Heavy Rider

General cycling advice ( NOT technical ! )
Pub
Posts: 4
Joined: 3 Jun 2021, 9:57am

Re: Heavy Rider

Post by Pub »

Update.

I phoned 2 very well known cycle stores and when I asked about my weight on a cycle I could have got a better response if I told them I’m from Mars and have 3 legs :D
It’s clear that there is nothing out there for me off the shelf as it were and I can only get accommodated if I found someone who can build one from the ground up.
In fairness I did get a positive response from a German chap who told me that a Riese and Muller (spelling) electric bike would suit me......however, that’s about nearly £5000 plus almost £1000 after 2 years for a new battery :(

I’m currently on a weight loss program anyway but I’d hoped that cycling could help in some way as well as regular exercise, but alas the catch 22 comes into effect as I’ve got to lose quite a bit before any stores don’t think I’m an alien.

Once again thanks for all the replies.
Vorpal
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Re: Heavy Rider

Post by Vorpal »

Bike Friday do a build for 'heavy riders'. That might be worth investigating?
“In some ways, it is easier to be a dissident, for then one is without responsibility.”
― Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
Pub
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Joined: 3 Jun 2021, 9:57am

Re: Heavy Rider

Post by Pub »

American?
Can’t find one here.
nez
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Joined: 19 Jun 2008, 12:11am

Re: Heavy Rider

Post by nez »

I think a lot of fuss is being made here. I used to be comparably heavy and rode a Dawes Galaxy, no problem. Any well made steel tourer will be fine. Avoid bikes with lightly built wheels. Enjoy the ride, stop worrying. :D
Chris56
Posts: 213
Joined: 3 May 2020, 9:30pm

Re: Heavy Rider

Post by Chris56 »

nez wrote: 10 Jun 2021, 2:19pm I think a lot of fuss is being made here. I used to be comparably heavy and rode a Dawes Galaxy, no problem. Any well made steel tourer will be fine. Avoid bikes with lightly built wheels. Enjoy the ride, stop worrying. :D
Agreed. A bike with a decent rear wheel: freehub and high spome counts will serve you fine.
As you only intend to ise it around town the amount of force acting on the wheel will probably be less than that of a montain bike being ridden down a bumpy trail by a rider of moderate weight.

Im about 100kg and ride a hardtail MTB that regularly use on some really bumpy bridalways. The rear wheel has 32 spokes and a freewheel, and have has zero problems.
Govnor
Posts: 82
Joined: 6 Jun 2021, 8:33pm

Re: Heavy Rider

Post by Govnor »

Here at fat club we just pump the tyres to the max and ride on.
Fully understand as tried an s-work parked up at work and felt like it would snap with 20 stone
slowster
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Joined: 7 Jul 2017, 10:37am

Re: Heavy Rider

Post by slowster »

The OP has stated that the bike will be used for "biking around town where each trip will be a maximum of 2 miles". Some of the suggestions being made are inappropriate and unnecessarily expensive. Even if in the longer term the OP decided that he enjoyed it so much that he wanted to do much longer rides, it would still be better to start with a relatively inexpensive robust bike like an Elephant Bike, and only buy a more expensive bike later. By that point he should have a better idea of what he wanted in a new bike, which might be very different from what he would choose now. For very short local rides I use something very similar to an Elephant Bike, because it is the best tool for the job.
Vorpal
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Re: Heavy Rider

Post by Vorpal »

Pub wrote: 10 Jun 2021, 2:12pm American?
Can’t find one here.
I just had a look at their website & you are right. There used to be a couple of dealers in the UK, but they are no longer on the map. :(
“In some ways, it is easier to be a dissident, for then one is without responsibility.”
― Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
Bonefishblues
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Joined: 7 Jul 2014, 9:45pm
Location: Near Bicester Oxon

Re: Heavy Rider

Post by Bonefishblues »

slowster wrote: 10 Jun 2021, 3:57pm The OP has stated that the bike will be used for "biking around town where each trip will be a maximum of 2 miles". Some of the suggestions being made are inappropriate and unnecessarily expensive. Even if in the longer term the OP decided that he enjoyed it so much that he wanted to do much longer rides, it would still be better to start with a relatively inexpensive robust bike like an Elephant Bike, and only buy a more expensive bike later. By that point he should have a better idea of what he wanted in a new bike, which might be very different from what he would choose now. For very short local rides I use something very similar to an Elephant Bike, because it is the best tool for the job.
Speaks sense does this Poster.
Bonzo Banana
Posts: 413
Joined: 5 Feb 2017, 11:58am

