BlazingPedals

Obviously it's not perfect -- you can't mount the thing. I'd say the second option is to load up on Advil.

fietsbob

My Folding Bikes with functionally step over Frames are My Favorites, Now.

A Bike Friday And a Brompton.

Grand Bois

The doctors blamed my mother's daily use of Advil for arthritis pain for her double bleeding ulcers. She was in the hospital for four days. The bill was $56,000.

BlazingPedals

I'm not making recommendations, just noting that a lot of recumbent trike riders got their trikes as a first choice. They got them because they considered trikes "fun," not because they were settling for something less than a 'real' bike. I respect your desire to stay on your current bike; but if you rule out a new platform, you're there aren't many options left. Can you lie the bike down, straddle it, and stand it up underneath you?

GetUpnGo

Since this thread from 2011 has been resurrected, I'd like to post an update. I had my hip replaced in January 2016. The method used was anterior surgery, which is less invasive than posterior with a faster recovery. Here's my recovery record:

10 days post surgery: Walked 1 mile
3 weeks: walked 3 miles
8 weeks: First ride of the season. Biked 11 miles pain free.
9 weeks: Biked 15 miles.
12 weeks: Biked 20 miles. (I'm referring to single rides, not mileage for the week.) Started kayaking

By 12 weeks I was doing all normal activities. Now at 7 months I'm hardly even aware of the hip.

I'm now biking 35 miles a week and hope to add 5 miles a week up to 50 miles. That's not a lot but I do several other activities as well (hike, kayak, gym, yard work). I still have to be careful getting on the bike because the one thing that can dislocate the hip is putting the leg out behind you and twisting the foot outward. So I still lay the bike over a foot or so like y'all taught me and that works real well.

My surgery was a qualified success as the operative leg came out 1/4" too long and there are repercussions of that (a limp and a heel spur). That's an expectable risk of the surgery and a reasonable price for being pain free.

After my experience I feel that people should not wait until doctors think they're old enough for surgery. I lost a tremendous amount of fitness and health during the 10 years when I had arthritis (age 54 to 64). I think that most likely will end up shortening my life because it's very hard to rebuild lost fitness in your 60s. It doesn't make sense to sit around getting "old enough for surgery."

I only recently realized how demoralizing arthritis was. It cast a dark cloud over most of my life because outdoor activities were always the center of my life. To be honest, it made me think the end was near and that preoccupied me a lot. The surgery swept all of that away. It really makes you want to start making big plans again. Right now I'm planning a long bike/hike/kayak/camping trip in the fall. Those trips used to kill me, they were so painful (like crawling out of a tent). I forced myself to continue doing the things I loved because you can't get back the lost time you spend doing nothing. But I empathize with anyone who is living with severe arthritis, especially if it hit you early the way it did me.

The only thing I might not get back is skiing. We'll see. Biking is the key to health and fitness after the surgery because it's low impact on the hip compared to something like backpacking.

rnothog

I'm about a year and 3 months post-op for anterior hip replacement.

Cycling has been great in helping rehab the operative hip. My other one is scheduled for this coming January. Should have done it this summer. Damn the heat.

I wouldn't put up with the pain and the limp next time. The wait really screwed up my gait, and that took some effort to correct.

Oh, and I just lean the bike over to get on. The other night, though, getting off, I caught myself starting to swing off in motion like I did when I was a kid. Wonder if I would have made it? Felt like something...almost natural.

Dave Cutter

You don't see many 80-90 year olds playing basketball. So if B-ball was your sport what would the answer be? Discarding the fears, and accepting the inevitable changes [deterioration] of our bodies is essential to staying healthy and active. Work with what you got. Get profession help, advice, treatment... yesterday would have been better.

I spoke with a man in his 90's one day. He said he still rides 3 miles each and everyday. When in Florida (he said) he rides his 3 miles... outdoors on a bike path.

I love my bikes, I love the long rides. I fully enjoy many aspects of the life I live today... as I also enjoyed the different life that was mine in decades past. I don't own a trike yet. But I hope to..... someday. Life is a journey. Enjoy the place (age) that you are at now... while you're here. And don't expect the journey to come to a halt just because you've become comfortable. Time stops for no man.

Things will change tomorrow. I've already decided to embrace the changes.... and find the enjoyment.

GetUpnGo

I forgot to mention the other half of my philosophy. Plan A is to modify your activities until you just can't do them anymore. I gave up my roadbike, had a hybrid specially built with mountain gears, cut my mileage, etc. You go slower, lower, shorter.

Plan B is to find new activities. I had to give up skiing, which I was passionate about. But I became even more passionate about kayak camping in beautiful remote places. When I can no longer do physical activities there's reading, writing, playing the guitar, and so forth. How I'll know it's the end and it's time to give it up: when I can no longer sit in a wheelchair and enjoy a beautiful view.

Somewhere in there there are solutions for the basketball player.

Terex

Don't know if its been mentioned, but a dropper seat post may help. They are usually installed on mountain bikes.

RockShox Reverb Dropper Seatpost | Chain Reaction Cycles

CrankyOne

A very common sight in The Netherlands is someone pulling up to a store or café on their step-thru or low-step bike, getting off, and either grabbing their cane from the PVC pipe carrier on the back or grabbing a walker. These are often people in their 80's or 90's. You'll see more old folks riding bikes in The Netherlands on any day than you'll see old folks in total anywhere else.

