Handbike info

So nobody has any pointers for me on this? How about a
newsgroup where I could ask the question of people who are
likely to have experience? A disabled racing group, maybe?

In article <[email hidden]>,
ns_dkerber@ns_ids.net says...

Quoted message said:

My wife is interested in looking into getting a handbike
because of a weak left foot/leg (I've tried to get her on
a tandem, but she's not interested). I've done a google
search and found a few sources, but could anybody here
give me any experience they've had with any specific
brands or sources? Especially a possible source for a
used one?

Thanks! Dave Kerber

--
Remove the ns_ from if replying by e-mail (but keep posts in
the newsgroups if possible).

In article <[email hidden]>,

David Kerber ns_dkerber@ns_ids.net said:

So nobody has any pointers for me on this? How about a
newsgroup where I could ask the question of people who are
likely to have experience? A disabled racing group, maybe?

In article <[email hidden]>,
ns_dkerber@ns_ids.net says...

Quoted message said:

My wife is interested in looking into getting a handbike
because of a weak left foot/leg (I've tried to get her on
a tandem, but she's not interested). I've done a google
search and found a few sources, but could anybody here
give me any experience they've had with any specific
brands or sources? Especially a possible source for a
used one?

I just did a quick Google on: "everest & jennings" hand cyle
and this is the first item that popped up.
usatechguide.orgitemreview.phpOpen ↗

I'd look at some more of the hits but my dinner's on the
stove and I've gotta get to it pronto.

cheers, Tom

--
-- Powered by FreeBSD Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

"David Kerber" <ns_dkerber@ns_ids.net> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

My wife is interested in looking into getting a handbike
because of a weak left foot/leg (I've tried to get her on
a tandem, but she's not interested).

Does your wife have an injury or disability, or is her leg
just "weak"? A handcycle seems an awfully big step for
someone who's not paralyzed.

David Kerber <ns_dkerber@ns_ids.net> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

So nobody has any pointers for me on this? How about a
newsgroup where I could ask the question of people who are
likely to have experience? A disabled racing group, maybe?

There's a handcyclist group over at yahoo that looks
relatively active:

sports.groups.yahoo.comhandcyclistsOpen ↗

A useful list of handcycle links is here:

bike-on.comhandcycleOpen ↗
friends/handcycle_friends_links.html

--Brent bhugh [at] mwsc.edu mobikefed.orgmobikefed.orgOpen ↗

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>,
ns_dkerber@ns_ids.net says...

Quoted message said:

My wife is interested in looking into getting a handbike
because of a weak left foot/leg (I've tried to get her
on a tandem, but she's not interested). I've done a
google search and found a few sources, but could anybody
here give me any experience they've had with any
specific brands or sources? Especially a possible source
for a used one?

Thanks! Dave Kerber

David Kerber said:

My wife is interested in looking into getting a handbike
because of a weak left foot/leg (I've tried to get her on
a tandem, but she's not interested). I've done a google
search and found a few sources, but could anybody here
give me any experience they've had with any specific
brands or sources? Especially a possible source for a
used one?

Thanks! Dave Kerber

Hi, if her other leg is ok and there would be no pain or
discomfort, I would try to get her on a regular bike. Riding
with only one good leg, is very doable[? is that a word]. If
interested, post any reservations and I'll try to give you
some solutions.

Life is Good! Jeff

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Hash: SHA1

Jeff Starr said:

David Kerber said:

My wife is interested in looking into getting a handbike
because of a weak left foot/leg (I've tried to get her on
a tandem, but she's not interested). I've done a google
search and found a few sources, but could anybody here
give me any experience they've had with any specific
brands or sources? Especially a possible source for a
used one?

Thanks! Dave Kerber

Hi, if her other leg is ok and there would be no pain or
discomfort, I would try to get her on a regular bike.
Riding with only one good leg, is very doable[? is that a
word]. If interested, post any reservations and I'll try
to give you some solutions.

Life is Good! Jeff

I ride daily with one leg weaker than the other without
serious problems. I'm a bit slower and I ride lower gears
than before my accident, but I manage.

Dave, you didn't give any idea how *much* weaker the bad leg
is, so here's my situation for comparison. My injury was
only to the knee, so my hip/ankle are fine. Functionally, I
walk with a limp, on a good day, I can climb a flight of
stairs normally (lifting with both legs), on bad days, I
either have to use a hand on the rail to pull myself up on
the bad leg, or just lift with the good leg.

