bikenh

How do you do it?

I've been forced into one legged biking for the next few weeks thanks to a broken ankle. I'm still in a cast on my lower left leg. I've been mounting the crutches on the bike so I have them when I get to my destination. Yes, I'm riding outdoors with a broken ankle. I do no indoor training.

One thing I remember noticing a little over a year ago when I got forced into one legged riding for 10 miles after the crank arm bolt stripped out on me and left me holding onto my crank arm in my left hand for 10 miles is the same thing I'm noticing right now. I can pedal nice and smooth up to around 60 rpm. Above 60 rpm I hit the dead zone between 10 and 2. Talk about a sloopy pedal stroke. It throws everything out of whack without even trying.

I know when I dropped the ankle the cadence was higher before the sloppy stroke started but it still started just above the 60 rpm range. Between having a cassette that does't offer much more play room gear inch wise when you include the fact of the hilly terrain here in west central New Hampshire I'm pretty much stuck in one of three gears right now. I do have the bike in the LBS right trying to see if I can't get the lower gear inches back for the bigger climbs I have in the area that I couldn't even hope to make it up right now. When it comes to the easier terrain the bigger cogs are junk right now. I know after my ankle gets better I plan on switching over to singlespeed and lose the extra crap I've been dealing with now for what seems like an eternity. I've been riding most singlespeed since August last year, I've just been doing it on a cassetted bike. I won't be doing that for much longer.

How do I increase my rpm without increasing the slop in the pedal stroke?

Carbonfiberboy 

When I do OLP on my rollers, I do it at two different cadences: ~55 and ~85. I get almost the same speed for both, but 85 is much harder because I have to gear so much lower to get over the top, which is what you're noticing. Burns out my hip flexors much faster. If I had perfect gears, I would probably go faster at the low cadence. I've been doing these drills for over a decade. I have gotten better at it, but the result is still the same, I'm just faster.

I drop my heel on the downstroke, point my toe a bit just as I reach the bottom, pull back with pointed toe, lift up with my heel cup, toe still pointed, then raise my toe to get almost to the top, then push forward with my quad to get over the top. I read a story about a one-legged bike messenger in NYC who supposedly could do 40. Makes sense, since ultimately we're aerobically limited and he was talented. But it took him months to get so he could ride very far after he lost his leg and recovered.

I led a ride series on single speed cassetted bikes a few years ago. We rode hard on hilly terrain once a week for 50-60 miles for about 3 months. We got better at riding SS, but it didn't help our performance at all when we went back to geared riding for the season. Same average as usual over known courses. We were just slower riding SS. This was an experiment and the result was not what we expected or we wouldn't have bothered doing it.

bikenh

This is kinda funny. It seems like if I drop my heel through the entire pedal stroke that I have a smoother pedal stroke. Once I get my bike back I'm going to have to really watch this again. I know I can really feel the difference between a smooth stroke and otherwise. Actually I can hear the difference as well. No clunking when I'm pedalling a nice smooth stroke UGH!!

Actually I have thought about going fixed gear full time. I'm not looking at it for training benefit. I'm a pedal pusher. I don't ride small gears unless I'm riding up 18% grade climbs. I did a 3.7 mile 2100+ foot climb last summer and only went down to a 36x25 as the smallest thing I rode in. I stood up to climb most of the hill. I don't ever ride small gears and most of the time I always stand to climb...other than right now when I only have one foot to work with. From August through mid December last year I rode either a 52x17 or a 52x19. I rode each gear until the chain/cog failed and then I shifted gears and changed the chain. I ended up with over 6000 miles on just two cogs. I'm not really thinking about doing it so much for the performance improvement since I don't do any racing. I'm most looking for simplifying the biking and hopefully reducing a bit of the maintainence work as well. I know from what I have read so far to expect my original plans of going for 52x17 to maybe be a bit to small and that I may end up going for a 52x16 or a 52x15 for summer time riding in reality. Hence why I will wait until I have found out what gear I really want before I go all out and give FG riding a shot.

Carbonfiberboy 

Yes, keeping a taut chain is the thing, also the hardest thing. Try it the way I said - the idea is to spread out the workload, reducing the range of motion of the hip flexors which seem the weak point for most folks. I use the two cadences because the complicated motion is easier to practice slowly.

I have a riding buddy who uses 2 Campy cogs in back, with the rest spacers. I think a 15 and a 19. He saves his worn chains and worn cogs in matched sets. I'm not sure how he tells which chain to match which cogs, but he has some method. This is to save money, because he rides so much.

