Originally Posted by
BigDeltaVGuy
Howdy everyone. Long story short: Used to be a decent Clydesdale MTB weekend warrior at 230-240. Some injuries, family issues, yada, yada, yada.......no more biking but continued to eat post race type meals of beer/burritos/pasta and now am 300+
It's been 10 years since I have been on my old Delta V but I want to get back on and I'm concerned that I may be too heavy to ride? I think I need a new seat for my wide load butt at the very least. My bike is a '94 Cannondale Delta V (oil headshox front susp, hard tail) I have good sturdy parts on it, Rhyno Downhill rims, old school XTR/Sachs/Synchros parts. I have put new tubes/tires on and cleaned and lubed everything. I have all kinds of aches/pains in my back and every place else. Should I use this bike or get a full suspension MTB for ease of suffering or should I lose a bit before getting on the bike? I don't want to go race next month or jump off cliffs any more, I just want to ride again.
Expect a few things to hurt, if you haven't been on in a while, that goes away though as muscles that haven't been used in a while, start getting used to seeing some work again. I also suggest you get a full medical checkup with your doctor, tell him/her you want to start an exercise program involving a bicycle, they will know what to check.
Now what kind of riding do you want to do? If you want to do some road riding, swap the suspension fork for a rigid one, made for suspension bikes (the legs are longer), have them leave the steerer longer, if it's threadless, or use a long stem if it's threaded. You want the bars up higher, at least for now, you can shorten either later on. Of course raising the bars means that some of the cables may need to be replaced with longer ones. Replace the knobby with smoother tires, although this year with the winter seeming to not want to go away, snow tires might be a good idea......
Forget full suspension, unless you want to do really technical stuff, however even at that, you probably want to lose some weight, as most full suspension stuff is made for lighter riders.