Bike for 500lb Person?

wrote in message
om...
Hi,


What bike(s) would you recommend for a 500lb rider, who's about 6'2 in
height? He's been able to ride the Electra Rally Sport, although he
bent a crank on it, and he broke a crank 3 times and warped a wheel on
the Electra Townie. He was considering an adult trike, but he'd
prefer the better speed a two wheeled bike would offer.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks!

A Harley-Davidson.

wrote in message . com...
Hi,


What bike(s) would you recommend for a 500lb rider, who's about 6'2 in
height? He's been able to ride the Electra Rally Sport, although he
bent a crank on it, and he broke a crank 3 times and warped a wheel on
the Electra Townie. He was considering an adult trike, but he'd
prefer the better speed a two wheeled bike would offer.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks!

Look up Worksman bikes. They specialize in industrial bikes/trikes,
and I believe they can be accomodating to large riders.

I obtained a Worksmian three speed a few months back at a police
auction. It certainly is heavy duty, particularly the core
elements:fork, frame, wheels. For soemone of that size, some parts
may need upgrading.

First, A front brake is necessary. Worksman offers a front drum brake
upgrade, which may be the only viable option given the unusually heavy
duty spokes/rims used. Rim brakes may not be a great idea, as the rims
are chromed steel (very poor braking, particularly when wet), you'd
need a *very* long reach caliper(I happened to have such a beast, a
Weinmann 1080 caliper with salmon Kool Stops...OK in dry, useless in
wet).

Most Worksman bikes are single speed coaster brake bikes, but three
speed coaster brakes are available. Also, I think single speed with
drum brake are also a option. I think SRAM may make a 5speed hub gear
particularly rated for heavy work bikes. But this would likely be a
very custom and rather pricey option.

Next upgrades would probably be heavier seatpost, and better
stem/handlebar. Stock stem is one of those cheap Wald models. I've
been surprised with the one on my Worksman, as it seems constructed a
bit heavier duty than most Wald stems I've seen. But I never really
trusted the clamping system used on those things, always seem to be
easily "stretched" beyond good clamping power. I suspect the fork may
require a 21.1mm quill stem. You should be able to still find heavy
duty stems in this size, both regular 1" and BMX types.

Pedals and cranks might need upgrading. Stock cranks are one piece
steel. I don't know if these will hold up (though I suspect they
would). The only option would probably be some BMX three piece units.
Still heavy, but strong enough. These can get expensive. I suspect the
least expensive steel three piece cranks would be fine, being forged
chromoly, rather than welded hollow designs. http://danscomp.com has
some. Still, it may be cost effective to just stay with $10 chromoly
one piece cranks since they can be easily replaced several times over
at the cost of a single three piece set.

In article ,
writes:

On inspection, the inside of
the crank that fell off appeared "cored out", like someone took a
drill and drilled around, or sort of like a screw that got stripped.
I was with him at the time, so I saw all of this first hand.

Sounds to me like the crank was simply loose on the spindle.
That can happen to anyone regardless of weight, especially
if the crank had recently been removed & reinstalled.

Warped wheels can happen to anyone regardless of weight, too.
It might be repairable (I don't know the extent of the warpage).
If so, make sure whomever does the repairs properly stress-relieves
the spokes.


cheers,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

Bob Garrison wrote:

wrote in message

What bike(s) would you recommend for a 500lb rider, who's about 6'2
in height? He's been able to ride the Electra Rally Sport, although
he bent a crank on it, and he broke a crank 3 times and warped a
wheel on the Electra Townie. He was considering an adult trike, but
he'd prefer the better speed a two wheeled bike would offer.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

A Harley-Davidson.

So, Bob . . .

It wasn't funny the first time somebody said it. Can you explain how it
suddenly became funny when /you/ did?

That's what I thought.

Badger_South wrote:

[Now, I'm not doubting the OP. ('Stories' can get confused over telling
and
retelling...) There are 6'10 250lb guys here. Anyone ever snap any
cranks?

I snapped a crank this year while accelerating from an intersection where
I'd been stopped at a light. The guy at the LBS where I replaced the crank
treated this as a fairly common event. I made some kind of "didn't know my
own strength" remark and he said it probably didn't happen all at once. Sure
enough, after he pointed it out, I could see that half the surface of the
break looked oxidized and half looked clean. He said broken cranks will
often show evidence of having hit the ground on a poorly executed turn. For
what it's worth, I'm in the 6'10" 250 lb. category, except for the 6'10"
part.

--
Paul Turner

Subject: Bike for 500lb Person?
From: "Pat"
Date: 10/26/2004 9:00 AM US Eastern Standard Time
Message-id:


: I'd recommend a stationary bike in a gym.
:
: At 500 lbs, riding a regular bike is not safe for him or for others
: sharing the road with him.
:
: Don't be a prick. He's far less of a hazard to other road users than
: anyone in a car.
:
: Bikes can be made to serve people of different sizes, fortunately.
:
: Be thankful that this is an electronic forum; any 500-pound person who
: is strong enough to pretzel his cranks could also wrench your puny
: limbs until you squealed like a little piggy.

You come across as being so ANGRY all of the time. All this anger at people
who are trying to help the OP. And, surely, you must realize that your
500-pound strong person wouldn't be able to CATCH anybody on this
"electronic forum". So, chill at bit.

Pat in TX

I was gonna say the exact same thing. You'd have a heart atack before you'd get
close enough to catch me, and I'd put a bullet in your head before i'd let you
lay a hand on me.

This is another example that is misleading. On your figurative bike with 4
riders, their combined weight is not centralized over the crank. Spreading
out the weight changes the dynamics of their weight on the frame. If you
have to resort to idiotic examples like these two, you are not adding
anything to the problem---just trying to attack everybody else who IS trying
to help. Why don't you put forth something positive instead?

Pat in TX









Chalo's self loathing surfaces itself in everything he writes.

Badger_South wrote:
|| On Tue, 26 Oct 2004 11:02:21 -0400, "Roger Zoul"
|| wrote:
||
||| I see LA having exceptional endurance and not strength, but saying
||| he has exceptional "fitness" needs more qualification. I'm not
||| saying he doesn't have exception fitness, but his fitness is in
||| exceptional only for cycling, not for running and many, many other
||| activities.
||
|| You know he was a top triathlete before switching to cycling.

No I did not (though I heard him on TV talking about doing some running),
however, if he's not running and swimming on a regular basis, he's lost
fitness in those activities.

||
|| Are you making some other interpretation of exceptional fitness?
||

I don't think so. Fitness means being fit for an activity. One must train
for it. Just being trim and having "exceptional" endurance in one activity
doesn't make one exceptionally fit in all activities.

:
: Chalo's self loathing surfaces itself in everything he writes.

Is that what it is? He was lashing out at anyone and everyone.

Roger Zoul wrote:
No I did not (though I heard him on TV talking about doing some running),
however, if he's not running and swimming on a regular basis, he's lost
fitness in those activities.

If Lance Armstrong isn't fit, nobody is.

--Blair
"Physical fitness isn't about
square-peg/square-hole."