I have a fixie riding friend who just had a knee replacement. The thing is to always be pushing against the gear, even if it means holding the brake on, never letting the gear push you. Seems to me that SS is way better. I also have friends who've broken collarbones soon after switching to fixed. So be careful. Your carefully learned reactions will be wrong.

bikenh

I realize when it comes to swithcing to fixed gear that I do have to remember one thing, brakes are king. Living in New Hampshire where the average vertical gain is over 50 feet per mile and there are plenty of steep climbs/(more importantly) descents, I will have to remember that I can't stop pedalling while going downhill. It's one of the reasons I'm definitely thinking SS first simply to find out what the right gear is. I've read that once you drop the extra mechanics off the bike that you will find its easier to go faster in the same gear. I would rather maintain the same rpm and give myself faster speeds before killing the knees while descending FG. I think FG would be fun to try, whether I would stick with it or not is another thing. I keep wandering how you time stoplights/stop signs at busy intersections. If you get caught do you just pick up the rear wheel and spin it so the pedals are in a favorable position for starting back up or what. I doubt it would be very hard to find yourself stuck in a bad/dead pedal position where you just can't do much to give yourself any kind of leverage to get started.

I'm in the same scenario as your riding buddy. I rode 21,200 miles last year. I got sick and tired of going through cassettes and chains so darn fast. I decided when I headed off for my roundtrip ride to St. Louis last summer that I would give singlespeed a shot. I figured just ride the gear until the chain crapped out and then change the chain and change the gear. I ended up doing most all the ride in a 52x17 even what is deemed to be the hardest part of the RAAM race course in WV/MD. I only downshifted on a couple of the climbs and that was mostly to try to save some time otherwise I would stuck with the 52x17. After I got back home I continued to stick with the same gear and ended getting over 4000 miles on the gear/chain before I switched down to the 52x19 and did the same thing again. I only ended upw ith something like 2-2,500 miles before that chain crapped out. I am now wandering given some derailleur/hanger problems I'm having if I had crapped out the chain so much so as I might have been having other problems making it look like I was having trouble with the chain. The chain was over 1/8" off but I still wander. I'm going to have to wait and see what the problem actually is to find out if the trouble I started having shortly after Thanksgiving was just the precursor to what I've been dealing with right now. Simplifying the system can only remove problems from the system and make it easier to spend more time riding and less time working on the bike. It saves both time and money.

rumrunn6

this doesn't sound safe

bikenh

What? Riding one legged. I watched a guy ride at the Sunapee Bike Race a couple of years ago...one legged. He was an amputee. If they can do it why can't I.

To put it another way...I ended up riding 501 miles one legged before I switched back to two legged riding. I'm not done one legged riding by a LONG shot. Actually as the ankle continues to heal up I plan on switching over and riding one legged on the ankle that was broken to try to help bring it up to the strength of the good ankle. I will probably spend most of the next winters riding one legged. I actually like the one legged riding better than the two legged. I even seem to be stronger riding one legged as compared to two legged.

The only trouble with riding one legged...switching back to two legged...especially after you have ridden 500 miles using only one leg. It takes some getting use to the feel of pedalling with two legs once again.

Yes, if I were to break my ankle or some other part of the leg below the knee and I didn't have a full leg cast on I would get on the bike even sooner and ride one legged in the future.

Carbonfiberboy 

Good for you. One-legged pedaling is good for everyone. The odd thing is that, if one has two normal legs, pedaling one-legged one can't stress one's aerobic system. There's just not enough muscle involved. So it's actually a good recovery thing to do.

bikenh

Very interesting statement. Thinking back to it I would have to agree. You really can't push too hard. Granted I wasn't trying to either since I didn't think I had much cassette room to play around with. Ever since I started riding single speed, on a regular cassetted bike, I have just went through the gears one at a time until they were junked out...or so I thought. After getting the derailleur hanger replaced, 3-4 days after I started one legged riding, I'm now coming to learn my bent hanger was causing premature 'failure' of the gears. I'm right now riding on cogs I thought were toast. As a result of thinking they were toast I was pretty much only riding as big a 52x22 and not trying to ride anything bigger. Here in western NH I have hills everywhere to deal with and there are a couple where I have to down shift, one legged to a 36x22 or 25 to make it up them and I'm still only riding along at 25 rpm at 4 mph. Nice training for mountain biking even though I don't do any mountain biking

I never tried, but I plan on it now, to see if when riding in the bigger gears one-legged if I could actually push it enough to 'make myself sweat' or not. In the smaller gears I kept running into the problem of pedalling faster than I could spin so I was clunking between 10 & 2. I think toward the end I may have been getting up as high as 70 rpm...MAYBE, at the best before I would start clunking. Since I wasn't willing to ride the bigger gears I would just stop pedalling and coast along until I slowed down instead of continuing to pedal faster. If I would have been willing to upshift I may have been able to push myself. I'll have to play around with it some and see what happens. You have my interest stirred.

yamsyamsyams

From personal experience many PTs and sports meds trainers I've worked with would object to exercising with just the 1 leg, as you are much more prone to re-injury when your legs are unbalanced/uneven. Just be careful when your ankle heals up!

