I'm 350 + lbs...is there a bike for me? Appreciate your time
#26
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Just find an older cheap MTB with 32-36 spokes per wheel. 26" wheels would be great. I've bought half a dozen for around $100 in the last 2 years. Even if you don't like it, you can have $100 worth of fun on it and sell it for no or nearly no loss.
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#27
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If you weigh that much then you should start off with a stationary bike of some sort, they make many of them sturdy with big seats. Try to work your way up to riding hard for 45 minutes five times a week, take weekends off. If you do this, and do it hard so you are getting hot and sweaty, and you phase in some lean foods, then maybe after a time you can get to where it will be more safe to ride a bicycle out on the street. I once weighed as much as 240 pounds, and one year when I rode a bike long and hard five days a week I lost sixty pounds !!! Now I am tall, so I hide weight well, but people were still telling me how skinny I got. Once you drop enough weight get into walking too in the same way, hard for at least 45 minutes, and alternate it with cycling. But don't go walking hard when you weight a lot or you will just destroy your knee and hip joints. Swimming is an option too for heavy people that is very low impact on joints. But no matter what you do you have to do it seriously and at a hard pace or you will not see any changes from it. I have changed the way I eat a lot since I was younger too. I used to eat every type of rich junk food known, but now I have cut out all carbonated beverages, all dairy milk, most all sugary things, most all red meat and birds too. I just drink water, eat fruit and veggies and salad and beans and healthy cereal with no sugars high on the ingredients. Sugar is the worst, and you have to watch your bread intake too. Get thin crust pizza without pepperoni. Start eating canned fish like salmon. Quit eating for something to do or as a hobby and replace it with working out for a hobby, gardening, working on cars or anything you can think of. Eating as a sport or hobby will kill anyone. Try to keep moving, stay away from the TV and couch and stay on your feet or on the stationary bike, swimming, or even on your knees weeding a garden. Try metal-detecting, it keeps you moving and doing something. Eating and sitting will cut anyone's life expectancy in half. Good luck.
#28
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I'd recommend a steel bike like a Surly Ogre, KM or Krampus. A Kona Unit or Unit X, a Kona Sutra, a SOMA frame or something like that. Coupled with a tough wheelset designed for utility eBikes (https://www.dtswiss.com/en/wheels/wh...hu-1900-spline) you should be okay weight-wise. Most bikes are designed to carry 130-150 kgs (285-330 lbs or so) and actually often have published weight limits in their manuals, but that wheelset is designed to carry 180 kgs (396 lbs). That wheelset is $400-$500 if you get it online from Bike24 or one of the other big online retailers from Europe, but it will last and has easily replaced components. It's also about the cheapest price you will find a wheelset designed to carry 180 kg. Guys will tell you to have a tandem hub built up into a wheelset, but some of those tandem hubs alone can cost $500 or so, before spokes, rims and labor costs are factored in. Cromolly steel frames are really tough, but in many cases, when you're a bigger guy like we are (I am still big but I was huge), you are let down by the bike's wheels. Get those right and everything else sort of falls into place.
Oh, and look at the WTB Comfort as a saddle. There are also often some decent deals for wide, comfortable saddles on Chain Reaction Cycles; their house brand, Brand X, has one and they also have specials on other brands.
Oh, and look at the WTB Comfort as a saddle. There are also often some decent deals for wide, comfortable saddles on Chain Reaction Cycles; their house brand, Brand X, has one and they also have specials on other brands.
Last edited by PDKL45; 04-20-22 at 08:40 PM.
#29
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If you weigh that much then you should start off with a stationary bike of some sort, they make many of them sturdy with big seats. Try to work your way up to riding hard for 45 minutes five times a week, take weekends off. If you do this, and do it hard so you are getting hot and sweaty, and you phase in some lean foods, then maybe after a time you can get to where it will be more safe to ride a bicycle out on the street. I once weighed as much as 240 pounds, and one year when I rode a bike long and hard five days a week I lost sixty pounds !!! Now I am tall, so I hide weight well, but people were still telling me how skinny I got. Once you drop enough weight get into walking too in the same way, hard for at least 45 minutes, and alternate it with cycling. But don't go walking hard when you weight a lot or you will just destroy your knee and hip joints. Swimming is an option too for heavy people that is very low impact on joints. But no matter what you do you have to do it seriously and at a hard pace or you will not see any changes from it. I have changed the way I eat a lot since I was younger too. I used to eat every type of rich junk food known, but now I have cut out all carbonated beverages, all dairy milk, most all sugary things, most all red meat and birds too. I just drink water, eat fruit and veggies and salad and beans and healthy cereal with no sugars high on the ingredients. Sugar is the worst, and you have to watch your bread intake too. Get thin crust pizza without pepperoni. Start eating canned fish like salmon. Quit eating for something to do or as a hobby and replace it with working out for a hobby, gardening, working on cars or anything you can think of. Eating as a sport or hobby will kill anyone. Try to keep moving, stay away from the TV and couch and stay on your feet or on the stationary bike, swimming, or even on your knees weeding a garden. Try metal-detecting, it keeps you moving and doing something. Eating and sitting will cut anyone's life expectancy in half. Good luck.
#30
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Hello all. I live in Los Angeles County and I’m looking to ease the pain in my knees through biking. I don’t want to sell myself short and get just any bike and at the same time don’t wish to overpay. Especially since I’m not going to be doing any wild riding. There was a great thread on here with my exact dilemma but sadly all the recommendations were from 2008 when the thread first originated. Maybe someone can point me in a good direction even if it’s where to post this on this forum. Thank you