Big WB

Hey folks. new to the forums. The jist of my story, im a big guy, working hard to lose the weight i severely regret ever letting get outta hand. over the last couple years, ive lost almost 200 lbs, but im still 400.1 lbs and im struggling to find a good bike / trike that will support my weight and also allow me to ride around my hip / back problems. yesterday, i probably made a huge mistake in doing it, but i went out looking at bikes and ended up buying an Electra Townie 21D from a local shop. i made sure to express my concerns about a bike with rims to support my weight and comfortable and capable of supporting my bad hips and back. he assured me this bike with its "heavy duty rims" had no weight limit. i test rode a 7D around for about 20 minutes and it felt solid and had smaller wheels so i figured he had to be right. well, ive ridden this thing a total of 9 miles and the back rim is already wobbly as hell. several spokes are so loose, the adjustment nut is almost all the way into the rim / tube. it started wobbling all at once about 1.5 miles from home. ended up walking it back the last 3/4 mile because it was so bad.

the shop i got it from is closed on sundays. go figure. with tomorrow being a holiday, im sure theyll be closed then too. im pretty good with mechanical type stuff, so i could probably figure out how to true the wheel but i dunno if i should try it or not until i get ahold of the shop. i cant even get a message to them. they have no answer machine / voicemail. their facebook page seems to have little to no activity. im worried if i try messing with it and the off chance that i mess it up, they may say sorry about your bad luck and laugh and walk away. so here i sit, with a $550 bike that ive put 9 miles on, that i cant ride, til i finally get ahold of the shop.

my questions are: i know this bike is a good bike. the time i have put on it, has felt rather comfortable. my hips / butt cheeks dont like it very well, but it definitely works better than any other bike ive ever tried. but will the wheels hold up for me? or am i just having "new bike blues" issues? like once i get the wheel trued and get it "broke in" will it hold up better? or will i need to find an even heavier duty wheel for the back? id much rather have a trike, and ive been lookin at them for the past 2 years, but as yall know, theyre extremely expensive. especially when you get to the ones that are capable of holding 400+.

speaking of trikes, ive been looking for quite a while at them but until recently, the thought of a weight limit on them never crossed my mind. after looking back, every single one of the ones ive been looking at are 250 lbs or less except 1 which is rated for 325. what trikes are available that can support 400 pounds and actually have the good brakes and other features? ill be doing mostly path / road riding with the occasional easy gravel road type stuff. im not even remotely close to doing crazy off road stuff. i know im looking at something thats gonna be $3,000 and up. im thinkin with my other problems, the trike is gonna be the route im gonna have to go. i want something thatll be comfortable and not discourage me from riding because of pain and discomfort because of uncomfortable small seats.

ok, ive rambled enough for now. thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

Judi

Here's a trike that will hold 400 lbs. TerraTrike I've never ridden a trike so I don't know how it compares to the Townie.

The saddle on the Townie is hard as hell. Some people will suggest just getting your butt used to a hard saddle, but why not swap it out for something squishier? I have a Townie and I put a cheap Schwinn cruiser saddle on it, the kind with springs underneath and a soft, squishy top. That saddle is so comfortable that I bought an identical one for my spin bike. You don't need a super-wide seat for a super-wide butt and a super-wide seat will slow you down a lot. But having something that's soft enough that it doesn't bruise you is important too. When they talk about getting used to a saddle, that mostly means that your legs get stronger and will support most of your weight, and the saddle is just a rest for your butt to give your legs a break now and then. But the Townie is not designed that way, and no matter how much you ride it, your legs don't end up supporting most of your weight. You can't toughen up and get used to the saddle. For the record, my 120lb daughter was riding a Townie every day, and she said the saddle was rock hard and it hurt to use it. The saddle on her other bike is a Selle Italia which is a narrow little mean-looking saddle and she says that is more comfortable than the Townie saddle. So this isn't just a big butt issue, it's an uncomfortable Townie saddle issue

This is the saddle I have: Amazon.com : Schwinn Deluxe Cruiser Bicycle Seat : Bike Saddles And Seats : Sports & Outdoors I used it when I was over 400, and I'm 5'3" so if you're taller than that, chances are my butt was much bigger and wider than yours (my waist was 58" and my hips 72" at my biggest). And that saddle was comfortable for me. It's gotten a little less comfortable as I've lost weight.


I have never had problems with the spokes on my Townie, and I have ridden it when I was over 400lbs. I always made sure my tires were inflated properly. I did break an axle once...the bike developed a wobble, so I popped the quick release to have a look, the skewer was badly bent and all the pieces of the axle came off all over the place. My LBS got replacement wheels from Electra (they were pink, not lovely green like my original wheels, but it would have taken 3 months for Electra to send green wheels), think they charged $25 for labor. Another time everything in the bottom bracket was really loose and had to be put back together. At that point I asked if I was just too big for my bike, but they said no way and to keep on riding. I was riding 5 days a week, so it wasn't unreasonable to need some repairs now and then.

