Complete newb here......

Hi all,
Thanks for the add, , I havent cycled for 12 years due to a spinal injury, which is now fixed. I am MANY pounds heavier than I was and am looking to start exercising again...but not too much, too quickly. I need lots of tech help and advice as I bought an electric bike kit. Am I in the right place?
(Questions to follow if the answer is yes)
Regards
Carl

 

Hi,
And welcome.
This is mostly a human-powered bicycle site. You may find more knowledge and enthusiasm on an ebike-specific site.
But the regulars tend to be helpful and friendly, so go ahead.
Keep in mind though that fo realistic amounts of exercise, your eating habits will be FAR MORE important for weight loss.

 

I don't care if you have an E bike, but you do have to realize that everytime you go power you're not exercising you're just having fun and giving you an unconscious excuse to use the e to do all or most of the work for you, this is why I don't like e bikes because it makes it to convenient to be lazy and just push the button and go. I don't mean to sound rough with you, simply pointing out the disadvantage to trying to lose weight by exercise with an E bike. Now if you have some really steep hills where you live and you're unable to climb those unassisted well then ok, use the E function, BUT, at some point you will have to use less and less of the E power to climb those hills the more you ride to where you will eventually not need any E assist.

Anyway I'm going to give you website for you to use to start training with, this site does take you to 100 miles in one as a goal, you can cut the schedule in half so you only do 50 miles, or 75 miles etc, but 100 miles is a great goal. This is set up to accomplish the 100 mile goal very slowly, unlike most charts I've seen, so it's idea for a beginner, I would suggest if at all possible not to use the E bike function, maybe on an off days if you want to have some fun just buzzing around without using much physical energy fine, but remember that the off days is for recuperating not for cranking the bike. If you are currently doing more pedaling miles then the chart shows in the first week or two and you would like to reach a 100 miles I suggest that you STICK to the chart so that your body has time to build up without hurting yourself, so start with week ONE even though you could be at week three in daily miles now.

http://www.angelsofaction.org/wp-co...an-16-week-intermediate-experienced-rider.pdf

[PDF]
16 week training plan - century ride - Angels of Action

As one poster mentioned you do need to rethink how and what you eat, just because you were setting recuperating was really no excuse to gain that much weight during that time, you were eating far too much food for what you were doing, this tells me your eating habits are bad, so you need to go to a nutritionist and get a plan of attack to reduce calories yet have enough energy to ride a bike.

There is a lot of material on the internet on how to eat to lose weight, some of it you have to be careful about doing which is why you should see a nutritionist; here is a interesting site to read with links to read as well: https://www.bicycling.com/training/a20033398/hack-your-metabolism-lose-more-weight/

Remember to avoid using the throttle when riding unless you're on a rest day.

I strongly suggest to that before you start the century training routine is that you FIRST go to a doctor and tell them what you're wanting to and you want them to test your heart to make sure your able to ride like that. Nah, you mumble, you don't need that, I had a friend who died after about 15 years of doing nothing, started running, which he had done before, ran a mile, went to work that day and died of a heart attack. Even though the schedule I gave you is a lot easier than running a mile you need to make sure the doctor gives the ok.

You didn't say what part of the back you injured, some people with certain types of back injuries find that they can't ride very far without pain levels going up, if this is the case you need to find out where exactly is the pain and see if the bike can be fitted better, some people can never get fitted on a regular bike but find relief using a recumbent bike. I had my last two vertebrae down at the tail fused and riding a recumbent just kills it, but I'm fine on a regular bike. The other thing to realize is that riding a bike does have certain risks called crashing! Is your back the way it is now able to survive a crash if you land on the wrong spot? I'm a bit weird, my doc said it may not be wise to ride a bike in case I crash, I ride anyways knowing the risk, so you have to determine for yourself if you're willing to take that risk. Some motorcyclists wear a back protection/support device that is supposed to protect the back in case of an accident called body armor, these do work to a degree, like a helmet works to a degree, so if you have concerns about your back you may want to buy yourself a back body armor protection thing, it will make your back hot and sweaty but it's also protecting your back. I don't wear one of these either.

One last thing, on rest days consider joining a gym and using it during those days, but a new philosophy of lifting weights, which I agreed with for many years, is to use less weight with high repetitions vs more weight with less repetitions, what they found out is the strength training effect is the same! While causing less possible injury to muscles and tendons! Make sure you talk with the gym people about your back before you jump into some machine and get hurt, but again starting with lighter weight will reduce the severity of injury to maybe nothing, i don't know. When you do the lighter stuff, like the bike training program, you slowly increase your number of reps by 10% every week for 2 months, then increase your weight by 10% and go back to lessor reps and slowly build up the reps again and repeat. If you can afford it consider a trainer to help you.

Combination of cycling and weight training along with a healthy diet will over a long time lose weight for you. Keep in mind, it took 12 years for your weight to get where it is now, don't expect it to all come off in 6 months! Be patient, be really patient, and you will be awarded with many small gifts over a long period of time.

 

Hi Carl, welcome! What kit did you buy?

I agree with Froze - the info in Froze's reply is really informative. I would also recommend a mid-drive ebike for your case. Feel free to shoot me a pm if you have any questions

I agree with you, though there are many threads about ebikes and e-kits. It is still a bicycle, we should be more tolerate

 

Hi Carl, I typically wouldn’t recommend an ebike, but maybe under these circumstances. Is the back good to go, or does it still need serious rehab? I’d offer 2 alternatives to an ebike.

1. Look into getting a mountain gravel bike. Most gravel and mountain bikes have lower gearing than road bikes. This will make the ride a bit easier until you get more into it and drop some weight. They are also sturdier than road bikes and more versatile in use.

2. Look into getting an indoor trainer in addition to a bike. The good thing about riding indoors is, you have the safety net of stopping when you want and riding when the weather is bad.

An ebike is not necessarily a bad thing, If you do get one, just don’t over rely on it. This was over a month ago, hope you figured things out by now.

Good luck

 

Thanks for the information

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I agree with you, And Welcome