Retro Grouch 

It's been exactly six months since "the accident". My orthopedic guy said that in 6 months my elbows would be about as well as they were going to get. That's not so good. I still get pain in both elbows, especially the left one, every day. I've tried a variety of treatments, including chiropracty and cold laser, but I haven't had very good results. During the last six months it has frequently occured to me how much our lifestyle can be changed in just a couple of instant's time.

I've begun the process of replacing my fleet of bikes. Next Monday, Mrs. Grouch and I will visit Hays Kansas to try out a recumbent tandem to replace our 10 year old Santana. I'm hopeing that goes well but I'm concerned about my ability to raise my feet up to the high pedal position as we get that monster launched. I'm also reading a book by a couple who made a coast-to-coast trip on the same model tandem and the captain complains of butt aches. One of my sons has inquired about buying the Santana from me. I'd like that.

If the tandem experiment goes well, I'm planning acquire a high racer road recumbent. I've already offered the retro grouch road bike to a family for their teen aged daughter to use on a cross country trip, but they haven't responded. I don't think that I'm ready to sell my Klein yet, but we'll see what happens. If it turns out that I can't ride it anymore, it might wind up going to my older son.

My mental state is partially in mourning because I feel forced to change my bicycling practices. I'm also a little bit giddy, like a kid waiting for Christmas, at the thought of buying, equipping, and learning to use two new relatively high tech bikes.

BluesDawg

Sorry for your problems, but glad to see you are looking towards new ways to keep riding. I hope it works out well.

NOS88

Stay focused on the giddy as you allow yourself to mourn, and good luck next Monday!

Allegheny Jet

Good luck in you decisons, at least you can make choices. You might want to keep some of your current gear in anticipation of a decent recovery from your elbow issues. Maybe additional theraphy and time will allow for healing. One of my boys shattered one of his elbows running the hurdles at a high school track meet. The x-ray showed little screws, plates and wires, and the doctor said he hoped it would hold together. My son recovered and eventually was a 4 year swimmer at a Division 1 University.

I bit the bullet and got my bad ankle fused and am at the end of the recovery. I was pretty concerned about what riding would be like on an ankle that does not move any more, and was even planning some options should things not go so well.

palookabutt

Best of luck; hopefully your orthopedist is a pessimist basing his diagnosis on experience with patients who don't cut quite so fine an athletic figure.

Retro Grouch 

And thank you for thinking that I might have an athletic figure. One of the other threads asks for experiences with weight loss. I have no experience with weight loss.

wobblyoldgeezer

Good luck, and kindest wishes for full recovery back to your best form, from another temporarily bashed up forum participant

And 'temporarily' is the word of the hour, no?

Dan Burkhart 

Butt aches are not unusual during the course of becoming acclimated to a recumbent. You are bringing different muscle groups into play than you are used to, and until they adapt to the new stresses, you will likely experience some discomfort on long rides.
Stick with it though, the rewards are worth it IMHO.

67walkon

Grouch, good luck. You're a few months ahead of me. I had a major hip socket fracture on Dec 1 and was just allowed to put weight on that leg last week. I'm thinking it will be March or April before I can find out if I can ride again.

But a bent? That would take some major mental readjustment.

stapfam

Have to admit that Recumbents are not for me. Admittedly I only tried a couple of models but I did not like them- I was too nervous but just to cheer you up on the Tandem.

Must have been about 4 years ago and on a metric. This one has plenty of tandems doing it and me and Stuart got in with them for a while. One of these was a recumbent trike and I went as stoker for a while. It gave me the confidence that a 2 wheeler didn't till we went round a corner. Bottom of a hill and me and Stuart would not have braked for it either. Then I looked at the inside wheel and the hub was higher than my eyes. I suggested that Stuart have a go shortly after but he said no- He had also seen how high that wheel got.

cranky old dude

I'm looking forward to the ride reports, and pictures...you can't forget the pictures.