Messages

31

General Discussion / Re: Short Crank Arm Purchase Tips?

« on: September 10, 2010, 11:15:08 pm »

If you want to try shorter cranks without initially investing in new cranks, you could use crank shorteners that bolt onto your existing cranks. These are commonly used on tandems to allow shorter (child) stokers to pedal, but would also work for what you want. An additional benefit is they will allow you to try different lengths to see what works best for you.

See http://www.tandemseast.com/parts/cranks.html#Crank%20Shrotners

Hi,
Thanks very much for recommending crank shorteners. I had never heard of them before. These could be a great interim step. I will certainly research them.
Best,
Neil

32

General Discussion / Re: Short Crank Arm Purchase Tips?

« on: September 10, 2010, 11:12:41 pm »

Shorter crank arms will reduce the travel of your legs and the maximum speed at which they move, but at the same time they'll reduce the mechanical advantage.   

Hi,
Thanks for your reply. You state in your response that my legs' maximum speed would be reduced. Would you please explain why they would spin slower & not faster?
Neil

33

General Discussion / Short Crank Arm Purchase Tips?

« on: September 09, 2010, 07:03:42 am »

Hi everyone,
I have a question for the list.  I am very seriously contemplating purchasing a triple chainring with 140 or 145 mm crankarms. These would be TruVativ Isoflows. Are there any things that I should be aware of before purchasing that I might not have thought of?
--For example, might I need to get a new bottom bracket?
--Will I need to raise my seat?
--If I do raise my seat, will that negate the benefit of the shorter crankarms?
--Does raising my seat put me at risk of knee pain on the back of my knees?
--I went for a bike fitting earlier this summer. Should I get a new fitting if I buy the new crankarms?

I ask that forum members please provide their thoughts & recommendations.

Here is some background that may be helpful. My reason for making this purchase would be to take some strain off my arthritic knees. My plan is to initially mount the chainrings on my K2 mountain bike/ city bike that I use for commuting.  If the crankarms produce a noticeable drop in inflammation of my knees, then I will mount the crankarms on a touring bike that I will thereafter purchase (likely a Trek 520 or Bianchi Volpe).  (If the short crankarms do not help my knees, I will be buying a recumbent for touring but that is a story for another day).  Currently, I use a Sugino 26X36X46 triple chain ring with 165 mm crank arms.
Thanks,
Neil

34

General Discussion / Re: Bike Path Guide Books for Canada?

« on: June 28, 2010, 11:51:15 pm »

Hi randyberlin & bikerbob,
Thanks very much for your replies. I will be ordering a number of the recommended books ASAP & look forward to using them in my trip planning.
Best wishes,
Neil

35

General Discussion / Bike Path Guide Books for Canada?

« on: June 26, 2010, 04:42:54 pm »

Hi everyone,
Can anyone recommend any English language guide books to bike paths in the Canadian provinces of Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick, and/or Nova Scotia?
Thanks,
Neil

36

General Discussion / Re: Bike Fit for Person with Bad Shoulders/Knees?

« on: May 10, 2010, 11:02:06 pm »

Hi Paddleboy,
This is a lot of good of information. It should help a lot.
Best,
Neil
 

Hi whittierider,
I just want to follow-up on one point you made in your response. You asked why I opted for 165 mm crank arms. First, it took a lot of phone calls just to find a bike store that could even special order crank arms of that size. Also, the LBS stated that, if I were to install a smaller crank arm size, my legs would just spin, rendering the bike difficult to ride. Do you agree with that assessment by the LBS? Please let me know.
Thanks,
Neil

You bike shop is feeding you a load of bovine fecal matter.

I am of French Canadian descent.  My people have the build of a plow horse, long torso, and short stubby legs.  If my legs were proportional to my torso, I would be over 6' tall.  Since I have short stubby legs, I usually end up on a 50CM sized road bikes.  It used to be that the smaller road bike frames came with 165MM crank arms.  The bike manufacturer assume that a small frame like that is being sold to either a female or an adolescent.  The 165MM crank arm is not there because of clearance issues.  The 165MM crank arm is there to take some strain off leg bones of the still growing adolescent.

The smaller crank rides just fine.  With shorter cranks arms, you have less mechanical advantage (the correct technical term), but you also have less bone stress too.  I know at one time Colorado Cyclist carried 165MM road cranks.  There are probably other sources.

Personally, I would consider installing a compact drive mountain bike crank.  These do not come shorter than 170MM crank arms, but you will not be loading up the knees as much.  You will have to learn to spin, but that is probably not a bad idea for you either.  If I spin at a cadence lower than 70, I get knee pain, so I shoot to keep a spin cadence of 80 - 90 revolutions per second.  In my 30's, I had a spin cadence of 105, but I just can't keep that up anymore.

I cannot provide much guidance on your shoulder issues.  A professional fitting my someone you trust might be money well spent.  Perhaps a Serrotta dealer since are trained better than most dealers.