There are a couple problems that I've noticed riding, I
habitually put my right foot down when stopping, leaving my
left foot (the weaker leg) on the pedals to get me moving
again. I'm finding that there's generally not enough
strength to push that pedal down and lift me up into the
saddle. I'm working on changing my habit to put the left
foot down.

The other problem is that I can't really get out of the
saddle. This has pretty much eliminated my off-road riding,
as I can't move my hips around to move my center of gravity.
It also means that I'm stuck in the saddle during climbs.
Low gears help here.

Hope this has been helpful.

Mark

- --
Remove both wrongs to make the email address right.

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(GNU/Linux)

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In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

"David Kerber" <ns_dkerber@ns_ids.net> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

My wife is interested in looking into getting a handbike
because of a weak left foot/leg (I've tried to get her
on a tandem, but she's not interested).

Does your wife have an injury or disability, or is her leg
just "weak"? A handcycle seems an awfully big step for
someone who's not paralyzed.

Her left foot is 4 sizes smaller than her right, and the
muscles and ligaments are severly atrophied from polio when
she was about 2 years old. I've been trying to tell her that
she can still ride a bike with some practice, even when that
leg is only about 10% as strong as the other, but she's not
buying it. 15 years ago she could still ride, but as she's
gotten older, it's gotten much worse.

--
Remove the ns_ from if replying by e-mail (but keep posts in
the newsgroups if possible).

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

David Kerber said:

My wife is interested in looking into getting a handbike
because of a weak left foot/leg (I've tried to get her
on a tandem, but she's not interested). I've done a
google search and found a few sources, but could anybody
here give me any experience they've had with any
specific brands or sources? Especially a possible source
for a used one?

Thanks! Dave Kerber

Hi, if her other leg is ok and there would be no pain or
discomfort, I would try to get her on a regular bike.
Riding with only one good leg, is very doable[? is that a
word]. If interested, post any reservations and I'll try
to give you some solutions.

That's what I've been trying to tell her, but she doesn't
believe me. If I could just get her to watch some of the 1-
legged riders in the paralympics, maybe she would!

--
Remove the ns_ from if replying by e-mail (but keep posts in
the newsgroups if possible).

In article
<[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

David Kerber <ns_dkerber@ns_ids.net> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

So nobody has any pointers for me on this? How about a
newsgroup where I could ask the question of people who
are likely to have experience? A disabled racing group,
maybe?

There's a handcyclist group over at yahoo that looks
relatively active:

sports.groups.yahoo.comhandcyclistsOpen ↗

A useful list of handcycle links is here:

bike-on.comhandcycleOpen ↗
friends/handcycle_friends_links.html

Thanks for the links!

....

--
Remove the ns_ from if replying by e-mail (but keep posts in
the newsgroups if possible).

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1

Jeff Starr said:

David Kerber said:

My wife is interested in looking into getting a
handbike because of a weak left foot/leg (I've tried to
get her on a tandem, but she's not interested). I've
done a google search and found a few sources, but could
anybody here give me any experience they've had with
any specific brands or sources? Especially a possible
source for a used one?

Thanks! Dave Kerber

Hi, if her other leg is ok and there would be no pain or
discomfort, I would try to get her on a regular bike.
Riding with only one good leg, is very doable[? is that
a word]. If interested, post any reservations and I'll
try to give you some solutions.

Life is Good! Jeff

I ride daily with one leg weaker than the other without
serious problems. I'm a bit slower and I ride lower gears
than before my accident, but I manage.

Dave, you didn't give any idea how *much* weaker the bad
leg is, so here's my situation for comparison. My injury
was only to the knee, so my hip/ankle are fine.
Functionally, I walk with a limp, on a good day, I can
climb a flight of stairs normally (lifting with both
legs), on bad days, I either have to use a hand on the
rail to pull myself up on the bad leg, or just lift with
the good leg.

There are a couple problems that I've noticed riding, I
habitually put my right foot down when stopping, leaving
my left foot (the weaker leg) on the pedals to get me
moving again. I'm finding that there's generally not
enough strength to push that pedal down and lift me up
into the saddle. I'm working on changing my habit to put
the left foot down.

The other problem is that I can't really get out of the
saddle. This has pretty much eliminated my off-road
riding, as I can't move my hips around to move my center
of gravity. It also means that I'm stuck in the saddle
during climbs. Low gears help here.

Hope this has been helpful.

Thanks for the comments!

--
Remove the ns_ from if replying by e-mail (but keep posts in
the newsgroups if possible).

