What types of bikes should big people use?

[Midlifecylist]

I think that you may need to make some changes, and find some people who like to cycle, such as a cycling club. Look around in your area for organizations like this. It sure helped me. I started cycling at about 400 pounds. Everything Yojimbo said is correct here. Longer rides and change of lifestyle will be necessary. And what Reudy said about weight also seems like good advice, keep in mind that cycling, especially good cycling that promotes fitness, is not learned overnight. You have to work at cycling and keep your energy and fitness up, even in the winter. I still have problems in the spring in getting back to cycling weight and speed after a winter on trainers. Stick to it, make it a life quest, and keep on riding. Once you build basic speed and fitness, cycling is even more fun.
Personally, I am still in the upper 200's, and I like hybrid bikes for their durability and build quality, as well as their adaptability.

 

[Froze]

260 pounds? I saw a guy on a Cannondale cyclocross bike that weighed that much, of course he was using 700 35c tires and had a set of tandem wheels built; but the mtb suggestion was a good one. but a touring, or a cross bike, or a hybrid should handle that weight, even a recumbent may be worth looking into. Good wheels like the Velocity Dyad with 40 spokes is a great wheel for this weight.

350 pounds is basically the same thing in regards to bikes mentioned above, you can find a bike to handle it but wheels is the problems, you need wider rims that can handle something like a 40 to 45c so get a set of tandem wheels with 48 spokes each would be idea so again Velocity Dyad to the rescue who has a 48 hole rim. Tires will wear out fast unless you get some heavy duty tires like the Schwalbe Marathon Plus HS440 which come in a 45c.

Of course when you get rims that handle wider tires you have to make sure the bike can handle the tire's width, both front and rear.

Probably the best thing to get at 350 pound level is a recumbent. A recumbent should have 3 wheels with two in the rear and one up front. An extra large person would probably be uncomfortable for any longer rides over say 5 to 10 miles on anything but a recumbent, and if the rider gets uncomfortable riding guess what? yup, they'll stop riding, so now they'll have a 2 wheel bicycle that became garage art. A recumbent will give a bulky rider a much greater sense of stability without fear of falling over and getting hurt. There are cheap ones on Amazon that can at least get your feet wet, and I always recommend a first time rider to buy cheap the first time just in case, which happens about 80% of the time, they give up on the exercise program and relish the bike to becoming garage art. Amazon has the Mobo Triton Pro Ultimate 3 wheeler with just a single speed system for just $360, you might be able to get at an LBS a special built front wheel that has a multi speed internal hub and thus get more than one speed, but check on that first before jumping in. The Sun EZ-3 USX HD Trike is the only bike I ran into that is warrantied past 300 pounds, they warranty it to 400 pounds but it's a $1,600 bike and it's got 30 speeds.