37

General Discussion / Re: Bike Fit for Person with Bad Shoulders/Knees?

« on: May 10, 2010, 10:59:20 pm »

Hi CastAStone,
Your reply was extremely thoughtful & helpful. Thanks very much!!!
Neil

Can you recommend a model & manufacturer to get? I would definitely be into raising the handlebars on my bike. I have a couple questions. If I use spacers, will that make the ride less comfortable due to vibration or weaken the frame? Also are spacers the only way to raise the handlebars?

WTB makes a 60cm bar (traditional drops are 40-46cm) called the "mountain road drop bar", but its a little funky shaped, I'd look it up.

You might learn a lot about your handlebar options at Sheldon Brown's page; http://www.sheldonbrown.com/deakins/handlebars.html . You might enjoy trekking bars or "mustache" bars as well; if you are unfamiliar with those you can read about them there.

Spacers I can tell you definitively will not weaken the frame if you have a decent headset on your bike. I do not know the answer to the vibration question although I believe that since the spacers go above the headset, vibration is probably minimal. Chances are pretty good that you have at least one spacer on your bike now.

Another way to raise the handle bars is a taller stem (look for higher angle numbers). Also, getting a 31.8mm width handlebar will raise the handlebars a few millimeters. Off the top of my head, they you might also be able to find taller headsets, I'm speculating on this one but well made headsets of special materials may do better to reduce vibration than the combination of spacers and your stock headset. There might be more ways to raise the bars, but I don't know them.

38

General Discussion / Re: Bike Fit for Person with Bad Shoulders/Knees?

« on: May 10, 2010, 10:55:37 pm »

Two suggestion, have you considered a recumbent. It would help you with your shoulder and possibly with your knee. Contact Mark at www.poweroncycling.com. The second is to contact RE Cycles in Seattle, Washington they have 18 standard sizes and I know 3 people who have purchased bikes from them, ask for Smiley. www.rodcycle.com Either option will be far more expensive than a REI or Surly bike.

Hi Tourista,
Please accept my belated thanks for your reply. I remain wary of getting a recumbent. Much of my riding -whether as a tourist or commuter- will be done along the densely populated East Coast. I am not convinced of my ability to avoid being hit on a recumbent.
Best,
Neil

39

General Discussion / Re: Bike Fit for Person with Bad Shoulders/Knees?

« on: May 05, 2010, 11:28:41 pm »

If your not finding a bike that fits, order one! Just because the 520, LHT, etc in stock isn't sized right for you, that doesn't mean that they can't order one that is. Plus, a bike fresh from the factory will have an uncut fork, which enables you to raise up the handlebars as much as you want using spacers.

Allow me to put myself in the category of people who think you should just get really wide drops instead of a flat bar; you can use them like a flat bar but when things tense up you will probably appreciate the ability to occasionally change hand positions.

Hi CastAStone,
Thanks for your reply. Your idea about getting extra wide drops sounds interesting. Can you recommend a model & manufacturer to get? I would definitely be into raising the handlebars on my bike. I have a couple questions. If I use spacers, will that make the ride less comfortable due to vibration or weaken the frame? Also are spacers the only way to raise the handlebars? Please let me know.
Best,
Neil
PS Just to clarify, my issue is not frame size (I have been able to test out frames that would fit a normal person). Rather it is the configuration of the bikes, which I wish to alter.

40

General Discussion / Re: Bike Fit for Person with Bad Shoulders/Knees?

« on: May 05, 2010, 11:20:37 pm »

Another source for short cranks is Mark Stonich of BikeSmith Designs.  He is set up to shorten some models of existing cranks (He takes 175 Ultegra to 153 for example) and sells other models that have been shortened.  He has some that go down to the 120 range as I recall (but I haven't looked at his website in a couple of years).  A good guy to deal with, BTW.

And I hate to say this given your statement, but the real cure for your problem is to get a recumbent.  I also have a bad back and bad knees.  After trying a recumbent, you literally could not pay me enough to go back to riding a diamond frame bike.  Agreed that they are "geek bikes" (as a friend calls them--and a recent poll on bentrideronline.com found that 2/3 of the respondents were in engineering, IT or hard science).  Agreed that they are somewhat slower uphill because you can't weight shift or stand on the pedals.  Agreed that the high bottom bracket types are more difficult to handle in traffic (the low bottom bracket types like the Tour Easy are easier than a DF).   But once you try one for a few miles and get past the initial learning curve, I predict that you will ask yourself why you delayed so long.  I did.

Bob

Hi Bob,
Thanks for your reply. I appreciate your letting me know about Mark Stonich. I would consider a recumbent but I live in a very urban area & would use the touring bike for occasional commuting. I am wary of being low to the ground with crazed drivers. Also, my commute features some bike trails with curb stones and tight turns that might require frequent dismounts. I would consider a recumbent if I lived & worked in a rural area.
Best,
Neil

41

General Discussion / Re: Bike Fit for Person with Bad Shoulders/Knees?

