Welcome, Lord Valve, temporarily alias Willie the Gimp

Lord Valve wrote:

Well - gotta go do my exercises. I severed my quadriceps
tendon a little more than a couple of months ago, and I'm currently
in the process of stretching the sewed-together remains
of it back into a functional system which will allow my knee
to bend more than the 90 degrees it is currently capable
of. I fear that at some point I shall have to take up bicycle
riding as a form of rehabilitation; fortunately, that is at least
on the other side of the coming winter. Until then, I shall
be content with hobbling around with my cane...when I'm not
styling through Denver in my Sprinter, an 11-foot high monster
which I can easily walk around in. (I don't think I could drive
anything smaller, since my right leg would have to be much
more functional than it currently is to work the pedals in
one of those miniature green-weenie things which pass
for automobiles these days.) I can, however, work the
pedals underneath my Hammond/Roland keyboard rig,
and I do have more time these days to practice... ;-)

Be well.

Lord Valve
alias Willie the Gimp

I'm sorry to hear you got hear you got hurt, m'lord Valve. But I'm
glad to hear simultaneously that your musical abilities are not
impaired. I played some of the music you posted URLs to for the local
musiclover aka street corner gang, and they said they know all about
that "authentic" music, ever since they decided Garth is "plastic". My
mouth hung open. I though your chums were a minority taste...

*******

I don't know whether you're planning on riding a bicycle in Denver or
trucking it to some safe place, but unless you've at least historical
schoolboy experience to fall (er, no pun intended) back on, you want
to treat riding in traffic as an activity to be learned.

As to your bike, forget derailleur gears. Get Nexus 8 speed hub gears
and preferably with a full chaincase to minimize maintenance to near
zero. Don't shop at the mart; the crap they sell will collapse under
you and impale you. Go to a local bike shop and talk casually about
your gun collection while you finger the bikes. Get a mountainbike
style fitted up as a "comfort" or city bike, the more upright you sit
on it the better. If you have to crouch like a gorilla in too small a
cage on whatever bike the salesman wants to sell, turn the force of
your personality on his boss and demand to see the catalogues of
comfort bikes not in stock, or go shop elsewhere. You don't want a
cruiser-type either; those just look good and feel right until you
come to the first rise, then they turn into a zero-efficiency
deadweight. There are no roads without hills. Front and seat
suspension is good, rear wheel suspension is counter-productive.
Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres of 37mm or wider are the minimum for
protection from flats and you should consider instead getting the
biggest Schwalbe Big Apples (50 or 60mm) that will fit the bike you
buy. 700c (same as so-called 28" and 29") wheels rather than 26inch
will give you an extra margin of comfort; it also helps to put the
seat lower and the handlebars higher to contribute to a better
posture. Don't be shy to show anyone who wants to fit you to the bike
a pointed middle finger. Parts are available to fit any bike to you
instead. Look at my (expensive) Dutch bikes to see how I've made them
ergonomically suited to a dignified middle-aged fellow rather than to
some cafe-racer with shaven legs. The Cheeko90 seat I use stops you
getting saddlesores and numb nuts; it is sold under another name in
the States.

I'll let others offer the names of suitable models that are actually
available. Yo, fellers, Willie is the premier thermionic tube supplier
for the guitar amps of the greats, and a musician good enough to be
invited to jam with them in concert; his hands have to be protected
against microvibrations as he is a keyboard player. He's also more
than a spot weighty and no longer young, so he wants a comfortable
bike.

While I'm a big fan of bicycling, and alive because I took up
bicycling almost twenty years ago to keep my weight down, there is an
alternative for your situation that may not have occurred to you. A
rowing machine exercises the leg muscles and bends the knee, and is
good for the heart as well. It is also a year-round installation,
whereas I don't know whether you will be able (or want) to cycle in
the winter in Denver. A bicycle you can depend on is an expensive
piece of gear demanding a good bit of real estate for proper storage,
so you want to weigh the alternatives carefully.

Good luck.

After you actually decide to hang here, I'll give you an introductory
overview of the locals. If I do it now, you will certainly decide not
to come, and I'll miss you.

http://members.lycos.co.uk/fiultra/B...%20Smover.html
http://members.lycos.co.uk/fiultra/B...20Bauhaus.html
http://members.lycos.co.uk/fiultra/B...20CYCLING.html

Andre Jute
One Eye Jacks