Very fat bloke needs advice

[Cyberdad]

Hi,

I am 46 years old, and until two months ago weighed 24 stone. I have a young family (youngest 18 months) and decided that if I wanted to live long enough to see them grow up I had better do something about getting fit.

A couple of years ago I purchased new bikes for the family (£80 specials and a buy one get one free offer) and so decided that I would get it out of the shed and start riding to work. I know the bike is rubbish, but it was at least worth a try.

My office is just over five miles from home, with a variety of hills and flat bits, and so I was looking at a round journey of over ten miles a day. The first week nearly killed me with each journey taking almost an hour and involving frequent stops and frequent use of the lowest gear possible. I am proud to say I have cut the average journey time down to just over 30 minutes, and stay in the highest gear possible for over 90% of the journey. I have also lost two stone in the last two months, eat well, and look forward to my daily ride far more than I thought I would.

The problem is that over the last week I have started to push harder, leading to the rear wheel disintergrating on Tuesday. I swapped the wheels for those from my wife's bike (which had similarly lain dormant in the shed since purchase), but this morning managed to explode the front tyre. It seems obvious that whilst the bike itself works (after a fashion), the wheels and tyres aren't really up to the job.

I know that for several hundred pounds I could get a new bike which would do the job, but I haven't got any money. My business is a mortgage brokers, and the credit crunch means that now is not a good time. Having made 60% of our staff redundant, and taken no personal drawings drawings for nine months, a new bike is not an option. Does anyone have any suggestions as to possible replacement wheels and tyres, or any other idea which might suffice for the meantime.

On a different topic, does anyone know of any cheap rain jackets or similar that don't leave you wetter on the inside than on the outside and come in XXXXL; I have given up on my £7.99 cagoule and would prefer to just get wet.

Sorry my first post is quite so long

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

Welcome to the madhouse, and well done on your commuting thus far!!

Others will be able to give plenty of advice on the bike aspects, as far as the rain jacket goes I'd be inclined to give it a miss. I sweat buckets and just wear a short-sleeved cycling jersey with arm warmers - I get wet, but dry quicker without a jacket. I only use a jacket if it's really cold and really lashing it down.

Each to their own, but I find the jacket makes things worse (smellier too!) not better.

 

[Cyberdad]

Welcome to the madhouse, and well done on your commuting thus far!!

Others will be able to give plenty of advice on the bike aspects, as far as the rain jacket goes I'd be inclined to give it a miss. I sweat buckets and just wear a short-sleeved cycling jersey with arm warmers - I get wet, but dry quicker without a jacket. I only use a jacket if it's really cold and really lashing it down.

Each to their own, but I find the jacket makes things worse (smellier too!) not better.

Thanks for the welcome.

I was coming to the same conclusion about the jacket but wondered if anyone had any brilliant ideas.

 

[dmb]

just replace the tires with some slicks http://www.wiggle.co.uk/c/Cycle/7/Tyres_-_MTB_Road/

that should keep you going for some time, as long as the wheels are ok form your wifes bike at the moment

 

[Cyberdad]

Hi dmb,

The wheels appear to be OK. Would slick tyres still be OK for off road tracks? I live quite near the New Forest, and on a couple of weekends have gone for a ride there. The tracks tend to be packed gravel, so nothing too onerous. I don't seem to recall there being different tyres when I was a boy, we simply went everywhere with whatever (unless you were lucky enough to have a "racing" bike, when you had skinny tyres).

 

[LLB]

If the bike is a couple of years old and has been standing, then there is a good chance that the inner tubes have perished. As a cheap/free fix, If the tube off the old wheel is still intact, then use that for the time being, but look at replacing them.

Rather than sticking it in top gear, try cogging it down a couple of gears and spin the pedals faster to give more consistency to it.

You could consider joining your local Freecycle group and either put out an appeal for a bike, or see if anything suitable comes up.

Smooth tyres at higher pressures will definitely help make life easier on the commute, but if you want to go offroad, then consider a different cycle to your commuter than one which would attempt to do both jobs for you badly.

Welcome to the forum BTW, and well done for your efforts to date

 

[swee'pea99]

Welcome! And congratulations! It takes balls to do what you've done, and more to come on here and post about it. Freecycle is a good suggestion. Another option worth checking out is ebay - if money is tight, you can get a lot more for it if you learn how to use ebay (look for the 'advanced search' link, and have a good look thru' the options it gives you) be prepared to invest some time and effort, use google to check out things that come up.

