Quote Originally Posted by bushrat View Post
One thing I learned to do, while learning to relax, was to mimic playing a piano. Try riding along at a modest speed (40 mph). With your hands on the bars, open and extend your fingers so that they point ahead, and only your palms are resting on top of the bars with the grips lightly between the "V" created by your thumb and index finger. Steering can be done by easy pressure without closing your hands since you're not really going fast or in twisties. Now, as you ride along in the sunshine of a nice day, make believe you're playing a piano, with your fingers moving up and down. It's fun, it's relaxing, and it reduces stress. It will show you exactly just how light a touch on the bars you can ride with.
An addition to bushrat's suggestion: Get a "Crampbuster" to use on the right hand throttle control handgrip. It does not interfere with your ability to grip the handgrip when you need to, and when you don't need to "grip the grip" you control the amount of throttle input using the palm off your hand instead of having to grip the throttle grip. Do a Google search for pics and videos if you aren't familiar with them. One of the best less than $10 you will spend on your motorcycle. Yes, the Spyder's have cruise controls. But you can't always use it. In those instances, the Crampbuster is golden. If you get one, go to a safe riding place (open parking lot, no traffic neighborhood, etc) for about 5 - 10 minutes to get used to using it. After that, you'll never regret buying it. You can spin it out of the way when you WANT to (IF you want to, but you normally won't want to unless you want to spin it around to readjust the paddle position, which is easy to do while riding). And you can still "grip the grip" when you need to even with the palm of your hand on the paddle controller. Watch the YouTube videos to see how it works. It WILL stop you from over-gripping the hand grips if that is what you are doing. Many riders put one on the LEFT handgrip also just because they are so "hand comfortable" when riding.

EDIT: They come in 2 different handlebar diameter sizes. The larger one (the 1 and 3/8" one) is for the Spyder handgrip. Plus I didn't have to put the included rubber "O-Ring" thing on my grip before putting the Crampbuster over it. The Crampbuster was tight enough without the rubber O-ring (was TOO tight with the O-ring). And...there are 2 different "paddle" widths of it too. A narrow one (1" wide by 3" long) and a wide one (2 and 1/4" wide by 3" long). I prefer the wider one, but other people may prefer the narrow one. *** Oh...one other thing. They come in black plastic or SILVER ("chrome") colors. Do NOT get the Silver colored one. It is the black plastic one with "coat of silver painty stuff" on it. Within a couple months at most, all the silver painty stuff will start flaking off and make your gloves really, really ugly. *** PS - There's a PINK one too if you don't like black or silver.