Cycling UK Forum

CTC shared this on Facebook & I thought it deserved sharing here for those who don't frequent those parts of t'Internet.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30295759

Rick.

I cycle most weeks with a 70+ one legged rider. He lost his leg 30 or so years back, after which he undertook a number of rides for charity. JOGLE, a long south African one, and a big south american one. He has finally just changed to an electric assist bike, as he has begun to struggle on big hills. Now he leaves us standing. Inspirational doesn't really seem a big enough word.

Cheers
Barry

I used to see this chap occasionally on audax rides several years ago. I believe he got as far as finishing the Chepstow/Anglesey 600 km event one year.
http://www.njrandonneurs.com/HICKMANKEVIN.html
http://www.ctc.org.uk/about-ctc/history ... in-hickman

The guy I ride with has a prosthetic leg which in itself is a marvel. He has one for 'best', walking etc, and I suspect it's covered in coloured plastic to appear as natural as possible, but the other, his cycling one is brilliant. It is just the mechanical metal bits. Nothing fancy. The clever thing is all the angles and leverage. It isn't obvious until you think about it, but the knee and ankle angles and rates of change are different walking to cycling, so the leg folk built him one especially for the job. AFAIK he gets a very small amount of benefit in pedal power, but gains in balance. That said, he regularly falls off at stop signs etc. We try to get to them ahead of him and talk him across when it's clear, but if he has to stop....

There's also a one armed cyclist around here too. Only seen him a couple of times, but he seems to keep up a remarkable pace.

Humbling isn't it?

Don't know about one leg but I'm a one armed cyclist.
I ride an ICE trike that has been slightly modded for me.
My cycling arm is a couple of inches longer than my normal arm as it helps me turn right.

It's the people out on hand cycles that I always admire, as arms are so much weaker than legs.

Don't know their names, but there used to be two guys who regularly did the Dartmoor Devil I seem to remember one had a crutch strapped to the frame, the other had a permanent straight "leg" that stayed on a pedal at 6 o'clock, not sure how that was done. I've never attempted it with two legs, though I've heard it said that a person has the same amount of energy regardless of the number of limbs, hence why leg and hand crank together don't give any real benefit. That said, I agree with tigerbiten, hand crank must be really tough, there were two on the Velo Vintage in Exeter on Saturday, you could see the amount of effort they had to put in.
Cheers, Rob.

Just a guess: twice as hard.

I recently rode a fairly heavy bike a few miles using one leg. Even though it had plenty of gears, I had SPDs, it was my favoured leg and I wasn't in a hurry it was actually really difficult. I was absolutely pooped after just a short distance, almost as bad as if I'd hopped rather than walked.

My respect for those who ride one-legged on a regular basis immediately increased enormously.

cheers

I had to ride 6 miles to work and then a couple of miles into an lbs after my LH crack fell off in use.

SPDs make it possible, it was reasonably hard, but I don't exactly do it often - if it's how you always cycle then you'd get used to it (that doesn't necessarily make it easier)

I do wonder about stopping though - unclip and make sure you land on that side...

CJ wrote:Just a guess: twice as hard.

I would guess 4 times as hard.

Not only are you using half your leg-power, your body can't assist properly. Riding normally - bipedal - you use the whole body as well as both legs. Using only one leg will upset this process ........ until you get used to it.

I used to lead a lot of rides for a london cycling group.

A fairly mixed bag of folk used to turn up - some maybe a bit rashly as some rides were seriously challenging.

I well remember on two of the tougher rides a guy with one leg turning up.

He managed as well as anyone else.

I also well remember at the Lewes pub stop on one ride a child in the beer garden doing a fair bit of staring - kids can be so innocent/blunt.

He was unfazed by it all.

Respect.

When I started riding in east Cheshire in the late 1970s, there was a guy who rode everywhere with one of the local clubs, and raced if I remember correctly. He had one crank on a pivot so that it just hung down at the bottom all the time.

RickH wrote:CTC shared this on Facebook & I thought it deserved sharing here for those who don't frequent those parts of t'Internet.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30295759

Rick.

Blimey. I wouldnt have thought that possible.

Saw this not long ago

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=plsBoAnSQQ4

Not the ebike, the one they review after the solid tyres.
Might be good for below knee amputees if the contact area to their prosthetic becomes sore on long rides maybe.

There were a few guys in our club that were amputees. Sadly we lost one in the summer through cancer.
He was a below the knee amputee, the others are above the knee. The main difference wax that he could honk up hills out of the saddle where as the above knee got up through sheer determination and nloody mindedness