bikenh

That's the one thing I have been doing. I haven't tried pushing it in any way other than doing a 100 miler yesterday. The bottom of the foot was sore as could be by the time I got done. Everything else, all the parts that were broken felt fine but the sole of foot is taking the beating for some reason. I had been told not to use cycling shoes basically until June 1st...avoid the twisting motion of clipping in and unclipping. The funny thing had been the first couple of days back to two legged riding I found myself pulling up in front of my house and I was trying to unclip a tennis shoe. OOPS It always felt fine. When I was out riding 40-50 miles throughout the day the past couple of weeks with the tennis shoe on the bum foot/leg I was always having a sore sole, especially around where the pinkie toe connects to the foot. The bone right there always seemed to be sore at the end of the day. The past couple of days it seemed to spread to the whole ball of the foot. I decided I wasn't even going to play with the 100 miler. I put the cycling shoe back on and instead I found the cycling shoe trying to jab/ride into my arch. Toward the end of the ride I took the shoe off and put it back on after looking to make sure thee was no reason for the feeling. The rest of the ride the soreness went back to the pinkie toe area again. After I got home from the 89 mile main ride I changed back into the tennis shoe before riding into the library to get online. Today I'm riding in the tennis shoe again. The clipping and unclipping felt fine.

I have pretty much been taking everything slowly and listening to the body and not doing more than the body says to do.

hobkirk

I am curious - did you remove the cast side pedal?

Also, if you are riding single speed with a cassette, I'd think you might be able to install parts of the cassette "backwards" so you can wear out the un-worn side of each tooth. I would have to check my "gear train" box (I'm much too lazy) but I think you could create a SERIOUSLY funky cassette! 11-12-28-26-23-21-etc. (If I recall correctly, the smallest two need to be on the outside so the retainer can screw in)

What's attention deficit? I keep getting distracted...

bikenh

No. I was planning on removing the left crank arm but ended up leaving it on and doing things the standard way. Yes, I do everything differently than most people.

For the past three winters I have put a homemade rack, remade each year, on the bike. It was May 1, 2010 when I gave up driving. Gee, has it been that long. I'm feeling old all of a sudden. This past winter was no exception. The only thing about the rack I have put on is the width of the rack. It's as wide as the handlebars...maybe even an inch or two wider. I want it that wide so I when I put my daypack with the 15" laptop on it the entire laptop sits flat on the rack with nothing hanging over the edges. I want the rack so I can keep the pack off the back. I understand quite well that it isn't the cold that gets you during the winter months, its the sweat. I want to keep the back sweat free so I keep the pack off the back during the winter months and add the rack to the bike instead.

Like I said the rack is as wide as the handlebars. I come to find out while trying to figure out how in the heck I could mount the crutches to the bike that using the rack as the crutch mount was perfect. I could bungee the foot of the crutches up by the head tube and the put top of the crutches down on the rack. They would help to keep the bum leg up and I would have them when I needed them when I went to get off the bike.

Like I said I was going to take the crank arm off initially. I had gotten forced into riding one legged on the first day winter 2011 when the crank arm bolt stripped out on me. The idea was a natural. Then I come to realize with the cast on, trying to get the foot to sit on the bottom bracket wasn't going to be the easiest. At first I thought the whole idea of one legged riding wasn't going to work so I put the crank arm back on. The next day I did a little reading online and found out what I was stupidly thinking...trying to start one legged, true one legged...don't do it in a small gear(36x25) unless you want to spin out and get nowhere fast. I tried again that night and found by going up to the big chainring I wasn't having any problems getting going fast enough to be able to get clipped in with the good foot and keep on moving.

I thought about the idea and looked and realized I could probably just toss the bum foot up on the rack right beside the crutches. I tried the idea in the house and it seemed like it was going to work. I have to say the idea was GRAND, especially with the cast. The air boot was a little harder since it was a bit wider and it also did have the extra padding the cast had to keep the leg from aching because of sitting bent kneed on the rack.

Yes, if I ever need to do it again...I WILL IN A HEARTBEAT. I love the way it worked. The only trouble I had was I got so darn used to riding one legged... The second problem was trying to get the feel of using two feet again. The first couple of days when I started out in the morning the pedaling felt so darn awkward it was crazy.

I have a strange feeling I may find myself doing a lot of winter time one legged riding from now on. The feel of one legged riding, once you get use to thinking differently about biking, is incredible. I seem to be so much smoother one legged as compared to two legged. I even seem to have a lot more power...or maybe that is just the smoothness that makes it feel like it is stronger...I'm not sure. I does do one other thing. It's teaches you don't have to have two legs to ride a bicycle, and you don't need a prosthetic(sp?) either. Heck all you need is the rack or possibly a tie down strap might do the trick. I'm not so sure that having the leg behind you may not work more to your benefit though as compared to letting to droop down with the calf tie strapped up against the thigh.

I do keep wandering if the one legged boys can climb out of the saddle without a prosthetic though. I kept thinking about trying it but I couldn't wrap the concept around my two legged mind.

I'll have to do some research on the swapping the cassette around...thanks. I thought I had went through my 19 tooth cog until I got the derailleur hanger replaced and all of a sudden I'm back riding it all the time and it's not giving me any problems whatsoever. I have around 11K miles on the cassette right now. Most of it on the 17 and 19 tooth cogs. I would think you would have to do some derailleur deranging(my term), okay maybe detuning/retuning might be a better word, to get it to work wouldn't you or are you referring to riding without the derailleur all together?