General Cycling Discussion - Wife's new bike & my new computer.

Just ordered a new bike for my wife. She is selling her recumbent. She is unable to ride it with her knee injury, (riding a recumbent requires more pressure on the knees then a wedgie, especially from a stopped position). Here is what we ordered her:

http://www.specialized.com/SBCBkModel.jsp?spid=6004&JServSessionIdroot=vrxbbnr0k0.j27001

But her's is the women's medium frame. She test road one and her knee hurt a lot less then it does on her recumbent. So now at least she will be able to ride. The bike we ordered her should be good enough to just ride on the paved trails or do a century should she want to.

She is due to have at least one more, may be 2 more surgery's on her knee to correct the problem, ( because of her original injury she had to have damaged cartilidge removed, now there is not enough left for the proper cushion affect cartilidge provides a person). But even if she has a cartilidge graft or a cushion spacer disc put in she will still not be able to ride a recumbent, maybe for the rest of her life. She has accepted that fact. But at least she will be able to still ride a bike.

Here is the new computer I ordered: http://store3.yimg.com/I/webmountainbike_1788_7632096

My old computer disappeared some how. I think it was thrown away on accident. I usually put the computer on my end table next to my recliner. In front of the table is a trash can. I think the computer was knocked into the trash can and taken out with the garbage on accident by either my wife or myself. So this is a big OOPS! Oh well, kind of wanted a new computer anyway. The old one was a Vetta RT55.

I'd like your opinions if you have any, please.

.....

The computer is actually going to be this one:

http://www.topeak.com/2004/products/computer_001.html

Don't know if I'll be able to go with the wireless one as I ride a recumbent & the distance from the transmitter to the receiver can be no more then 18".

Can you tell what did your wife do to injure her knees so much? Did she fall?

Dahon, yes she fell while on the job. So it is a worker's comp. issue. She works for Tyson Foods. Part of her job required that she travels to the various plants.

In May of 2003 she was at a plant in Texas on the roof doing her job and slipped & fell. The impact damaged the cartilidge. After one surgery by her first doctor and a lot of P.T. she still has a problem & more pain then before the first surgery. The reason is there is now not enough cartilidge to act as a cushion.

This next surgery will be to "take a peek" and see what her second surgeon can do to fix it, but only if the space where the damaged cartilidge was removed is not to large. We will be told one of 4 things after this surgery:
1. It can be fixed with a cartilidge graft or plug.
2. It can be fixed with an artificial cushion disc.
3. It can be fixed with both cartilidge & a cushion disc.
4. The space is to large to be able to do anything at all so she'll have to deal with it for a while.

She is to young for knee replacment. If option 4 is what happens we will look into alternative methods to control the pain so she walk with out a limp, which puts strain on her back and other leg. One method we will look into is acupunture. We also know of a ortho pod. specialist in Des Moines named Dr. Bob Breedlove. He is a cyclist himself so if we have to we hope that he can help her as well. But that will more then likely come out of our own pockets.

N_C I am curious as to why a recumbent would put more pressure on the knee's?,if the gear inch is the same it should only require the same effort to move off?
I am aware that you can if you wish apply a lot of pressure to the pedals but it is not recommended.
I am thinking of getting a trike and have already had 1 knee operated on for reshaping of the bone so am a bit wary of worsening the problem.

I ended up going with this computer instead:

http://www.specialized.com/SBCEqProduct.jsp?spid=5107&JServSessionIdroot=28ug31kh55.j27008

Went with the red one.

Reason is because the wireless Panoram would not work on my recumbent. The computer was either to far away from the sensor. And even if I moved the computer closer, my leg would then hit it because it is so long. The Panoram wire model would be to long for my handle bars.

I like the Specialized model because it reminds me of the first speedometer I ever had, which was a gear operated analog. It had the hard cable that ran down to the front wheel and used a gear mechanism to turn a cable which moved the needle on the speedometer.

I ended up going with this computer instead:

http://www.specialized.com/SBCEqProduct.jsp?spid=5107&JServSessionIdroot=28ug31kh55.j27008

Went with the red one.

Reason is because the wireless Panoram would not work on my recumbent. The computer was either to far away from the sensor. And even if I moved the computer closer, my leg would then hit it because it is so long. The Panoram wire model would be to long for my handle bars.

I like the Specialized model because it reminds me of the first speedometer I ever had, which was a gear operated analog. It had the hard cable that ran down to the front wheel and used a gear mechanism to turn a cable which moved the needle on the speedometer.
I've been using the '03 version of that computer. I've found the display to be great, particularly if you're not concerned with the detail e.g. decimal speed since the analog only shows whole mph. You can always see current, average and max speed as well as time on the analog display, and I usually have trip distance on the bottom digital part. Lots of info available without having to scroll through!