My suggestion would be to take the bike back to the shop and let them fix it for you. Don't try to do it yourself, you can wait a couple days to ride again. Order a different saddle that doesn't break your a$$ and always check your tire pressure before every ride. I also put thicker tubes in my tires. Don't ride off any curbs and don't ride on unpaved surfaces. The Townie is a very friendly and easy bike to ride, just get it fixed and give it another chance.

PhotoJoe 

First off, welcome to BikeForums, and especially the C/A forum. This is a safe place to be, filled with many at different stages of the same journey.

Please don't panic about your bike yet. Give your LBS a chance to make things right. My money is that they will. I don't know if you'll need a new wheel or not, but a competent wheel builder can make a wheel that will handle the job with ease.

The trike Judi mentioned can be bought at Amazon for $1,195. Yah, not cheap, but not the $3,000 you were thinking. This is for the 8-speed. They also have a 3-speed. I would spend the extra $200 in a heartbeat for the 5 extra gears! What were you looking at for $3,000?

[h=2][/h]

Willbird

The key thing for wheels for heavier riders seems to be getting the spoke tension high to begin with, and "stress relieving" and re truing the wheel several times. High tension for a heavier rider seems counter intuitive, but after you think about it then it makes sense :-).

Really good shops go over the bikes they sell and do stuff like that, others may just slap it together and send you out the door with it.

Bill

Big WB

Judi: yeah, this stock seat is definitely not very cheek friendly lol. my problem is with my hips. too many years of just abusing myself and doing stupid **** like jumping off stuff i had no business jumping off (nothing crazy. im not that bad of an adrenaline junkie. ive just always been a big guy. a 6' 350+ man has no business jumping off 10' walls / trailors / equipment at work). add on top of that, i had several health problems that were beyond my control that eventually got so bad, i made the mistake of just giving up entirely. that caused the things i could control to fall apart, like my weight. i wound up getting to just under 600 lbs. even at 559 lbs, id still try to do that stupid stuff if presented the chance. it eventually turned into even just walking was a chore for my right hip. im sure ill end up having to get it replaced sooner than later but thats a bridge ill worry about when i get to it. for now, im not letting it stop me. itll have to completely separate and fall out of the socket before ill let it lol.

Anyway, there i go yammerin again. just givin a brief history. point is, my hips are both shot. they need "supported" when i try to ride. even on a 4 wheeler / motorcycle, my hips bother me after a few miles. they just cant take "dangling" over the the side of a seat. even the bench seat in my pick up truck. after a while, i need to slide over a bit and bring my right hip further into the seat. not nearly as bad now at 400 lbs since im finally fitting into the seat properly. thats the reason why i keep leaning towards the trikes. they have the actual chair type seats on them that im thinkin will work great for both my bad hips and my lower back.

as far as my size, i guess im lucky how i turned out. even at my biggest of 559, i was big, but not nearly as big as some people i know and had seen. some people were literally twice my size, but i outweighed them by as much as 200 lbs. my drs finally got it to sink in that that means somewhere under this mess, there is a decent foundation of actual muscle. even though i let it all get out of control, i still kinda did things right by at least trying to stay active.

both of the tires have 60 psi in them. i checked them both before i even attempted to sit on it. i never thought to check the spokes before i rode it. although now, lesson learned, thatll be the first thing i check, and something i check very often. i havent touched it and it sucks because i really wanna ride, especially today and yesterday, but i want them to look at it first. its just frustrating to have a nearly $600 bike sitting here and unable to ride it already after 9 miles.

PhotoJoe: there were several of them like the Terra Trike Tour II and Sportster. the ICE Adventure HD line, Greenspeed Magnum and some others which the makes and models are compeltely eluding me atm. my original thinking was the more expensive ones are the ones with the better brakes and suspension therefore are what the clydes like me need. but after looking at them now and seeing most of them, except the magnum, are rated to 275 or less, i realize, theyre designed more for speed and whatever else. so i guess its back to the research board armed with some better intel. starting with just finding a dealer near me that might actually have some of these things in stock that i can go to and try to plop my big butt in them before i even consider buying one on blind faith. the Magnum package i was looking at the other day was just under $7000 lol. thats with me just basicly pointing and clicking every option and not really having a clue exactly what they are. the saddle bags and whatnot, obvious. but the drivetrain stuff... im completely clueless what the difference between SRAM PG-1050 10sp cassette and a 26' Sturmey Lite Rhino Dual Drive. same thing with the brake systems. im not a complete dolt, even thought i look like one right now lol. im rather mechanically inclined compared to most. but bikes are completely new to me. sadly, ill admit, my thinking has been more expensive means better. better means it can handle bigger loads, right? lol

Willbird: this shop has been around a long time and ive never heard anyone say anything bad about them. he does tend to have alotta younger high school / college kids coming through his shop in the summers for temp work. i have a feeling, i got the one bike that he didnt put together himself and probably didnt take time to go over it himself before he brought it to me. the 7D i test rode for about 20 minute actually rode and felt alot sturdier than this one did from the get go and this one supposedly has heavier duty tires. theyre definitely a little bigger and wider and the spokes look to be a little bit bigger but it could just be the red coating on the spokes messin with my eyes that made them look bigger.