M
Martin Wilson
Guest
On Fri, 11 Feb 2005 22:19:10 -0000, jas0n <[email protected]> wrote:
>im after a basic strong (25stone .. last time im gonna mention it!!!)
>commuter bike with a wide range of gears ro carry my large bulk to work
>and back and the odd long day / weekend trip ...
>
Thats basically what I did last year and I also planned to get the
Kona Smoke. I actually started at 26 stone and shortly before I
started cycling I was as much as 27 stone. On Friday I weighed myself
and was 123kg which is about 19.3 stone so I'm getting there.
I ended up buying a cheap £60 steel framed mountain bike from ebay.
Many people on this forum weren't impressed but its done me proud. The
only geniune problem I can put down to the bike is the caged bearings
failing in the front wheel. I had a problem with the rear gears not
being properly adjusted and so the chain slipped between the freewheel
and spokes and damaged them. This was actually my fault and it would
be unfair to put this down to the bike.
Even though the bike only has 18 gears there is no problem going up
hills and the easiest gear is so easy that you're probably at walking
speed. Certainly going up hill can be so slow its hard to balance or
at least used to be.
The main problem I find is the lack of fast gearing which in some ways
is good because the bike is coasting beyond cadence speed and you can
use this time to have a breather from peddling which can be helpful.
However this does slow down the journey overall. If I was buying now I
would be more concerned with fast gearing.
Incredibly considering the weight I've put on the bike I've only had
one puncture and that was going through a village at speed and hitting
a large hole in the road which bits of rusty old barb wire had
collected in. If I hadn't been enjoying the scenary so much and
actually concentrated on the road I could have easily avoided it. I
changed the original mountain bike tyres for Schwalbe Cityjets
(26x1.5) They are still in good nick after over 1000 miles with well
over 20 stone on them most of the time.
The bike I bought weighed about 15.2kg which is heavier than the
average but still very respectable. It doesn't have any suspension at
all apart from a couple of springs at the back of the saddle. Which is
an upgraded saddle to suit my larger posterior.
I actually look forward to commuting by bike to and from work. I enjoy
the coming home bit more of course.
I feel loads better after shedding the weight. Muscles have increased
and I'm generally a much stronger person. I work a nightshift and
recently purchased a cheap laptop and decided to take it to work in my
backpack along with all my other stuff. The backpack probably weighed
in excess of 10kg fully loaded and yet was no problem going up a steep
1km+ hill (raises up 70metres over 900metres).
The only negative thing I can say is it doesn't do much for the arms.
One thing that can be disheartening is at first the weight comes off
rapidly but later the loss slows down as you become lighter. This
can't be helped because the extra weight at the beginning is obviously
helping you lose weight at first. When I first started I was losing
2kg a week. Now its more like 0.5kg on average. However don't think
you have to suffer rubbish food. I still pig out all the time and eat
more than 2 people most of the time and still manage to lose weight. I
tend to eat a lot at weekends but be frugal during the working week.
Last tuesday though I had six large pancakes dripping with treacle and
when I came back from work in the morning used up the remaining batter
to have a further 3 pancakes and still lost weight at the end of the
week.
>im after a basic strong (25stone .. last time im gonna mention it!!!)
>commuter bike with a wide range of gears ro carry my large bulk to work
>and back and the odd long day / weekend trip ...
>
Thats basically what I did last year and I also planned to get the
Kona Smoke. I actually started at 26 stone and shortly before I
started cycling I was as much as 27 stone. On Friday I weighed myself
and was 123kg which is about 19.3 stone so I'm getting there.
I ended up buying a cheap £60 steel framed mountain bike from ebay.
Many people on this forum weren't impressed but its done me proud. The
only geniune problem I can put down to the bike is the caged bearings
failing in the front wheel. I had a problem with the rear gears not
being properly adjusted and so the chain slipped between the freewheel
and spokes and damaged them. This was actually my fault and it would
be unfair to put this down to the bike.
Even though the bike only has 18 gears there is no problem going up
hills and the easiest gear is so easy that you're probably at walking
speed. Certainly going up hill can be so slow its hard to balance or
at least used to be.
The main problem I find is the lack of fast gearing which in some ways
is good because the bike is coasting beyond cadence speed and you can
use this time to have a breather from peddling which can be helpful.
However this does slow down the journey overall. If I was buying now I
would be more concerned with fast gearing.
Incredibly considering the weight I've put on the bike I've only had
one puncture and that was going through a village at speed and hitting
a large hole in the road which bits of rusty old barb wire had
collected in. If I hadn't been enjoying the scenary so much and
actually concentrated on the road I could have easily avoided it. I
changed the original mountain bike tyres for Schwalbe Cityjets
(26x1.5) They are still in good nick after over 1000 miles with well
over 20 stone on them most of the time.
The bike I bought weighed about 15.2kg which is heavier than the
average but still very respectable. It doesn't have any suspension at
all apart from a couple of springs at the back of the saddle. Which is
an upgraded saddle to suit my larger posterior.
I actually look forward to commuting by bike to and from work. I enjoy
the coming home bit more of course.
I feel loads better after shedding the weight. Muscles have increased
and I'm generally a much stronger person. I work a nightshift and
recently purchased a cheap laptop and decided to take it to work in my
backpack along with all my other stuff. The backpack probably weighed
in excess of 10kg fully loaded and yet was no problem going up a steep
1km+ hill (raises up 70metres over 900metres).
The only negative thing I can say is it doesn't do much for the arms.
One thing that can be disheartening is at first the weight comes off
rapidly but later the loss slows down as you become lighter. This
can't be helped because the extra weight at the beginning is obviously
helping you lose weight at first. When I first started I was losing
2kg a week. Now its more like 0.5kg on average. However don't think
you have to suffer rubbish food. I still pig out all the time and eat
more than 2 people most of the time and still manage to lose weight. I
tend to eat a lot at weekends but be frugal during the working week.
Last tuesday though I had six large pancakes dripping with treacle and
when I came back from work in the morning used up the remaining batter
to have a further 3 pancakes and still lost weight at the end of the
week.
!