Oh, and I'd also echo what LLB says about 'gear low, pedal fast'. They say 'no pain no gain', but they lie. Look at good cyclists you see around you on the road: if your legs aren't going round as fast as theirs, change down.

Two stone in as many months - blimey! Respect. Stick with it...it only gets better.

 

[Crackle]

The order of the day is to keep it going for now right?

Check out e-bay for cheap wheels @8-11 pound. The only thing you'll need to establish is whether the rear cogs are a freewheel (most likely) or a cassette. If you take the old wheel into a bike shop and ask them to remove the rear block for you, you'll know. If it's got a thread it takes a freewheel. If it hasn't it takes a cassette. You then just need to buy the right wheel, threaded or cassette which it should say in the description.

I would also look at how you tune a bike wheel and you can then go around your spokes to tweak them a bit. So long as you do it in increments and check it carefully you should be able to keep it in shape and true. Takking it to a bike shop to do will probably cost 10/15 quid. Look at http://bicycletutor.com/ there's a wheel truing tutorial on there.

As LLB says, don't grind but spin and you won't find a breathable waterproof for less than say £40 that's of any use. A windproof jacket is more important, especially if you're wet. Lookout for the Aldi and Lidl bike kit offers. Can't remember if there's one soon but the kit is generally more than adequate at very low prices.

And well done - keep it up

 

[Cyberdad]

Thanks for the suggestions, I will certainly have a look at freecycle and ebay. I hadn't thought about the rubber perishing, (which now seems embarrasingly obvious), and the tube and tyre off the old wheel are OK, so it looks like I have a resolution for tommorrow morning.

Thanks for the suggestions as regards the peddling - it looks as if I might have got the wrong end of the stick (and there was me feeling very proud I was now only using the largest cog at the crank). I must admit, the last week I have been trying to get the journey time under the 30 minutes, and was thinking if I could bear the leg burn that the highest gear was the way to go. I will try a couple of cogs less B)

 

[Cyberdad]

Thanks crackle, that site is excellent.

Lidl is our supermarket of choice at the moment, so I will keep my eye open. The problem is that normally their sizes don't go quite big enough, although they are a lot closer than they were.

 

[GrahamG]

Pump the tires up well - have you got a pump with a pressure gauge? If they're knobblies you probably want to aim for about 50psi (there should be a recommendation on the sidewall of the tyre).

Oh, and PM me your address. I've got a slick MTB tire which has a good bit of life left in it and a couple of tubes for that size - couldn't bring myself to throw them away when I cleared the garage out at the weekend, you're welcome to them. New forest tracks will be fine with slick tires (just take care on the corners!), but you will likely get a few punctures from all the bits of flint about so remember to carry a repair kit and pump.

 

[John Ponting]

cyberdad - well done on progress so far. It WILL get easier and the lbs will continue to go.

Clothing - swmbo was looking for large sizes for some of the drivers where she works. These people advertise on the back of our local buses. I haven't used them but may be worth a look http://www.bigclothing.co.uk/

 

[pinkkaz]

Hi Cyberdad,

Someone at my work got a bike from the dump for a tenner - it works fine. It might be worth a visit to see what's there, even if it's just to get some new wheels!

 

[cheadle hulme]

+1 for the local tip.

Mine don't like you taking stuff, so I have to take some rubbish and slowly dump it as I am scanning the skip where the bikes go.

 

[LLB]

Thanks for the suggestions, I will certainly have a look at freecycle and ebay. I hadn't thought about the rubber perishing, (which now seems embarrasingly obvious), and the tube and tyre off the old wheel are OK, so it looks like I have a resolution for tommorrow morning.

Thanks for the suggestions as regards the peddling - it looks as if I might have got the wrong end of the stick (and there was me feeling very proud I was now only using the largest cog at the crank). I must admit, the last week I have been trying to get the journey time under the 30 minutes, and was thinking if I could bear the leg burn that the highest gear was the way to go. I will try a couple of cogs less B)

When you do change the tyres over, take a real close look for any sharp edges or exposed spoke ends in the rim (damaged rim tape) on the other wheel as it may have aggravated the puncture - being a cheap bike, quality control is never that high up the list.