"David Kerber" <ns_dkerber@ns_ids.net> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

In article
<[email hidden]>, gooserider@mouse-
potato.com says...

Quoted message said:

"David Kerber" <ns_dkerber@ns_ids.net> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

My wife is interested in looking into getting a
handbike because of a weak left foot/leg (I've tried
to get her on a tandem, but she's not interested).

Does your wife have an injury or disability, or is her
leg just "weak"?

A

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

handcycle seems an awfully big step for someone who's
not paralyzed.

Her left foot is 4 sizes smaller than her right, and
the muscles and ligaments are severly atrophied from
polio when she was about 2 years old. I've been trying
to tell her that she can still ride a bike with some
practice, even when that leg is only about 10% as
strong as the other, but she's not buying it. 15 years
ago she could still ride, but as she's gotten older,
it's gotten much worse.

Wow that's tough. Can she do any sort of therapy or strength
training to build up strength? I would tend to think that a
handcycle is going to be something she'd use on multi-use
paths only, and that's going to naturally limit its
use(unless you live real near a path). There's no such thing
as a cheap handcycle, either. Good luck in your search!

In article <[email hidden]>,

Gooserider said:

I would tend to think that a handcycle is going to be
something she'd use on multi-use paths only, and that's
going to naturally limit its use(unless you live real near
a path).

Those are the only places I've seen them.

Quoted message said:

There's no such thing as a cheap handcycle, either. Good
luck in your search!

I suspect they're more of something that people obtain from
mfgrs who specialize in physiotherapy equipment and
suchlike, via doctors' prescriptions or referrals, and are
typically paid-for through medical coverage.

cheers, Tom

--
-- Powered by FreeBSD Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

David Kerber said:

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

David Kerber said:

My wife is interested in looking into getting a handbike
because of a weak left foot/leg (I've tried to get her on
a tandem, but she's not interested). I've done a google
search and found a few sources, but could anybody here
give me any experience they've had with any specific
brands or sources? Especially a possible source for a
used one?

Thanks! Dave Kerber

Hi, if her other leg is ok and there would be no pain or
discomfort, I would try to get her on a regular bike.
Riding with only one good leg, is very doable[? is that a
word]. If interested, post any reservations and I'll try
to give you some solutions.

That's what I've been trying to tell her, but she doesn't
believe me. If I could just get her to watch some of the
1-legged riders in the paralympics, maybe she would!

Dave, I'm 49 years old, I ride with an above the knee
artificial leg. I clip the leg in the pedal and leave it
there until I get off the bike. I have to push off with my
good leg and then start pedaling. This is no problem with
regular pedals and takes a bit more skill with clipless. I
rode as a kid and as a young adult. I then didn't ride for
about 25 years. Two years ago, I got my bike out, put new
tubes and tires on it and rode 700 miles that summer. Last
year I rode a total of 2086 miles. This year I have already
rode 1240 miles. Both my bikes are road bikes, but if your
wife started with a comfort or hybrid, with the seat a
little on the low side, I'm sure she could ride short
distances, and then maybe more.

I would think a handbike would require quite a lot of upper
body strength and that distances would be very limited.

If she would be willing to try, I'm sure you could find a
suitable bike, to experiment with. Once she gets her
confidence back, then a nice, maybe new, one would be in
order. I get so much pleasure out of riding, not to mention
the benefits of the exercise. I'm in Milwaukee WI, where
are you located? If I can answer any specific questions,
please ask.

Life is Good! Jeff

Jeff Starr said:

Dave, I'm 49 years old, I ride with an above the knee
artificial leg. I clip the leg in the pedal and leave it
there until I get off the bike. I have to push off with my
good leg and then start pedaling. This is no problem with
regular pedals and takes a bit more skill with clipless. I
rode as a kid and as a young adult. I then didn't ride for
about 25 years. Two years ago, I got my bike out, put new
tubes and tires on it and rode 700 miles that summer. Last
year I rode a total of 2086 miles. This year I have already
rode 1240 miles. Both my bikes are road bikes, but if your
wife started with a comfort or hybrid, with the seat a
little on the low side, I'm sure she could ride short
distances, and then maybe more.

I would think a handbike would require quite a lot of upper
body strength and that distances would be very limited.

If she would be willing to try, I'm sure you could find a
suitable bike, to experiment with. Once she gets her
confidence back, then a nice, maybe new, one would be in
order. I get so much pleasure out of riding, not to mention
the benefits of the exercise. I'm in Milwaukee WI, where
are you located? If I can answer any specific questions,
please ask.

