Cruise Control

Or just a piece of useless plastic?

Since buying my Tiger 955i, I’ve made a few changes to improve the experience, spot lights, a sheepskin seat cover, heated grips, all to increase my comfort level. The latest gadget is what has been called a cruise control. In reality, it’s a wrist rest, a piece of plastic that attaches to your throttle for you to rest your wrist on and so allow you to relax your grip on the throttle.

The advantage of this over other aftermarket ‘cruise’ controls is that it doesn’t lock your throttle, so if you let go, the throttle shuts off instead of maintaining a constant input. It’s also adjustable, so you can position it just right, wrist not too straight  or too bent so it’s comfortable at your cruising speed. I like the idea of a rest better than something that could potentially stop you from at worst slowing down in an emergency, or at best doubling your reaction time by having to force your throttle closed.

So, is it any good? I would say, if you have a good distance to go on A roads or motorways, then yes. It does remove some of the stress from your wrist and hand meaning you can ride longer without your hand cramping up. But in town, where there’s likely to be lots of stop/start riding, or exploring the twisties through open countryside, it just gets in the way. I’m sure you could get used to it, but for me, I’ll probably use it on long journeys on big roads, otherwise I’ll leave it off for my normal, everyday riding.

Addendum

Had a delivery to make today (17 July 2020) and as time was limited, I kept to mainly motorway and dual carriageway for around 55 miles and I must say, the throttle aid (as I’ll call it) does help. No cramped fingers, no numbness and had it not been for my back aching a little, I probably could have doubled that mileage without stopping. Compare this to the ride back where I removed the throttle aid, around 90 miles on mostly A roads with a couple of small towns to ride through and at the 50-mile mark, I was beginning to suffer pins & needles in my hand. By the time I got home I was near my limit.

Would the cruise aid have helped? Maybe but I think I’ll stick to what I said earlier, it’s good for long runs on main roads, but I’ll be leaving it off