Cycling UK Forum

Hi all,

Joined today with the challenge of finding a way back on my bike. I hope i'm posting this in the right place as i couldn't find an accesibility section. Please move it if required.

Suffered a stroke in 2015 leaving me with reduced use of my left hand and leg but i can still use my arm to control the bars and i'll use clip ins with MTB shoes to keep my foot in place. Since 2015 my bike has been on a dyno, i'm starting to find it boring and i'd like to get out and about. I'm a casual rider and happy with current bike which is a Norco threshold A2 which i got via the cycle scheme at work prior to my stroke, i used it to ride road and gravel. I'm not really clued up on bike parts so i'd like to pick your brains..

1) Its currently got drop bars and i'd like to swap them to flat bars for a slightly more upright position, choosing a bar doesn't seem to difficult however i'll need new shifters and brakes. I'm leaning towards a twist/grip shifter for the rear gears and a thumb shifter for the front, both to be placed on the right. It's got a 10 speed rear and i've found a Sram XX Grip Shift, Twist Shifter 10SP nos on ebay but i'm not sure if it'll be compatible. Ideally i'd like to keep the crankset and cassette the same however i'm open to changing them if required

Any recommendations for a thumb shifter for my current crankset?

After a bit of googling another option is to change the cassette to something like the SRAM NX 11 Speed X-Actuatuion Grip Shift with the Sram 1130 NX 11 Speed Cassette 11-42 or something similar. Would i need to change the derailiers and crankset if i do this, this seems it could be little pricey?

This is what i've found from a bit of googling but open to any other suggestions.

2) Brakes, i need them both to be on the right any recommendations for this, i did some googling but i must be searching for the wrong thing as i didnt find anything but i have seen it done?

3) Althought i can grip with my left i cannot let go on demand which is a little dangerous if i come off. I'm thinking to design a quick release mechanism like Tom Wheeler(MTB rider who lost the use of his right). I tried contacting him but was unsuccessful, if anyone knows of any solutions please let me know.

Another thing i'm considering is a steering damper

This is the bike i have: https://www.norco.com/bike-archives/2015/threshold-a2/

Cheers!

These might help you with your braking options viewtopic.php?t=148000

Paulatic wrote: ↑29 Nov 2023, 4:57pm These might help you with your braking options viewtopic.php?t=148000

A lot of info to work with there, thanks!

Flat bars will help a lot with regards to brake levers.
With brakes it's all depends on how road legal you want to be.
There are loads on single lever/dual cable options, but they are not road legal so don't crash.
I use a set of Tektro Auriga Twin, single lever to twin hydraulic disks, on the front wheels of my bent trike. I only use my back brake as a drag/parking brake and it's worked off a friction lever. But as it's independent of the front brakes, I'm road legal.
If you want to be road legal on a bike then there's the Hope Tech 3 Duo, twin levers to twin hydraulic disks. But it's expensive.

As for the hand, there's always Velcro. Sew a piece to the palm of a glove and stick the other half to the handle bar. You may have to experiment as to the amount and how well it lasts.

Luck .....

FWIW microshift do various thumbshfters. In most cases a LH thumbshifter can be mounted on the RH bar inverted, where you may actually find it better than normal to use. [a long time ago my MTB used to run inverted thumbshifters on both sides] Anyway I think you might be OK with a pair of standard thumbshifters on the RH bar, but with one inverted.

Tigerbiten wrote: ↑29 Nov 2023, 5:43pm Flat bars will help a lot with regards to brake levers.
With brakes it's all depends on how road legal you want to be.
There are loads on single lever/dual cable options, but they are not road legal so don't crash.
I use a set of Tektro Auriga Twin, single lever to twin hydraulic disks, on the front wheels of my bent trike. I only use my back brake as a drag/parking brake and it's worked off a friction lever. But as it's independent of the front brakes, I'm road legal.
If you want to be road legal on a bike then there's the Hope Tech 3 Duo, twin levers to twin hydraulic disks. But it's expensive.

As for the hand, there's always Velcro. Sew a piece to the palm of a glove and stick the other half to the handle bar. You may have to experiment as to the amount and how well it lasts.

Luck .....

I think considering the circumstances i'd like to be legal. The hope system looks perfect but yes pretty expensive, you think it would be possible to use the levers only with my current friction calipers and disc?

I've seen some others use velcro for the hand but I have spasticity in my left hand which makes it close, so gripping is not an issue it's letting go, i have to use my right hand to lift its fingers off. If i come off the bike it's likely my left hand will still be connected. You have given me an idea though. I might 3d print a larger grip so my fingers don't go all the way round to full grip, use velcro on that so my hand stays on and I still have pulling power.

