I'd like to help my older brother (in his mid 40's) purchase a bike. Our mother recently died of a heart attack in her mid 60's and I'm hoping this will be the motivation he needs to drop some pounds and take better care of himself.

I'm guessing he weighs in at about 250 pounds at 5'7". He has a late 70's - early 80's Schwinn Varisity that I tuned up for him over the summer, but it wasn't in good shape and I had trouble finding replacement parts as everything seemed to be a non-standard size or the parts were no longer readily available (positron shifting, free wheel in front, fixed wheel in rear, etc).

I was hoping a nicer bike would improve the riding "experience" and make him more likely to hit the trail and work off some of those pounds.

Questions

Riding position - He has some lower back issues so I think a more upright riding position would make him more comfortable and more likely to ride. What are peoples experience with drop bars vs. straight bars?

Seat - Personally I'm a Brooks B17 fan, but my brother absolutely refused to give it a try. He has a gel saddle and has one of those gel covers on top of it. I tried to convince him that more padding is NOT a good thing but I'm not sure he was convinced. What do other clydes have to say?

Tires - Tires and Rims. Do I need to look into a "beefier" rims or wider tires? He took one look at the tires on my road bike and said, "I can't ride on those skinny things".

Budget - pretty limited. I think we could get more "bang for the buck" going used and I'll be able to tune it up or make any basic modifications necessary. 2007 close outs are a possibility as well.

Thanks in advance for all help

Riding position - He has some lower back issues so I think a more upright riding position would make him more comfortable and more likely to ride. What are peoples experience with drop bars vs. straight bars?

Actually, you should compare drop bars to trekking bars. The trekking bars will allow him more hand positions to help stretch his back out than the drop or flat bars.

Better bet may be a 'bent, but good luck finding one used.

Let me be the first to throw in the "Specialized Hardrock" plug .. it is a rugged versatile bike that is easy on the budget (begin to troll Craigslist) ... it probably makes sense to drag him down to the LBS and get fitted as well... I finally dumped the last gel seat I have in favor of a more ridged seat (not a B17... too much cash for me) but if I am wearing my bibs then having the extra gel does me no good... just makes me more sore...

Basically... I'd be looking for a entry/mid level mountain bike to put smoother tires on...

Back issues can be tricky... sometimes it is more comfortable to be leaning over the bars a bit more than sitting straight up... he'll need to decide what is better for him...

Good Luck!

At 250lbs he probably wont have much trouble with just about any LBS quality bicycle. If you're looking to get the most bang to buck ratio in a new bike you might want to check out a Dawes or Motobecane from bikesdirect. Check craigslist and even the classifieds in the paper.

Back pain is going to be a tricky one to assist with. What works for me might not work for him. I would go with flat bars, risers, and bar ends to get the handle bars up a bit and offer more hand positions. Also, if your brother has been a bit lethargic the past few years riding for the first time is going to hurt. It wouldn't surprise me at all if he has back pain for the first few weeks of riding regardless of any comfort adjustments you make. Maybe instead of throwing him on a bicycle right away you two could go to the gym together. Build up his core strength and posture, with any luck his back pain might go away altogether. It could even make for a good bonding activity for you two over the winter.

For rims, your probably going to want to ditch whatever comes with the bike. Well, I take that back. Ride the stock rims until they are beyond repair. Then go with a set of hand built double walled rims from a reputable builder. This way your not out the extra cash if he decides biking is not for him.

Tires, you need to asses just what type of surface he will be doing the vast majority of his riding on. If he if going to doing mostly MUP and road travel then get a set of semi-slicks, something with shoulder knobs so he has a bit of bite on turns in looser conditions. If it will be purely offroad, then a set of knobbies in the medium aggression range. The further spaced the knobs are the faster the tire will wear. Just make sure whatever you get can be pumped up to at least 65lbs, more would be better.

For the seat, offer to let him ride your bike for a longer trip. Let him see that the extra gel does little to no good. Then if you convince him, remove his gel seat for the butt hatchet of your choice.

bau

Take him to the LBS and have him test ride a bunch of bikes untill he finds the one that he will ride the most. As for the saddle, well untilla person actually tries a leather saddle with no padding they will never believe you. IMO padding is the devil and my rear loves my B 17 with no padding. But when I tell people that have never tied it, they don't believe me either, so it's not just your brother.

Wow. Tough to hit all the marks for this one.

At 250 lbs, a Bike is only as strong as it's rider's technique or riding skills. Handle the bike rough and off-road and there will be issues. Ride with the proper techniques like un-weighting the bike as you go over curbs and bumps, lightly shifting the bike gear to gear, and not mashing the pedals will all make a bike last longer and function better.

That being said, when you start to talk about age problems and proper "FIT" on the bicycle, you need to talk with a qualified bike shop that does proper fitting to get the most benefit. I can't express enough to have a "FIT" done. Even though I think of myself as a pretty good wrench when building my own bicycles, I still have my "FIT" checked by at least two other at the shop. It is money and time well spent.

Saddle. My butt is not the same as yours, ect... What work for you and me (B-17) may not work for everyone else. A good pair of cycling shorts with a pad of some sort will do wonders to make any saddle better and more comfortable. I like the Sugoi MTB style shorts with the inner liner. They are comfortable, cut slightly longer and wash up nice. I still think the Brooks saddle is still the way to go, but your brother might want to try a B-67 with the springs.
http://www.wallbike.com/B67.html

I ride a 26 inch MTB wheel with 24 aero spokes made by Vuelta and AVID BB-5 Disc Brake. This has been an awesome combination for me this year. I left the Michelin 26x2.00 tire on these rims and was going to replace them, but even after 1000 miles I still have plenty of tread. I'm CHEAP and I won't replace something that works for me. I will be going with a 26x1.5 semi slick soon though.

