tendonitis. Trust me this is not funny, in fact it is downright painful.

I can honestly say that the Cruise Aid has changed my life. For too many years I've put up with a lot of pain when more sensible folk might have bought a car and to be honest it had got to the point where I was wondering whether it was worth it.

Since fitting the Cruise Aid the difference has been amazing, no stiff fingers, no need to constantly flex my hands after a long ride, yes hands as now I don't grip the throttle. I don't grip the left-hand grip anywhere near as tightly either, psychological I presume.

In short something that cost me the same as my last can of chain-lube has transformed the riding experience for me, something no more technical than a strip of shaped plastic.

Fitting instructions. Take the Cruise Aid and slide it onto your throttle grip. That's the fitting instructions in their entirety. If you can't manage that then I assume you wear slip-on shoes and haven't quite got the hang of joined-up writing yet.

Next - and most importantly - you need to set it up. Because of the cunning design you can rotate the Cruise Aid around the throttle grip by rotating it upwards, put pressure on it the other way and it'll ...er… grip the grip, which is exactly what you want to do but only when it's exactly in the right position obviously. What you do is set the Cruise Aid so that the palm of your hand is resting on it when you're holding the throttle as you normally do. The rest is down to trial, error, a quiet stretch of road , a bit of experimentation and adapting to a new way of riding.

Downside? None that I can think of, providing you take the time to position it right. If you don't, it's your fault, not the Cruise Aid. Also it might not be suitable for bikes with clip-ons, do a dry-run before you damage your nice shiny petrol tank on full right lock.

Upside? Makes long trips massively more comfortable, no more death-grip, no more painful "claws".

Cost? I paid £6.99 plus 99p p&p on EBay for mine. A few sellers have them for the same price, just put "Cruise Aid" into the search box.

Alternatively try your local dealer. Scottoiler also do them (Embarassingly, they call theirs the "Crampbuster"... if you don't know why this is embarassing, just ask any female), so they should be available just about anywhere.

Verdict:

By way of experiment I took mine off 6 months after fitting it to see if I noticed the difference. Within 10 minutes it was back on again. You won't find much else for less than a Tenner that will make such a difference to your riding. Highly recommended.

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