Bike for overweight guy

alan2009

Hi everyone i need some help here i am 31 6'4 guy started eating properly and exercising 2 months ago with a starting weight of 25st 5lbs, now down to 22st 10lbs, when i was a teenager i cycled a lot and i want to get back to it but i am wary of buying a bike that wont support my weight just looking for some tips and help on buying a bike any help eill be much appreciated

ford2600

Have a read here
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056759879
Best of luck

alan2009 wrote: »

Hi everyone i need some help here i am 31 6'4 guy started eating properly and exercising 2 months ago with a starting weight of 25st 5lbs, now down to 22st 10lbs, when i was a teenager i cycled a lot and i want to get back to it but i am wary of buying a bike that wont support my weight just looking for some tips and help on buying a bike any help eill be much appreciated

route66

From my own experience a road bike (aka racer) will be much nicer to ride and will encourage you to use it more. The problem is that a skinny 23mm tyre and road bike wheel may not be up to your current weight. Some road bike frames are not certified to your weight either.

A hybrid will not be as nice to ride but can be stronger. Halfords have on offer at the moment for €250: (link) and this could get you started. The plan could be:

• Buy the Halfords bike, use it lots, loose lots of weight
• When you arrive at some predetermined target weight (not necessarily your target end-weight) buy yourself a nice road bike as a reward.

When I got my road bike, I kept the hybrid for messing about on. Best of luck!

feck sake lads

well how much money are you talking about;)
if it were me with a shed load of money i would but a top of the range touring bike from say thorn with rohloff gears simply because it will do what you want it to do it will preform faultless for its lifetime as long as you look after it .
i ride a thorn sherpa i did have top quality road bikes but the sherpa is my favourate bike took me a while to get used to it (Much heaver ) .
anyway thats my choice remember it's an investment in your healt so dont skimp you know it makes sense.;)

couerdelion

alan2009 wrote: »

Hi everyone i need some help here i am 31 6'4 guy started eating properly and exercising 2 months ago with a starting weight of 25st 5lbs, now down to 22st 10lbs, when i was a teenager i cycled a lot and i want to get back to it but i am wary of buying a bike that wont support my weight just looking for some tips and help on buying a bike any help eill be much appreciated

You've already lost over 2.5 st and in a couple of months time wil probably lose a couple more putting you around 20 st. I'm same height as you and that's about the weight I was when I got my first road bike - a specialized Allez - I was worried about carbon forks but was told they would be fine - they were. Talk to a bike shop if you are worried about whether or not a certain bike could hold your weight.

A friend got a hybrid on the BTW scheme at the same time and is raging that he's stuck with it for a nother few years as he doesn't have the cash to upgrade in one go. Go for a racing bike - you won't regret it.

nilhg

The Obesity Clinic program on RTE recently featured a guy from Clane who was cycling to lose weight, not sure exactly how heavy he was but he's a big man and he was using a standard Trek road bike. I know that John in Cahills bike shop in Naas checked out the safety stuff before he supplied the bike so he might be worth talking to for the OP.

jjcahill78

Hi there, I bought a Giant Rapid, flat bar racer. I started cycling that at 24 stone, Im 21 now. I would highly reccomend them. I have 28mm tyres on it and its fine, never let me down. I would advise you to get a bike with triple chain rings on front, when you're heavier the hills can be a bitch. I started this time last year doing 10km spins and ended up doing the Sean Kelly 100 (it was a long day but I got round).

I am now thinking about getting a Felt, my brother has one and it is very comfortable. The flat bars were good for getting started on. Go and try out bikes, I thought I was too heavy for road bikes but it turned out not to be the case. Best of luck !

Dotsie~tmp

I did something similar. I started in Jul at near 21st and now 16 with 5.5 stone fat loss and about 1st of muscle added. I tried biking but it wasnt comfortable and a high weights a spill a light guy can walk away from can seriously injure. So I focused on diet and walking an hour a day for the first 4months and lost 4 st. Then I started weights pressups and situps. This is highly recommended as it makes you feel better and lighter and exercise feels easier.

My knees arent great from the weight and my trade so I needed to get back to a low impact cardio excercise. I tied cycling below 17st and t felt much better on a Giant CRS Hybrid. I wouldnt recommend a hybrid or a racer over 17st as pinch punctures on potholes are way too easy plus a mountain bike would be better at high weights. Remember distance and speed are unimportant if heavy as even short stints give very high calorie burn. This will come down as u thin and you will feel able to go faster for longer. So i recommend a cheap mountain bike first till you get down to 17st area maybe 2nd hand.

Im summary.
- Diet first (keep it rigid until 18st achieved)
- Do dumbbells and weight exercise! Cant recommend this enough.
- Stay away from hi impact stuff while heavy, its painful.
- Do cycle more and more as u get lighter.
- Dont get a good bike till u get to a comfy weight.
- Dont stress if the weight loss appears to stall while doing good exercise and weights. You are losing fat and gaining muscle. My weight is dropping slowly atm but I can still measure and see rapid fat loss as i bulk up.
- Mix it up to keep it interesting. Throw in some walking or swimming if you like and exhaust urself on the low impact stuff.

I'll just mention some things I consider good painless exercise when you are very heavy.
-Cross Trainer in a gym very good.
-Cycling very good.
-Low weight high repitition weights.
-Swimming.

Seaneh

Just on the bike front.

I just picked up a Specialized Tricross and while I'm a few ston lighter then the op, I'm still a big lad and I think it's great for a heavier lad who'd want a drop bar bike.

It's a pretty upright position, has breaks on the tops of the bars as well as the drops and the stem is really adjustable, there's a shim what sits under it which allow you to change the angle-/+ 3 degrees and then on top of that you can flip the stem, so you have 6 (I think) different options in total! And there are a few spacers so you can lower and raise it as needed. On my old bike I found using the drops near impossible and ended up on the hoods and tops all the time but so far on the tricross I've been finding it really easy to reach them and use the breaks from the drops too, which I'd never felt comfortable with before. The 32c tyres might be a little more forgiving for you than 23 or 25c as well, and as you lose weight you could buy skinnier tyres. The added bonus of mudguard and rack mounts make it a perfect commuter as well, which means you are more likely to use it.

So basically, if you'd like drop bars but are worried a road bike might be a bit too low for you the tricross is a perfect middle ground between getting an all out road bike or a flat bar/hybrid. Other bikes of the same mould would the the likes of a Surly Long Haul Trucker or Cross check but those both have bar end shifters (some people love them, some hate them) and are pretty heavy.

http://www.specialized.com/ie/gb/bikes/road/tricross/tricrosstriple#specs is the current model of my spec.

If you have a specialized dealer near you go and have a look.