I haven't found anything better than the progrip 699's


You might want to look into some gel pad gloves though.

A heavy bar end weight will help reduce vibration in the bars also.

In addition to new grips (believe it or not, new OEM grips do really well) and some gel-palmed gloves, try paying attention to your body position. By scooting forward on the seat, tightening your knees on the tank and keeping your arms relaxed you can reduce the vibration to your hands by a considerable amount. When your upper body weight is off your arms it becomes a very relaxed grip on the bars.

Gels and they are usually reasonably priced

Gloves and grips are a good start, or if your like me...Advil.

what he said !!

I have a pair of landscaper gloves. they have padded palms. also have a crampbuster on my throttle. +3 on advil.

All great advice above! Do whatever it takes. Include shortened levers , a well-tuned bike, and an rpm that feels good around town and on the hwy into the list. I hope you're riding comfortably soon.

Speaking of well tuned, when was the last time you synced your carbs? A simple thing like that makes a huge difference in how much vibration the engine produces.

What should the rpm be at at about 75 miles per hour?

I havent had the bike long enough to do much work on her. She runs pretty good as far as I can tell, just feels a bit restricted at 75-80 mph. This is my first Kat so maybe I just need to get used to it.

Probably a steering wheel! But since that's not a desirable option, there's plenty of good advice above. In addition to the already mentioned suggestions, you can also try packing foam into the handle bars.

My advice, honestly, is to get a Kawasaki Concours 14! That counterbalanced motor is real smooth!
I drove my kat 1100 for years with no complaints. But like you, arthritis set in.
I ended up using gel grips, foam wraps around those gel grips, fingerless gloves with gel insert, and over the gloves I'd wear a large pair of JR gloves (which also had gel!).
I also use a morgan carbtune, would do a carb synch before every big trip.
What happened to my last trips is my hands would start to hurt, but my knees and feet would too. Before a trip, I'd take celebrex in the morning and another at the end of the trip along with a little codeine.
When I got my C14, was I apprehensive that I'd have the same problems. Tell you what, I got back from a two week 4000 mile the other day and my hands and body made it!
Fact is the katana's are buzzy bikes- try all the things I did (all the gloves, wraps, grips and carb synching) and if you still have problems you either better get yourself scripts for codeine and celebrex or a different bike!

By that logic, you may as well just go for a Goldwing.

Nah, Goldwing is about $8k more and not as sporty. My C14 will outrun and outhandle my '91 Katana 1100.
It got to the point where an eight hour day on my kat would bring pain. I was faced with get another bike or don't ride at all.
On sept 30, I started a trip where I went to Eureka, CA for a few days (7 hours), went down to San Jose (8 hours,to see Peter Gabriel!), down pch to Pismo for a few days (7 hours), down to LAX to pick up wife to go to Disneyland (5.5 hours), then went to Vegas for a night (7 hours), then to Grand Junction, CO (8.5 hours), then to Denver (5.5 hours, attended GABF!), then went to Wendover, UT (11.5 hours), then home (7.5 hours).
I honestly don't think I could have done even a fourth of the trip on the kat, the bones just couldn't take it.
The bike itself was awesome, even in the rain storms of Wyoming, was able to cruise easily at 80mph (gotta love those pr3 tires).
I am not faulting the katana bike, it is all me. Ten years ago, I went on a long road trip on the big kitty where I once did a 17 hour straight ride with no problems. Had soft bags with a duffle bag bungeed to the back, I simply rode and rode.
Now, I need something smooth, plus I like pulling my hard bag liners full of stuff out of my hard bags when going into motel rooms (along with the large Shad trunk), hand warmers and of course, the better mpg and cruise range.
I keep the Kat 1100 around because I like it, it is good for around the town cruising, commuting and just plain riding around .