Motorcycle Riding

Any motorcyclists here? I traded up to a Harley in April of this year and shortly afterward had an episode of syncope that ended my riding thus far this season. After having a loop recorder implanted they discovered I was having 30+ second episodes of sinus pause. I’ve heard some people say you can’t ride for 6 months to a year after a pacemaker implant. It’s coming up on four weeks since I had the pacemaker put in and I was hoping to get back to riding soon. My doctor's not being very helpful. Does anyone have any experience or advice regarding this?
Thanks !

6 Comments

Motorcycle Riding

by SMITTY - 2009-07-14 02:07:00

Hey Greg,

I don't see any reason you cannot ride a motorcycle after your surgery is completely healed. If I wasn't so dang old I would ride one today without giving my pacemaker a second thought. Unless you have had a problem with your surgery, 4 weeks healing time should do it.

I will mention one thing. That is you have a rate response feature that is activated the vibration from the motorcycle ride may make your pacemaker think you are exercising and kick up your heart rate. Your doctor can tell you if you have rate response. If it becomes an issue the sensitivity of the RR can be adjusted so that it takes an increased amount of vibration to make it kick in.

My last motorcycle ride was in '74 on a Honda 500 and I don't recall any vibration from it. But then I don't remember a lot of things that happened 35 years ago.

As for getting answers out of your doctor, you may have better luck if you can give him a specific issue, such as the rate response question, to answer.

We have a couple of motorcycle rider members so I'm sure you will hear from them. Also, we have two sons that ride Harleys and I asked them the question about vibration and they both say they never notice any.

Good luck and enjoy your Harley.

Smitty

Motorcycle Riding

by tjarcelin - 2009-07-14 02:07:11

Hi Greg,

I was on an ATV about 3-4 months after I had my pacer implanted. I have asked my doc about it several times and he told me I should be able to do anything with my pacer.

Good Luck!
Jacki

Mostly depends on condition

by walkerd - 2009-07-15 07:07:38

I guess. I have kinda of a different problem then most on here, I have rode bikes for well almost all my life, in Aug of last year I had high risk bypass and then had a pm defib put in mostly for the defib, damaged half my left side of my heart, thought long and hard since Sept of last year about riding my harley, about nov I did take it out twice then winter came to northern Indiana, spring finally came cause all I could think about was my bike, april rode twice and kept thinking man if my defib went off while riding my bike I probably wouldnt survive or be worse off than I am, so in may I put her up for sale, June came and my bike was sold I cried as I saw her leaving me for good on the back of a trailer I know sounds kinda of mushey but I did sorry, I kept telling myself that hey it would be bad enough if my defib went off while I was driving my truck and I pray to god if it does I dont hurt anyone else would be bad enough but if I was going down the highway 55 to 60 mph I probably wouldnt survive or like I said be worse off than I am. What Im trying to say is it all depends on your condition alot of the electrical problems most have I have no idea about except what I read on here. just my two cents worth.
Keep the rubber to the road and have a safe ride on the scoot.

dave

Harley riding !

by johng - 2009-07-16 06:07:16

Greg.
I rode my Harley to the Hospital, when I was having the PM. fitted.
The Cardiologist told me not to ride it home after the procedure. It took four and a half hours for this.
I had my son drive up, and he rode my bike home and I drove his car. The advice was not to do any lifting or stretching for approx. six weeks, to allow the leads to attach themselves securely to the tissue.
I'm afraid my resolve only lasted one week, before I started riding again. I started with short runs and have had no problems (related to riding the motorcycle) in the last two years.
But, as my children constantly remind me, I'm not the smartest cookie in the jar.
Johng

MC Riding...

by gsrider - 2013-04-09 04:04:40

My doctor tells me i need a crt pacemaker so i've scheduled an evaluation with a pacemaker specialist for the end of the month, 4/30/13. From what i've read on the internet so far looks like ill be out of the only good paying job i ever had. Without being able to arc weld i probably won't have money for heart care or motorcycles. Now after reading this thread about perhaps not being able to ride is downright depressing. Hopefully the specialist will have some good news for me but for now i can't help thinking just screw the doctors and pretend all is well and drop dead when i least expect it from a heart attack like most people do... PS, i'm not really this stupid but it is how i'm feeling right now...

Don't Give Up the MC Yet!

by Greg in ME - 2013-04-10 11:04:51

Hey GSRider!
This is Greg in ME (Maine). I’m the guy who initially posted this back in 2009. I want to let you know that all is not lost and that I totally understand where you’re coming from because I was right where you are, about motorcycle riding at least. I’m still riding with absolutely no problems at all. I don’t have the Harley anymore – blasphemous to some riders – but that’s a topic for another venue. A month after I made that post, I riding through Sturgis, SD, which is something I would recommend to any rider (not necessarily going to Bike Week but riding in South Dakota). If you need just a pacemaker and not a combination pacemaker-defib. then there’s no reason I can think of to stop riding. If you need a defibrillator then that would be a different situation. I was fortunate enough to not need one and almost hugged the cardiologist who told me that all I needed was a PM. Some other folks here might disagree with me but no defib = keep riding! I’m headed to Americade this year…

Sorry, since I’m not a welder, I can’t help you with the welding but I know there’s more than one type of welding, maybe a type without the EM interference? I’d be really surprised if there wasn’t someone in this group who couldn’t advise you or has had a similar experience with about welding.

Anyway, hang in there! When I was going through the process of getting diagnosed and then getting my PM, I was furious and depressed. Looking back on it now it was not that big a deal – for me anyway. Get a good cardiologist, give yourself a while to heal and get acclimated after getting the PM, and then hit the road! Good luck!

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