I ride a traditional bike for fun and errands. I suffered a back injury in highscool and I usually can't ride more than an hour with it really starting to hurt. Recumbents seem like they would be better for my back. Does anyone else here on the board ride bents for that reason?

I have degenerative arthritis in my lower back. I can ride my high racer and my low racer all day with no pain. I use an extra firm seat pad on both bikes with a hard shell seat. That combination lets the formed lumbar portion of the seat press on my lower spine and provide the extra support that it needs.

I'm currently averaging between 200 and 300 miles per week with no pain, but one 30 mile ride on my upright tandem causes me a sleepless night with soreness.

I just took these two pics of the pad on my Volae:

http://home.insightbb.com/~trsnrtr/pad1.jpg
http://home.insightbb.com/~trsnrtr/pad2.jpg

I find that even a short ride on my Mistral has a beneficial effect on my occasional lower back pain, but it has got quite a pronounced S-curve on the seat. Not sure if you'd get the same benefit from the more upright seating position / seat back & pad that a lot of US 'bents seem to use. But then not all back problems are the same: the Mistral certainly exercises my neck muscles ;)

I ride a traditional bike for fun and errands. I suffered a back injury in highscool and I usually can't ride more than an hour with it really starting to hurt. Recumbents seem like they would be better for my back. Does anyone else here on the board ride bents for that reason?
Yes, my trike takes care of all the formerly sore parts except for knees which must keep working. An hour on a trike or other recumbent is pretty much a warm up. I have had occassion to try a hard shell seat recently and it is VERY supportive of the lower back. You have some great testing to look forward to!

Chip

I ride a traditional bike for fun and errands. I suffered a back injury in highscool and I usually can't ride more than an hour with it really starting to hurt. Recumbents seem like they would be better for my back. Does anyone else here on the board ride bents for that reason?
Saturday night I slept in a tent on uneven ground. My lower back hated it! I got up aching bigtime Sunday morning and rode back home, about 35 miles. No problem with the back and today it actually feels better than it has in quite a while. Don't know if it will help your particular back, but it is definetly worth looking into. By the way, I did the ride home on a Tour Easy. I didn't ride my Greenspeed as I was riding with a friend who just installed a StokeMonkey electric motor. So I opted for the fastest rig in the stables.:rolleyes:
Hope that helps, Dr. D

No back problems for me so far. I used to occassionally get a little sore on my commuting Mountain Bike.

I ride a traditional bike for fun and errands. I suffered a back injury in highscool and I usually can't ride more than an hour with it really starting to hurt. Recumbents seem like they would be better for my back. Does anyone else here on the board ride bents for that reason?

Well no, I don't ride recumbent because of a back injury. I ride recumbent because I like the comfort and the speed, but I am sorry you suffer, though. By virtue of the fact that my entire backside from coccyx to scapula is comfortably supported on a foam-padded, lumbar-curved, rigid-shell seat tells me that if I was still recovering from a back injury issue, a laid-back recumbent like mine is going to be infinitely better than any hunched-over, saddle-perch position on a regular bike.

Sorry I've no first hand back-injury input but I gotta believe a recumbent is the way to go for you.

While on my road bike the clock is ticking for how long I can be comfortable. A few hours at most and then I have problems, maybe big problems. It takes me 6-8 hours to do a century, and around 16 to do a double century. The only way I can still be sane at the end of 16 hours is to use my recumbent. After 16 hours on my recumbent I am still have absolutely no discomfort, let alone pain, in my back.

To answer your question, yes, I ride a recumbent because I have a bad back (and hips), but only because I do some longer rides. My training rides are 35 to 65 miles, which can be done comfortably on my road bike.

It doesn't make sense to me to be in a lot of pain when riding my bike, even when doing long distances. That's not the point.

I didn't start riding till about 1 1/2 years ago when I bought a LWB bent on impulse at a fall end of year sale. I had had several back surgeries, a fusion, and a stoke during the last surgery leaving me a bit weask on the left side! At the time I could barely walk and had graduated from a wheelchair to walker to cane and when I bought the bent I could hobble around albeit with pain. I had tried surgery, physiotherapy, drug therapy, accupuncute, chiropractic manipulation, and every other treatment known to man or beast!
To make a very long story short, I found that the bent was the BEST (and only) thing that not only improved the back pain, but completely eliminated it! I now ride 60 - 75 miles daily on long rides, and have found if I don't ride at least 10 - 15 miles a day I'll get back pain and sciatic nerve pain and numbness down the leaft leg making it difficult to walk. If I start getting back and leg pain I jump on the bike and after 6 - 8 miles it simply goes away. I have no scientific explanation for this other than it may relieve spasm in some muscles or crunch something straight, like a chiropracter may do.
The bent has been my salvation and the ONLY therapeutic thing that works for me, after trying everything. I still can't stand upright for any length of time, but with a LWB bent you bring your lawn chair with you anyway! Ha!
Although a bent is extremely therapeutic for me, I recently met a guy who sold his LWB bent as it gave him sciatic nerve pain when he rode it more than 10 miles or so. An upright bike works for him!
But every other bent rider I have ever met told me that they are completely pain free with the bent. The bottom line, though, is trial and error - if it feels good, do it! If not, try something else.............
Planning a couple of centuries this summer - have ridden my age several consecutive days this summer! If someone would have told me two years ago that I would be riding 50 - 100 miles a day I would have had a great laugh!!
The uprights pass me on the long or steep uphills, but I pass them consistently on the flats and downhills, so uphill/downhill its a wash..............
I couldn't ride an upright when I started riding, but now have been able to ride one for up to 10 - 12 miles. When I do, though, I have numb wrists, a sore back, and feel like I've been sitting on a fence post for a week! It amazes me why anyone who isn't a Lance-wannabe would willingly ride a wedgie when such a comfortable ride on a bent is available!

A back injury years ago is precisely why I bought a recumbent trike. I had an old Trek 850 mountain bike, but just sitting on it made my back hurt and I missed riding like crazy. If you've got a "bad back" but have recovered, a trike is great, but if you've got a "bad back" and haven't yet recovered, a trike could be a little hard to get onto. My AB Tadpole's seat sits about 8" off the ground and can be a little difficult to squat into when/if I'm having a bad day (which isn't often, thank God).

Once in the seat, however, I'm pain free and good to go for as long as my legs hold out. ;-)


-S