Softening a bike up after shoulder surgery advice

Over a year? Why so long? I know lots of people that had your surgery and were back in 9 months. Their common issue is a little less ROM for overhead movement. I have a friend that was told his shoulder was beyond fixing by a Kerlin and Jobe shoulder specialist. He still rides, his shoulder bugs him but he is fine to ride.

Flex bars might help but good PT is the key. Find a Sports Rehab place and work hard at it. Get as strong as you can. Tell the therapist what your goals are.

Flexx bars really aren’t great very bulky and bizarre to ride with build strength back with a good PT and adjust riding style 

all I have to say is shoulder injuries can be a huge pain and take longer than expected to heal. 3 years after my surgery and I think my shoulder is as good as it’s ever going to be, which is probably 90% as good as it was prior to injury. 
 

That said, my shoulder only really seems to affect me doing overhead pressing movements. It has 0 affect on my ability to ride my dirt bike. I haven’t felt the need to add any special dampeners or soften my suspension. I would just suggest religiously following the stretch and PT protocol the entire time during recovery and keep at it after recovery to maintain your shoulders stability. 
 

PT helped a lot. Once I was able to start doing a little weight lifting again I started incorporating shoulder workouts twice a week and that’s improved my shoulder stability astronomically. 

I'd heal up completely and work on rehab, but leave the bike settings alone.

I had multiple shoulder dislocations and a surgery myself, and after the healing period I didn't notice that riding movements were a problem.

Yea I don’t want to knock on flexx it’s a cool idea but I personally was not a fan i had this shoulder surgery about 8 years ago still hurts if you sleep wrong in it haha

Yeah overhead presses kill me now. I can go up to 30lb dumbbells but not much higher simply because I get a stabbing pain in my shoulder now. 
 

Back was a pretty hard muscle group for me too as I was trying to build my strength back up. I would get stabbing pains and it felt like my shoulder was going to pop itself apart when I had to do things like pull downs or pull ups. Thankfully that’s gone away over time and now back is arguably my most developed muscle group right now. 

 For me, the Flexx bars took some of the heat off my wrists, but not my shoulders, and ultimately I shelved them altogether.

Keep working the flexibility part of it, that's key, and put as much muscle around the joint as you can without really heavy weight.  WE are at the age when preserving joints should be considered when designing an exercise or strength training program.

Everyone is different with regard to healing time.  

Since your question was asking about minimizing feedback to your arms from the bike, I will let you know what I have learned over the years (for reference, I'm a 60 year old former eastern "A" Enduro/Cross Country racer and occasional MX racer). As those of us got older in our riding group, we started noticing our shoulders started to get sore more easily so, aside from training and perfecting riding technique (which is an ongoing endeavor), we focused on what helped minimize impacts to our shoulders in order to continue riding. The first thing we all did was re-examine our setup with an emphasis on the front end...Starting with tires, we got out of our "brand ruts" and started trying tires, tubes, mousses, and Tubliss. We tried different suspension shops for re-valving, different grips, and different bars. We added and removed hand guards and bark busters and tried steering dampers. Here's what we found:

Grips: The best grips are those that allow the least amount of effort to hold on and only you can determine that based upon your riding style and gear.  Pillow grips reduce vibration but otherwise may need more force to grip.  We have settled on Pro Grip 788 triple density or a full pyramid grip (Renthal) (some of our group stuck with half waffle). 

Bars/clamps: The most compliant you can afford. Flexx bars are the easiest on the shoulders. Yes, they are expensive and weigh more and can be a bit vague in race conditions, but they are the most compliant throughout the broadest ranges of motion. All bars with cross bars attached are too hard on shoulders for us older riders who no longer race. Mako bar clamps and X-trig triple clamps also will help.  Personally, I don't think the X-trigs did enough. On a budget, get some "fat" bars (my current choice). Rider5280 on here has posts regarding carbon bars that I have not tried. Bark busters add rigidity so I would use the type that does not clamp in 2 spots.

Steering damper: Yes, any will help.  I am an old eastern woods racer and I never believed in dampers.  I am a believer now that I am older and they are a safety device more than performance device.  I have both Scotts and GPR (preferred).

Re-valving suspension: Hit or miss depending on who does it. I found some good folks and I use them with a lot of details regarding needs and ability.

Tires: Pick a tire for your terrain.  Pay for a good front tire (rear tires don't matter so much for trail riding). The best I have used was a Michelin XC (no longer available). Pirelli XC/MS is the next best. I use Metzeler MC360 and Shinko radial trails tires on the back.

Tubes/Mousse:  A properly setup Tubliss is best bet as it is the most compliant over small chop. In talking to the largest Tubliss retailer in the world (he lives near us), he has switched to Nitro-mousse saying it is almost as good as Tubliss. Michelin mousse are harder on shoulders than tubes.  Heavy duty tubes are a little harder on the shoulders than regular tubes.

Ideally, a modern steel framed Enduro is ideal for compliance.  Converted aluminum framed MXers work for racers and younger folks so it will be more difficult for you to get what you're looking for...But it's worth trying! Get a set of Pro Grips, fat bars, a good front tire, Tubliss or nitro-mousse and hit the trails.  If you have the money, go for the steering damper and then the Flexx bars.  When you win the lottery, get a suspension re-valve on your new bike.

I hope this helps!

Neken air clamps would be good for this. 

https://xcgear.com/mako-360/

Buy it. Best money ever sunk into a bike.