The Budget I can't help you with. Yes, there are bikes in the $200-300 range that you could get into and maybe be happy with. The caution here is that if it doesn't FIT, and your brother doesn't like the bike he won't RIDE IT.

Good Luck with this. I hope it works out.

Chris

I'd like to help my older brother (in his mid 40's) purchase a bike. Our mother recently died of a heart attack in her mid 60's and I'm hoping this will be the motivation he needs to drop some pounds and take better care of himself.

I'm guessing he weighs in at about 250 pounds at 5'7". He has a late 70's - early 80's Schwinn Varisity that I tuned up for him over the summer, but it wasn't in good shape and I had trouble finding replacement parts as everything seemed to be a non-standard size or the parts were no longer readily available (positron shifting, free wheel in front, fixed wheel in rear, etc).

I was hoping a nicer bike would improve the riding "experience" and make him more likely to hit the trail and work off some of those pounds.

Questions

Riding position - He has some lower back issues so I think a more upright riding position would make him more comfortable and more likely to ride. What are peoples experience with drop bars vs. straight bars?

Seat - Personally I'm a Brooks B17 fan, but my brother absolutely refused to give it a try. He has a gel saddle and has one of those gel covers on top of it. I tried to convince him that more padding is NOT a good thing but I'm not sure he was convinced. What do other clydes have to say?

Tires - Tires and Rims. Do I need to look into a "beefier" rims or wider tires? He took one look at the tires on my road bike and said, "I can't ride on those skinny things".

Budget - pretty limited. I think we could get more "bang for the buck" going used and I'll be able to tune it up or make any basic modifications necessary. 2007 close outs are a possibility as well.

Thanks in advance for all help

Okay, straight bars are good for short trips, however when you get much past about 40km (~ 25 miles) they are not so good, Straight bars they limit your wrist to an unnatural position, so a lot of people have numbness issues. Drop bars have several positions, top of the bars, on the hoods, top of the curve, bottom of the curve, so when your hands get tired, you switch positions. You also have the option of stretching your back in the drops, to keep it from cramping up. The real issue is the relationship between saddle height and bar height, racers typically want the saddle considerably higher then the bars, long distance non racerss will typically run the bars even or higher then the saddle.

Saddle, if you are used to sitting on thickly upholstered chairs, ANY saddle will hurt at first, once you toughen up the internal "padding", and sit on the actual sit bones, then a hard saddle is better. Bike fit is critical for saddle comfort and knee comfort on longer trips.

Tires and rims, spoke tension is the key here, if the wheels are properly tensioned and trued then most wheels should be okay. As for tires, road tires range from 23mm to 35mm wide, generally the heavier the load, the wider the tire, the narrower the tire the lower the rolling resistance. Nothing wrong with starting on a wider tire, then as he gets into better shape and loses weight go narrower. If you change the tire width, you need to recalibrate any bike computer, as the diameter also changes slightly.

Budget, a late model experienced bicycle can work, BUT you need to make sure it fits first, which can be harder to find, in odd sizes....

If he knows what kind of riding he wants to do, that helps in bike choices, someone who takes off on a 2 week, 6 state tour, someone who wants to ride mountain trails, and someone who pootles around the mup for a whole 2 miles once every couple of weeks, all need different bicycles.

No offense, but if he's not motivated enough to hunt up his own bicycle, he's probably not motivated enough to get out and ride it religiously, either.

If you end up getting a used bike with a threaded headset, you may want to try sticking with drop bars, and using a Nitto Technomic stem. Since most of the time is riding on the hoods, this gives almost as much of an upright position as riser bars, but still provides multiple hand positions and somewhat aero position when in the drops.

Buying a new comfort bike like the Giant Cypress, or similar bikes from other manufacturers can be relatively inexpensive for an LBS bike, and provide a relatively upright position as well. Personally, if they still offer one, I would go for one without the front shock... But with shocks on my Sedona, I did ok for a couple of years... and your brother may get a psychological advantage with a suspension fork and seatpost to get him started.

Thanks for feedback. Sounds like we need to do some looking.

Actually, you should compare drop bars to trekking bars. The trekking bars will allow him more hand positions to help stretch his back out than the drop or flat bars.

Better bet may be a 'bent, but good luck finding one used.

+1. The amount of possible hand positions is key. Even if your hands feel comfortable on straight bars, they will inevitably get kind of raw/numb after a while.

I also have lower back problems (ruptured disk), and I've found that biking doesn't aggravate it nearly as much as many other activities. Good luck with helping him out. I'm in the same boat now, trying to lose weight.

OP, you made a great point about how it should be comfortable so he will want to ride it. He'll have to get it to a point where he wants to ride it, and if he wants to ride it, then the specifics probably won't matter too much. Again, good luck. That's awesome that you're trying to help him out.

There's always this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-2008-RECUMBENT-TRIKE-20-20-BIKE-ALLOY-NO-RESERVE_W0QQitemZ300172561781QQihZ020QQcategoryZ106949QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://dvrl.com/Extra2/One.gif

or what my wife rides:

http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o260/TomStormcrowe/Cardinal%20Greenway%20and%20other%20rides/ridepicsandWabashflood002.jpg