magohn

I have no idea how people have the nerve to do that

As a "heavier gentleman", I am so paranoid of traveling too fast downhill - I constantly picture deer, blow-outs, rocks, cars, etc happening to me as I descend - sending me into a 300lb freefall. My cycling wife thinks I'm crazy that I will work super hard to climb a hill and then start pulling the back brake on the descent on any speed over 25mph. Im just too paranoid to travel that speed with the only protection being a flimsy piece of foam on my head....Ive burnt out 2 sets of rear brake pads with this technique (since March)...

bloodhawke83

same boat here, 300lbs is hard to stop going down hill.

bloodhawke83

i got a 25 year warranty on my frame, yay!. and they're gonna give me a large frame for free. at least 1 week of no bike.

i picked up a Giro Saros helmet and new gloves for the winter cold.

DannoXYZ 

Practice I guess. I actually wear an empty backpack up local hillclimbs and fill it with rocks so I can go downhill faster.

longhaultrucker

I had back surgery in Jan of 09 and it has been the worst and best thing that ever happened to me first the bad i swelled up to 320 sitting around for a year and going through phsy therapy. and the best is after 20 years of pain it is mostly gone and what i have is manageable with just a tens unit every now and again.

second if its a denali you want to start with dont be scared to get it i have been told all my life about bottom end bargain bikes and how bad they are but i put over 20K in miles on my first bargain bike being a schwinn sprint and I treated it more like a stump jumper than anything but i treated it like a classic muscle car whenever something would break i would upgrade it to something better and as a result when i got rid of it the only things original was the handlebars and the frame/forks. as a result i have another one now and i am getting the same stories from the LBS and others they all say the same thing of how i can get a "quality" bottom range bike from a good manufacturer for about the same price....so the other day i rode over and asked if he remembered the conversation and when he said yea i asked to see his best bike for the same price of 189.00. he still spent his time telling me how it was going to fail but the fact is i have better components on it than you get on even a mid range priced bike. he didnt like that conversation much. I will eventually trade the frame for a Long haul trucker but till my weight comes off i will stick with the schwinn maybe when the components are on a LHT they will take me serious...lol but really i dont care dale earnhardt proved you can still win with second rate equipment if you have a first rate driver.

as for strengthening your back lay on your back and bend your legs straight down with your feet flat on the bed and lift your butt in the air and hold this...another thing is when your riding don't rest on your arms keep them bent a little and strengthen your core this will help your back a lot....