BIG_BIKE

Greetings Bike Forum’s members:
Our goal is to design and build a better bike for obese individuals. We are a group of 3 undergraduate students at the University of Colorado Boulder working with Prof. Rodger Kram. We call ourselves the “BIG BIKE” project. We need all the help we can get from real life people who have experienced the hassles of riding a bike unintended for obese riders. Here are some of the issues we need your opinions, complaints, and experiences to create the best bicycle possible:

1) Strength of the bicycle (all aspects)
2) Seat comfort
3) Gearing
4) Brakes
5) Tires/Wheels
6) Aches/Discomfort/Pain associated with riding

FYI, I am an avid bicyclist and hope to go into the profession of Physical Therapy post graduation. Any contributions or opinions about these issues are greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Gabe Kowalsky (gabriel.kowalsky@colorado.edu)

pktruckdriver

I am 450 or so, would love to be beta tester of anything you can come up with, but I am in Daytona Beach area, where riding can be done all year round.

Fel free to contact me and let me know if anything I can do for y'all.

Best of luck guys

Patrick
pktruckdriver@msn.com

Tom Stormcrowe

I would suggest you visit our Clydesdale and Athena Subforum. Loads of data and members there who are fighting the battle, etc. I'm post massive weight loss, myself, by the way.....I

BIG_BIKE

Thank you for your reply. I also just sent out a post on the Clydesdale sub forum, but lets start with this.....
Would you prefer a step-through frame design if it can be made adequately strong and yet light? We have a crucial frame design choice to make right away. Is mounting the bike ever an issue? As for the beta testing we are a ways from mass producing, but that could be a possibility in the future. - Gabe
e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Step-through_frame

Wildrider

Bless you for addressing this particular topic!

I DO think that mounting a bike while balancing extra pounds is a real challenge.

I am 55, female and very much "traditionally built". I am also just 3 1/2 months past a total hip replacement. I prefer the looks of a unisex or "boy's" bike, but find that flexibility and balance are limiting factors for me. Taking the time necessary to stretch enough to get over the bar puts me a risk of losing my balance. And I've discovered, it doesn't matter which hip is lifting my leg over--the real one is as dicey as the new one.

I live in Fort Collins and would consider testing for you--or at least in-putting feed back. But I am just getting back into biking after 30 years of being away from it. Am not very knowledgeable yet.

Good luck with your endeavor!

Jandro 

Welcome to Bike Forums!

Here is the subforum Tom told you about. Introduce yourselves and I'm sure you will get some feedback from the members who frequent it. The search function is also a great place to start. Once in the Clyde's forum, look to the upper right portion of the window and use the "Search forum" dropdown.

Cheers!

10 Wheels

Welcome to Bike Forums from Texas.

Daspydyr 

Welcome here from Henderson, NV! I think your project is an outstanding idea. I look forward to tracking your ideas.

Double hip replacement here, but no problems getting on and off the bike now. I visit Clyde's and Athena's quite a bit and look forward to posts from the crew.