« on: May 05, 2010, 11:13:30 pm »

I don't know if you mentioned 165mm crank arms because that's really what you want, or because it's very difficult to find any that are shorter.  T.A. makes gorgous, very durable cranksets down to 150mm.  DaVinci Designs has them down to 130mm.  Peter White Cycles is one of the T.A. distributors.

Note that the height of the bars does not increase when you replace them with flat ones.  The height is set by the length of the fork's steering tube and the angle on the stem.  Drop bars are most often ridden with hands on the tops of the brake lever hoods, but offer a lot of other positions to rotate among to avoid fatigue, unlike flat bars.  Some people like trekking bars too, which give lots of positions, all of them rather high.  I find however that aerobars offer a lot of relief to my wrists, elbows, shoulders, and other parts, even though I'm lower and more aerodynamic.  I won't do any long rides with the aerobars anymore.  I and our sons like the Syntace C2 because the arm pads are somewhat behind the bars rather than directly over them, and the ends curve up so our wrists are nearly straight instead of curved down in an unnatural position that can't be held comfortably for long periods.  I don't like Syntace's size recommendations though.  Although I'm 6' tall and they recommend a large for me, even the medium puts me a little too stretched out.  I use smalls, and put bar-end shifters on the ends since that's where my hands are almost all the time.

I recommend moving the seat way forward too.  The farther back it is, the more your lower back has to curve.  I, my wife, and both sons all use reversible Bontrager seat posts to get the seat much farther forward.  The knee-cap-over-pedal-spindle doctrine was a mistake from the beginning, and now it's nice to finally see some big people in the industry saying so, like Keith Bontrager and a lot of Ph.D.'s.  (This last article linked addresses a lot of things regarding injuries on the bike).  Doing it the way I'm proposing (and the way we do it), our backs are definitely not hunched, in fact, in spite of being nearly horizontal, they're rather straight.  My wife doesn't ride in such a low position like I and our boys (college-age now) do, but when she was having some discomfort and I watched her ride, I stopped and moved her seat way forward.  Immediately her back looked straighter, she looked more natural, obviously had better command of the bike, and she said it was much more comfortable.

Hi whittierider,
I just want to follow-up on one point you made in your response. You asked why I opted for 165 mm crank arms. First, it took a lot of phone calls just to find a bike store that could even special order crank arms of that size. Also, the LBS stated that, if I were to install a smaller crank arm size, my legs would just spin, rendering the bike difficult to ride. Do you agree with that assessment by the LBS? Please let me know.
Thanks,
Neil

42

General Discussion / Re: Bike Fit for Person with Bad Shoulders/Knees?

« on: May 05, 2010, 08:03:50 am »

Hi whittierider,
Your ideas are great! Thanks you very much!!
Best,
Neil

43

General Discussion / Bike Fit for Person with Bad Shoulders/Knees?

« on: May 04, 2010, 10:18:39 pm »

Hi everyone,
I have a question on bike fit. I wish to buy a light weight touring bike* & use it for long distance excursions.  I have tried out a few different models (e.g., Novarra Safari,* Novarra Randonee, Trek 520, Surly Long Haul Trucker) but am having trouble finding a bike that fits & would be comfortable for a long ride. I have two orthopedic issues that are hampering my search. First, I have rotator cuff problems so the traditional hunched over riding posture of handlebars with drops is uncomfortable. Second, I have a bad knee that becomes inflamed if I ride with a conventional seat post position. Of course, I can raise the seat post, but that seems to irritate my low back & different parts of my knees.

My best ideas to resolve the problem are to 1) buy a bike 2) remove the drop handlebars 3) install mountain bike style handlebars 4) remove the existing crank set 5) install a new crank set with short 165 mm crank arms.  I am hoping that members of the list may have additional ideas (other than buying a recumbent!). If you do, please provide them. Also is there a ready made "out of the box" touring bike model that provides the design I want?
Thanks,
Neil

*The Safari is too heavy for me, though the handlebars are the best I have yet encountered in my search. The Bianchi Volpe is the size and weight that I am seeking.

44

General Discussion / Re: REI Bikes

« on: April 15, 2010, 09:45:21 pm »

Hi Brad,
Thanks for your recommendations & also for sharing your touring history. You have certainly seen a lot of the world from two wheels. I expect that my initial long distance rides would be in North America.  That having been said, I prefer an upright riding position both to enjoy scenery & to take strain off my neck.
Best,
Neil.

45

General Discussion / Re: REI Bikes

« on: April 10, 2010, 10:14:17 pm »

Hi Tourista,
I have not had a chance to try out the Surly. I have been swamped at work. Hopefully, I can visit the shop soon.
Thanks,
Neil.

Thanks for the info. If you go with the Randonee, set the fenders for 47mm and ride with a 37mm tires. Perfect for Boston. Hey, did you ever get out to Harris Cycles and get to ride the Surly?