ADVICE PLEASE

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my husband has been road biking and experiencing severe nerve pain in his arms and neck. he has been to docs and this is not muscular pain. it is to do with nerves and carpel tunnel for which he has had surgery and recovered well. the pain is now present after even shorter runs and he is wondering wether it would be a sound investment to go recumbent as he really enjoys cycling and does not want to give it up. are there any recumbent bikers who have had similar experience who can offer advice please thankyou.
 

3tyretrackterry

Active Member
Location
East Midlands UK
I cannot offer any advice on carpal tunnel or nerves but what i can say is in my opinion recumbent triking is far less stressful on your body as a whole.I put this down to the fact that riding my trike my body is so much more relaxed in general. I suspect it may be the same for recumbent bikes but cannot say for sure. The only sure way to find out is to try one. You dont say what part of the country you are in but if there is a dealer local to you it may be worth a visit.
HTH
 
I cannot offer any advice on carpal tunnel or nerves but what i can say is in my opinion recumbent triking is far less stressful on your body as a whole.I put this down to the fact that riding my trike my body is so much more relaxed in general. I suspect it may be the same for recumbent bikes but cannot say for sure. The only sure way to find out is to try one. You dont say what part of the country you are in but if there is a dealer local to you it may be worth a visit.
HTH

Forgetting the original reason for a second....

Reccumbent riding is something that is different and requires research and importantly "bums on seats" riding to see what type, configuration, size, shape and price fits the individual. Don't rush into this.
 

arallsopp

Post of The Year 2009 winner
Location
Bromley, Kent
Recumbents will generally take a lot of the strain off your arms and neck (you're not generally using your arms/shoulders to hold your body up, and your neck isn't craned back to see the road ahead) but as cunobelin says, each case is unique. Could be that a 'bent without a headrest aggravates the issue.

Detective mode on/
He rides an Allez Sport in the Stratford Henley area, right?
/Detective mode off.

Depending on the year, that's likely to be an aluminium framed drop bar bike with an alloy seat post, and either ally or carbon forks with high pressure skinny tyres. There are many ways to soften the ride that are cheaper than buying a 'bent.*

*but few that are more fun.
 

byegad

Legendary Member
Location
NE England
There are many different recumbents suited to anything from really fast road burning to leisurely touring and two or three wheels. All of them will offer relief for your husbands wrists. I rode my Azub bike with one finger on the handlebars for mile after mile and my QNT needs no more than that to keep it on course while my Kettwiesel demands a light hand as a minimum controlling force. The difference between bikes is a lot more than the difference you can find in DF bikes.

You need to choose between 2 or three wheels, folding or non folding, hard shell or soft seat, underseat or above seat steering, (The latter has a wide choice of bars too!) angle of seat, (The more reclined you are the faster you will go.) and the relation of seat height to bottom bracket height.

A trip to DTek near Ely is well worth the effort. They have over 150 different recumbents in stock and a far better range than any other store. You can try before you buy and Kevin tends to discourage you from a hasty purchase until you are really sure of your needs. Call to make an appointment to ride and be aware Kevin spends a lot of time on the road, buying and delivering recumbents. He answers emails eventually so a telephone call is best.
 
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hobbygirl

hobbygirl

Active Member
thankyou for your replies. we will look into it before any decision is made.
Arallsopp you are very good at detective work, his bike is 2009/10 version. any chance you can elaborate on your ideas to soften the ride please.
 

arallsopp

Post of The Year 2009 winner
Location
Bromley, Kent
Disclaimers first: I've spent a fair amount of time riding in proximity to a 2009/10 Allez Sport, but have never actually owned (or indeed ridden) one. Everything below is prefixed IIRC and IMHO or a best guess. As far as it goes (and its been known to go over 250 miles in one sitting) I like this bike a lot.

Ok, that out the way, let's go.


  • Its a brilliant frame, but the tight geometry and aluminium tubing work together to deliver almost all of the road buzz directly into the rider. The front is better than the rear, with decent padding on the bars and a carbon fork to soak up some of the nasties. More padding will help.
  • The stock saddle is narrow and firm. Some swear by it. Some at it. Its worth trying out a few others, as there's a lot of comfort to be earned here.
  • The seat post is probably the 'carbon wrapped' one that Spesh have been fitting for years. This might be grossly unfair, as presumably they'll swap it out from their newer bikes eventually and it may have already happened. If not, its a tube of aluminium delivering the buzz straight into the spine. A 'real' carbon post will absorb some of the buzz, and won't add any weight.
  • The stock tyres are very firm 23Cs, and are prone to pinch punctures below 100psi. Again, this invites a bumpy ride when the surface is less than perfect. If there's room it might be worth going wider / softer. There'll be a performance hit, but then the limiting factor at the moment is the comfort of the rider.
The bike is very stiff which makes it an excellent climber / sprinter, but all of that performance comes at the cost of comfort. Add in that the geometry seems to encourage riders to hook over the bars and (IMHO) you have an injury waiting to happen. There might be something clever that can be done with risers and the stem to give a more upright position, but I suspect that by the time he's replaced the components listed above and done this, he might be better off just parking/selling the sport and buying a touring/audax bike.

If that bike should happen to be a recumbent, excellent.
 
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hobbygirl

hobbygirl

Active Member
thankyou to all who replied we have an appointment to go and see Kevin at DTEK. as advised my husband phoned and spoke to Kevin who was extremely helpfull and offered sound advice. we are looking forward to it as Jon (hubby) is missing his cycling and i am missing his company on my bike rides. i will post an update when we know more.
 
I suffer from hand numbness, neck pains, back pain, and intense shoulder pain after a few miles on conventional bikes. I can ride my recumbent trike all day and not have a twinge. It really is that simple
 
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