Re: Heavy Rider

Post by Bonzo Banana »

Vorpal wrote: 7 Jun 2021, 9:37am
Bonzo Banana wrote: 5 Jun 2021, 11:51pm
Vorpal wrote: 4 Jun 2021, 8:03am Do you have some evidence for this?
It's not hard to google decathlon bike recall or words to that effect.
If you use https://ec.europa.eu/safety-gate-alerts ... /webReport and check for safety notices using the search term 'bicycle', Specialized gets more hits than Decathlon products. There are a few B'Twin products, but given the number of bicycles they sell around Europe, I don't think that they have an unusually high number of notices. One would need more information about total sales to make any sort of comparative analysis.
Bonzo Banana wrote: 3 Jun 2021, 8:44pm The certification is about a minimum safety level and lifespan it wouldn't prevent bike frames from going on much longer but nowadays the industry is often focused on lightweight bikes which have a more finite life. I used to be a compliance officer and had access to the BSI certification site so I could read any of the certification as the site I worked at was licensed to use the BSI site. So I looked at bicycle certification from time to time back then despite not being the industry I was in. It's not hard to google decathlon bike recall or words to that effect. Bicycle certification involves a lot of testing including special rigs that simulate the ageing of frames by high speed flexing to create many years of life over just a few hours or days. The results will dictate what can be claimed by the manufacturer.
Well, I used to be a test engineer. I never tested any bicycle frame, but my specialty was fatigue testing. Any bicycle design that produces
a fatigue failure during safety certification test has a substantial design or quality issue. The loads are 1000 N (270 pounds) per crank for 100 000 cycles. That might sounds a lot, but at 80 rpm and 10 mph, it's only about 200 miles. So, I would agree that it is about minimum safety level, but doesn't really have much to do with lifespan or ageing. If I were writing a test spec like that, I would call it an 'early fatigue test' or something like that.

For anyone who is interested, my reference is BS EN ISO 4210 Cycles — Safety requirements for cycles series of standards
mattsccm wrote: 6 Jun 2021, 8:58pm This is being way over thought. Any hard tail MTB will have a frame tough enough. And decent low gears. Maybe chuck a set of steel rigid forks on if fancied. Even low end disc brakes will be fine. After a bit money could be spent on some nice wheels or what ever. My pub bike, a 1980s MTB would do the job if someone bothers to spend a tenner on the brakes.
My local wheel building ace charges 60p a spoke plus a tenner for wheels if you take him the rim and hub. Ask nicely and he'll find some XT hubs for a tenner the pair.
I mostly agree. The OP has a good budget, and probably doesn't want your pub bike, though :wink:
Many brands have had safety recalls for carbon fibre forks often those that combine a metal steerer but carbon fibre blades as there has been many bonding issues in the past. I don't think its about overall volume of sales when it comes to recalls it's more about the failure rate as a percentage. I don't know what the acceptable level of failure rate is in the bicycle industry but it could be something like 2%.

A quick search on a bicycle trade site shows a mixed bag of recalls but 3 btwin recalls on that page and some of those recalls effecting many bicycles over many years. The rockrider recall only effected the larger frames but the total load rating of 100kg for those bikes only allowed about 80kg approx rider weight and for taller people it would be a greater struggle to keep under that total load rating. I recall a frame failing in a forum after only 2 weeks of use for a rockrider.

https://www.bike-eu.com/search?q=recall

Aluminium fatigues over time, when you buy a aluminium frame its a lot stronger than it will be after a year of use etc. It's the nature of the material and this is factored in when a bicycle is designed so that even after 7 years there is still enough strength left. Some aluminium becomes more brittle as it ages even without use so becomes weaker anyway.

Steel has an endurance limit so can withstand fatigue to a degree based on the frame design but that isn't the case for aluminium.

Image

For heavy riders the certification is very useful as the total load of bikes can vary enormously from 100kg total load for many btwin bikes to 160kg for other brands like Giant etc. It's all useful information to make an informed choice which is more critical for obese cyclists.
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