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?