Enabling the Disabled: A View From the UK | streets.mn



The great thing about cycling is that it provides healthy exercise while not requiring you to support your weight and provides mobility freedom when driving would be too dangerous. Not a bad combination.

OP, glad your hip has worked out so well. Great encouragement for the rest of us.

Carbonfiberboy 

This is also what I do. I'm 71 and in perfect health, but the hips just get stiff with age. I stretch and work out, but there it is, nothing really to be done about it. Another thing that helps is to mount by putting your left foot on the pedal, then dabbing with the right to get rolling, then swing the leg over. Dismount the same way, rolling to a stop with both legs on the same side. That way your foot is quite a bit higher than trying to mount from the ground.

When I'm really whupped or cramping, I'll lay the bike down and step off, too. Have to be careful not to step on the bike when I'm in that condition.

mud711

Although I fit this age group, I have fought aging for a long time. No issues until last year when I hit a wall literally, in a raft. Spent the summer in a hospital bed and had to learn to walk all over again. I refuse to give up on my cycling and other things. Recently started riding again, I go to a local High School and use their parking lot after hours. Riding is simple, getting on and off is troublesome. I followed some suggestions here, just went into the garage, laid the bike down, stepped over it and raised it up. Oh Yeah......I have had to relearn how to start and stop. Every ride a traumatic adventure. TY all.

Jimbo47

Amen brother, Amen!

stuart1865

I could never relate to this thread...until 4 years ago at ago 60 when I woke up one morning with the Mother Of All Stiff Necks. Eventually found out that it was the final bits of cartilage wearing thin in C6-C7 vertabrae. Hello, Osteo. But....I AM PHYSICALLY FIT!!! NO!!!! IT CAN'T BE!!! I exercise, I watch my weight, I eats me spinach....(well, not really...)

Not much to do but keep it moving. Then, last year, I started to get some bend-over pain primarily on the right side just over the hip. A little bit on the left also. Interestingly, I've tried to stay fit all my life. Weights, Elliptical. Running periodically. Resting BPM about 52. Max about 148. Doctor suggesting some anti-inflammatory meds, but I would rather by-pass any gastric repercussions. Just can't change the pads or re-grind the rotors when you start aging! Not cheaply, anyway. Now, I am prepping my 1982 Matsuri to resume where I started back in my teen years. I can bend over fully, but it's a s-l-o-w-e-r movement. Same with getting out of bed. I'm going to need to be very keen on self-training with cleat placement and removal.

I feel your pain.

McBTC

Did you say you have not ridden in quite a while or just since last year?

jackrippah

Out of perfect ignorance I was thinking; is there any chance that the recent change in your bike is the source of the change in your hip ?

GetUpnGo

Two years after hip replacement I can get on my bike safely by leaning it over a bit. I have to be really carefully dismounting, making sure to stop on a surface that is either level or rises on the DISMOUNT side, not on the opposite site. The latter can cause a fall if your foot doesn't clear the seat. Most paved roads do rise on the dismount side if you're riding on the right, which gives you an advantage of an inch or two. Many a time I idiotically pull up to my mailbox on the left side of the road and realize too late that there's a bit of a dip there.

I would love to have a decent step-through bike but it would have to be custom made.

Budrovic

I have the same problem with getting on and off a bike. Can't lift my leg far enough. So I bought a tricycle and it'
s just a matter of lifting my leg about 1 foot of the ground. Also lots of storage for going to the store, the basket on the back is huge.

_ForceD_

Cuyuna

..
Your experience is pretty common, and the concept of "I should have done this sooner", likewise common. The end-result of arthritis is joint replacement, and that can be truly life-restoring when one finally bites the bullet. It's all a matter of "when is the right time"? The problem is that, although a hip replacement is usually pretty straightforward, a revision of that replacement in 10-15 years can be a big operation. As new techniques and new hardware become available, hip replacements these days can last 20 years. So the answer to that is usually "when my arthritis gets bad enough to impinge my lifestyle beyond the point that's acceptable to me".

Having said that there are a lot of temporizing options short of joint replacement from simple steroid injections to hip resurfacing. It would be worthwhile to investigate. Some of these things can put the inevitable hip replacement for years.




...

Jimbo47

I've had hip problems for a few years now and I'm 71 probably looking at surgery in the not too distant future.
My ride is a pedals forward cruiser that I have no problem riding to stay fit. I lean it to one side to mount and dismount, and being able to touch the ground almost flat footed, and hold an upright position standing still, makes it less of a worry that I may fall doing a slow roll turn.

Budrovic

Long live trikes! I can still ride and get the exercise for both my hip arthritis and congestive heart failure!

marquhar

Even with 3-4" drop, and a 59 cm frame, I've been doing this:
stand the bike vertical with the front tire above the rear, where the tip of the saddle will clear at least 7" lower than saddle height in a normal bike postition.

Now walk into position and let the saddle pass between your legs. Then push down on the handle bars and restore position.

To dismount, you grab the rear of the saddle with one hand and push , and pull up on the handle bars with the other.
This technique allows both feet to stay on the ground. You might need to rise up on the toes briefly.