Cheers

Brucey wrote: ↑29 Nov 2023, 6:06pm FWIW microshift do various thumbshfters. In most cases a LH thumbshifter can be mounted on the RH bar inverted, where you may actually find it better than normal to use. [a long time ago my MTB used to run inverted thumbshifters on both sides] Anyway I think you might be OK with a pair of standard thumbshifters on the RH bar, but with one inverted.

This looks a great option, their site says they make a set for Shimano Tiagra 4700 and i have 4600 i think, i've sent them an email to see if its compatible, i've read there was some changes with the 4700 but i'm hopeful

While searching i came accross a few threads stating the Sram 11 speed shifters work with shimano 10 speed cassette as the shifting ratios both linear and so close that these just work together, have you heard of this before?

Thanks

There aren't really "standard" solutions for this, there are dozens of customised options though.

It's worth searching out Team GB para-cyclist images / biographies and seeing their bike set-ups. I've seen various creative solutions and it's not all been top end kit either. Dame Sarah Storey is the obvious first pick to have a look at, she's right handed-only.

It's a LOT easier to customise all this with Di2 and hydraulic disc brakes but that's going to be a very expensive option (like, new bike expensive!) however there are ways to get everything done off the right shifter.

https://velo.outsideonline.com/road/roa ... -one-hand/
Very old thread on Singletrack with links to Tom Wheeler as well:
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topi ... led-rider/

Paul Components made (maybe still make?) a cable brake lever that pulled two cables simultaneously.

Revv wrote: ↑29 Nov 2023, 8:27pm I think considering the circumstances i'd like to be legal.

Yeah, that's probably not going to happen but seeing as dozens of para-athletes have ridden such bikes in competition, I doubt anyone will actually care one way or the other. Besides, it's no worse than the thousands of dodgy / illegal bikes already out there!

Shifters should be the easy one - a front (friction?) shifter mounted upside down and then a regular rapidfire type shifter for the rear. Do check compatibility with your current Tiagra set up though.

Re the grip issue, try the equivalent of a SPD cleat but for the hand - mount a piece of "handlebar" onto the actual bar using a QR "cleat" type system so that in the event of a fall you can twist it undone. You'll come off but you'll be holding a small piece of detachable bar, not the actual bar.
Jon-Allan Butterworth (para-cyclist, above elbow amputation) had something similar which he rested his prosthetic limb into, the limb would remain "holding" the detachable bar if he came off but that was far better than it ripping out of his stump.

It'll help greatly if you can find a very experienced bike shop to assist with this - it's beyond the scope of the average chain-store mechanic!

Good luck.

I've only one hand since my accident with a Tiger so I've also looked in to one hand braking.
The main downside I found with 1 lever/2 cables setup is there is no variation in braking front to back.
So what works great in a straight line on a dry road is the opposite of what you need going around a corner in the wet.
I'm sure I could have worked something out on a bike but that was one of the main reasons I ended up on a recumbent trike.
A lot less of a risk of coming off when slowing down from a silly high speed run in all conditions.

It's taken some work/time to arrange the 4 controls needed in to the most ergonomic layout for me.
So you probably won't get it perfect first time, but as long as you're close you can work on it.

Luck ........

As regards a second brake, have you thought about a back pedal brake? The Shimano 8 speed Nexus hub comes in a back-pedal variety, not sure about the 11 speed Alfine (I think not, but haven't checked).

I was trying to find (unsuccessfully...) a pic I know I have somewhere of a mountain biker I saw at a cafe stop once who had a prosthetic left arm. He had a socket on the left bar that a ball joint on his limb popped into (it would release in an accident) and his right hand grip had two individual brake levers, set at a slight angle and one slightly inboard of the other. It meant he could use the inner/upper brake lever with his first finger and the lower/outer lever with his middle and ring finger. If I can't find the image I'll try and recreate the layout using some spare parts.

Gear shifting was a trigger shifter under the bar and he was running a 1x - something that might be worth considering if you're not going to be going super fast or doing big climbs is to swap out the current double Tiagra chainset (which from the link you posted has 34/46 chainrings) and replace it with a 1x at maybe 38 or 40T. No front shifter required and you can still get a range of gears to cover most riding.

one thing that hasn't been mentioned is the possible use of a coaster brake; such conversions [eg to a Nexus 8 hub] are not cheap [or easy come to that] but they do make it a bit more straightforward to put a safe/legal bike together.

Revv wrote: ↑29 Nov 2023, 3:47pm .... i'll use clip ins with MTB shoes to keep my foot in place.

Presumably you'll be unclipping your good leg when coming to a halt but you may encounter problems on the rare occasions that the bike decides to topple the other way.

Will you be able as easily to unclip your weaker leg?

I've no experience of the customisations the OP is seeking but re brakes: I seem to remember some Dutcvh bikes have rear brake where you pedal backwards (or rather pressure pedals in reverse) to apply rear brake. Do such things still exist? are they practical? any possibility for OP?

Ian

they are known as 'coaster brakes'.