..in Which the Author Discovers Market Forces Don't Always Serve His Needs Well 5
So, I’ve been doing the bike-to-work thing for more than two years now, off-and-on, and if there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that the biking world doesn’t exactly welcome us heavy folks with open arms. Sure, biking enthusiasts are all welcoming and encouraging, but when it comes to the standard equipment you get off the shelf, most of it was designed for someone weighing ~160 lbs. This would make more sense if the bulk of the country wasn’t… bulky.
When I started biking, I was over a hundred pounds more than that. I had read about this being a problem before I got my bike, so I eschewed a light road bike and went with a bulkier, heavier hybrid. The bike as a whole has stood up pretty well, but a few parts have suffered worse than others.
One lesson I have definitely learned: salesmen will automatically assume that heavier people need a seat mount with a spring in it to soften the bumps on the road, and they couldn’t be making a bigger mistake. The springs will inevitably be worn out much faster from having to deal with weight far in excess of what they planned.
That’s the least of the problem though. The real problem is my rear wheel. My added weight puts tremendous strain on the rear wheel. I’ve repeatedly bent spokes and/or the wheel, even as I’ve lost weight from the riding. I’ve spoken to several experts, and the consensus is that off-the-rack wheels just aren’t strong enough to handle the load. I’ve upgraded to a stronger rear wheel, and at least so far that has kept the wheel from needing work, but I still seem to get a lot of blown tires.
I looked at this information on tire pressure, but it seems to suggest I need tire pressures well above 100psi, which seems insanely excessive for the fairly beefy tires on my hybrid. The tires I’m riding with are rated at 85psi, which is where I try to keep them (checking their pressure every few days), but I have to admit that when I’m riding they do seem bend a bit more than I’d like. I checked the tube on my last flat, and it appeared to have a snake bite, but I’m not entirely sure whether it got there before or after the air leaked out of the tire.
A friend of mine who is a much more experienced biker says that I need to buy aftermarket spokes and most importantly learn to build my own wheel to get something strong enough to handle my weight. I think I’ll be taking this route soon, but I have my doubts as to whether this will really solve my problem (are bike shops really that bad at building wheels?).
So, I turn to the great internets. I can’t imagine I’m the only overweight cyclist out there. What have the rest of you learned to do to compensate for the industry’s seemingly obsessive focus on those who are already at a healthy weight? Have you encountered other problems I have yet to deal with?
You might or might not find this forum to be helpful: http://www.bikeforums.net/forumdisplay.php?f=248 Just throwing it out there. And I am very pleased to see your persistence with cycling! Bike manufacturers can be slow to react to what the public really wants/needs. As another example, most bikes don’t have proper gear setups for the needs of most cyclists.
You something called a Clydesdales. Bikeforums.net has a special forums for people that are over 200 lbs. Check it out
-Jai
Hey, thanks for the pointer to bikeforums guys. Why is it I’d never heard of Clydesdales (in the biking sense… I’ve seen the beer commercials ;-) before?
You might want to check out my buddy’s non-profit bike shop in Santa Monica.
http://www.bikerowave.org/hours-rates-location/
They’d be able to help you out for sure.
As for bikeshops and wheelbuilding: bike shops don’t build their own wheels, they use the machine built wheels that come on the bike. Machine built wheels have notoriously loose spokes. If you’re truly breaking spokes and bending wheels then you need to have somebody go back over the wheel and hand tension it to a proper level, which is faster than building the wheel from scratch. Make sure that they use a tensiometer to ensure consistency as well. Even a lightweight 24 spoke wheel should be able to handle the weights that you are referring to if properly tensioned.
Also, do you lift yourself off of the saddle when going over bumps? Unweighting the saddle and using your knees as suspension significantly reduces the stress on the bike. I started riding at 230 lbs, and was commuting with a load. Not quite where you are talking about, but not that far off. I never had the broken wheel problems that I hear people complain of so often. One wheel did have some problems, but once it was properly tensioned it never gave me problems again.
As for tire pressure… 100 lbs is uncomfortable. I’m not sure what kind of wheels you’re using, nor what kind of brakes you have to clear, but if you’re on 700x23 or 700x25 tires, I’d consider going up to a 32 or 34 tire (if you can) and running 80 lbs of pressure. Much more comfortable. Yeah, it’ll be slightly slower, but whatever. I ride my touring bike with 60 lbs of camping gear (putting me back up to the 230 that I used to weigh) on 80 psi tires with no problem.