Life is Good! Jeff

DAYUM! A big WOW, to you, sir. You have guts and the heart
of a lion, man.

You must be an inspiration to all those around you.

Best,

-Badger

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

In article
<[email hidden]>,

Gooserider said:

I would tend to think that a handcycle is going to be
something she'd use on multi-use paths only, and that's
going to naturally limit its use(unless you live real
near a path).

Those are the only places I've seen them.

There's a guy I see regularly on a hand-trike going up
and down the same roads I'm riding on. He's the only
one, though.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

There's no such thing as a cheap handcycle, either. Good
luck in your search!

I suspect they're more of something that people obtain
from mfgrs who specialize in physiotherapy equipment and
suchlike, via doctors' prescriptions or referrals, and are
typically paid-for through medical coverage.

Could be, though I've seen them for around $1200 with some
Google searching. They seem to use lots of standard bicycle
components: Ultegra cranks and cassettes, etc. One racing
model I saw even had Zipp 3-spoke wheels.

--
Remove the ns_ from if replying by e-mail (but keep posts in
the newsgroups if possible).

David Kerber <ns_dkerber@ns_ids.net> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

David Kerber said:

My wife is interested in looking into getting a
handbike because of a weak left foot/leg (I've tried
to get her on a tandem, but she's not interested).
I've done a google search and found a few sources, but
could anybody here give me any experience they've had
with any specific brands or sources? Especially a
possible source for a used one?

Hi, if her other leg is ok and there would be no pain or
discomfort, I would try to get her on a regular bike.
Riding with only one good leg, is very doable[? is that
a word]. If interested, post any reservations and I'll
try to give you some solutions.

That's what I've been trying to tell her, but she doesn't
believe me. If I could just get her to watch some of the
1-legged riders in the paralympics, maybe she would!

She doesn't need to watch the paralympics, she just needs to
look around at plain regular one-legged cyclists. Just
today, riding to work, I passed by a woman with one leg
commuting on her bike herself. And I'll never forget the
time, while on the STP (a 200 mile bike ride from Seattle to
Portland), a guy coming up to his bike, taking off his
artificial leg, strapping it onto his top tube, and taking
off. I felt like, damn, he's doing 200 miles on one leg --
how can I complain about doing it on two?

Warm Regards,

Claire

"Gooserider" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

"David Kerber" <ns_dkerber@ns_ids.net> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

. . .

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Her left foot is 4 sizes smaller than her right, and the
muscles and ligaments are severly atrophied from polio
when she was about 2 years old. I've been trying to tell
her that she can still ride a bike with some practice,
even when that leg is only about 10% as strong as the
other, but she's not buying it. 15 years ago she could
still ride, but as she's gotten older, it's gotten much
worse.

Wow that's tough. Can she do any sort of therapy or
strength training to build up strength? I would tend to
think that a handcycle is going to be something she'd use
on multi-use paths only, and that's going to naturally
limit its use(unless you live real near a path). There's
no such thing as a cheap handcycle, either. Good luck in
your search!

There's a group of handcyclists that regularly ride a
Saturday morning ride I sometime go on. I also saw them on a
60 mile ride a couple of weeks ago. I'd guess they do about
10-12 MPH on average, in other words just as fast as or
faster than a lot of people who cruise around town on
WalMart bikes with knobbly tires.

So they ride on the street just like everybody else and they
don't appear to be any more low/dangerous etc. than, for
example, a typical recumbent bike. In fact the handcycles
are higher and more visible than some of the really low
tadpole recumbent trikes like Greenspeed.

That does make me think, though--another option for your
wife might be a regular recumbent trike. The advantage of
the trikes over a bike is that you can go as slow as you
need to without ever feeling like your going to tip over.
You don't have that moment of instability when you start and
stop, that might be making her feel uncomfortable with the
idea of riding a bike. Nice set of recumbent trike links:

home.mindspring.com~kb7mxuOpen ↗

Another interesting option would be something like a rowing
bike. The advantage of this is that you use arms/legs/torso
to row, but both legs move together, so possibly the weak
leg could just ride along with the other leg and do as much
work as it can or as little work as it needs to. Nice
rowbike links:

geocities.comland rowers.htmOpen ↗

BTW, here is just one link with a variety of handcycles for
around $1000. That's really not bad, considering:

spinlife.comwcstore.cfmOpen ↗ (look at near the
bottom of the page for the "handcycles" link)

--Brent bhugh [at] mwsc.edu www.MoBikeFed.org