Originally Posted by
MRT2
OK, then, at least you are going into it with your eyes open.
Aye. Also want to clarify just in case, don't want to seem contrarian for its own sake- I'm just picky as they get, and never met an idea so simple I couldn't drastically overthink it.
RE: upright bikes and your back. Those high bars on the Gravity look seriously uncomfortable. When you ride completely upright, your back takes more impact from the road than it does if you ride just a little bent over. because the shock from the road goes right up through your spine. Really.
I'm working from dated information wrt personal experience, but in mine it worked exactly the opposite when I was in my 20s switching between the aforementioned chrome 3-speed spyder and the Schwinn LeTour III that finally succumbed to an ugly impact involving soaked rim-rubbers, traffic constricting swerve options, and a car backing out in front of me when I was doing a good 25 MPH. (When all was said and done the front wheel's rear edge was 3 inches behind the lower frame tube and the gooseneck had put the hurt on my jewels)
And that wide saddle will chafe your thighs like nobody's business. The key is to find a saddle that is wide enough to support you at your sit bones, but not wide like a Lazy Boy recliner. Get it just right and you spread your weight between your legs and butt,
Memory again- the "standard" (for the time, best as I recall) saddle on that LeTour III was the worst thing about riding it- and just doing my routine errands 10 miles a day stop and go was common. And where it rode up and caused friction between the ol' cheeks once I got to sweating made chafing seem like an insufficient term. Not saying you're wrong per se, only that I recall things working differently in my case. Also, RE: both the bars and seat, easily changed to suit on top of (Big "tell me if I'm wrong here) what I'm looking at and where I'm considering buying looks like the epitome of something pieced together from off the shelf parts, lending to just such easy customization.
with your back and abdominals supporting your upper body. The extreme upright posture of the Gravity bike will become extremely uncomfortable in 15 minutes or less as all your weight is on your butt, and you don't really generate any power when pedaling. And you generate maximum wind resistance as your entire body catches the wind like a big sail. I am not saying you need to be super aero, but just get your body a little lower, like 45 to 55 degrees will be much more comfortable.
Ah, and here's the crux of the biscuit- I effectively don't
have any abdominals to support anything with. Backstory: in 2018 I was laid low with a bacterial infection that nearly took me off the planet 3 times over. In a month I lost about 40 pounds, most of it muscle mass. Lost about 60% of my muscle mass and about 85% of my muscle memory. Took a week to get proficient at even feeding myself in a hospital bed, and 6 weeks of occupational therapy to make basic "point A to point B" walking even a viable possibility. Comfortably walking without wobbles or the need for a walking stick is as recent as around June-July 2020. Anything that requires me to support myself on muscles is still an iffy proposition at best- a place I may reach once I'm in a position to work toward, but not someplace I am now by any stretch.
In that same vein, I don't see getting enough speed for wind (aside from any ambient weather-induced headwinds) to be an issue early on, likewise needing someplace semi-comfortable to rest my mass between bouts where standing on the pedals is even viable. While I hope to extend things over time, as a start I'm looking at half an hour being a long, extended ride.and would be surprised if that's not taxing. (Not that I'll mind being surprised, for sure.) But I'm currently thinking far more "leisurely cruise with the possibility to exert a little then break" than any real extended exertion. Hence my assertion that a single-speed cruiser with coasters would probably work fine- I just don't want to go there.
But sure, please keep the ideas coming- while so far I think I've got things figured, there's always food for thought to be gleaned.
OH- something that did just occur to me- browsing the forums, I've run across a couple of threads regarding tire valve types- what looks like some debate about Schraeders vs some other variant, and in light of that the valve stems on that Gravity (maybe it's just me) look pretty slim. I wasn't even aware there was anything other than Schraeders. Reminded me of the old days and computer geeks feuding over IDE vs SCSI disk drives or music fans arguing about the minimal sound quality difference between vinyl and digital (that I can't even hear, too much time in the '70s shooting on the farm before realizing hearing protection was even a thing) but I don't have enough background to even be certain what all the fuss was except people griping about which pumps/chucks work or don't and how well.
