Fat Biker - Bike Advice

Dave85

Hi All,

I've been looking around and only really found very old answers and quite often bikes I could only find for sale in the US from google searches for this answer.

I'm approx 24 stone (340lbs ish) and looking for a suitable bike to get me started. My commute to work would be 4.5miles with 90% of this being on a cycle path. I could cut this down to approx 3.5miles by cutting out the cycle path for a mile and taking a short cut on a path/road.

The bit of research I've done I think a mountain bike is probably my best bet for my size and possibly a hard tail? Also potentially a hybrid or a fat bike?

I would be looking at spending up to probably £700 on a bike. Unfortunatley in the past when I weighed quite a bit less I bought a bike for £50, rode it for 1 mile and put it in the garage and never got on it again. In my teens I would bike to and from school and pretty much all weekend with my mates. I want that freedom again and to help with my weight loss (I'm already on a plan with this and eating the right stuff and losing weight consistently).

So, has anyone here been in this kind of situation? Any recommendations for bikes which would be relatively suitable for my weight. Any experience with fat bikes as I have read a couple of blogs which have suggested these might be more suitable for riding for overweight (and on this, can fat bike wheels be installed on any forks or would the fork have to be updated to fit the wheels if that was the option I was to go down?).

I'm very new to this as you can tell and don't really want to spend £700 on a bike to work scheme bike only for it to not be able to hold my weight or for it to be unsuitable. I've also not heard the best reviews about my local bike shop in regards of staff knowledge!

Thanks in advance.

Dave85

I've been told by a friend that this would be a good investment:

https://www.evanscycles.com/bmc-teameli ... e-EV302730

For the price does this seem a decent bike?

cooldad

No bike is an investment, but a racy, light XC bike is probably not what you need, especially if you are worried about it breaking.

Have a look at the Voodoo range at Halfords. Great value and a bit chunkier.

TBH I would consider doing some walking and losing a bit more weight first.

glenwatt

A hard tail MTB, perhaps with the tyres changed to some slicks. Would IMHO be a good way forward to getting you on the back road.
Get some decent shorts or short liners to make things as comfy as possible downstairs. (Decathlon or Fat Lad at the Back do larger sizes)
Lastly start out with short runs and then just get out and enjoy yourself.

hope this helps.

Dave85

cooldad wrote:

No bike is an investment, but a racy, light XC bike is probably not what you need, especially if you are worried about it breaking.

Have a look at the Voodoo range at Halfords. Great value and a bit chunkier.

TBH I would consider doing some walking and losing a bit more weight first.

Cheers. I ruled out that after looking around and top of my list was the Voodoo Bizango with the Trek Marlin 7 another option. I've applied for my cycle to work certificate and will hopefully get to the shop to have a look at both of these next week and any others anyone recommends. I'm going to give my 90s bike a ride to work tomorrow, unfortunately it appears only 14 of the gears max are working and the brakes pretty much non-existent (I'll be trying to sort this out as much as possible today).

I've lost just over 3 stone in 2 months and sitll doing plenty of walking, it's mainly the commute to and from work I want the bike for at the moment, walking isn't an option here as it takes approx an hour and a half to walk and I have to get back to pick the kids up.

Dave85

GlenWatt wrote:

A hard tail MTB, perhaps with the tyres changed to some slicks. Would IMHO be a good way forward to getting you on the back road.
Get some decent shorts or short liners to make things as comfy as possible downstairs. (Decathlon or Fat Lad at the Back do larger sizes)
Lastly start out with short runs and then just get out and enjoy yourself.

hope this helps.

Thanks. I managed to grab a pair of cheapish but 4.5/5 rated cycle shorts of amazon last night to be delivered today (the reviews said they probably won't last long as they seem a bit lightweight but I need to give it a go!).

I jumped on my old bike the other day and did 3.3miles in 25mins. The bike didn't perform well at all being a 90s mountain bike which had sat in my garage for 6 or 7 years and the previous owner also didn't ride it much before I bought it. I was fighting with it on stretches trying to get gears to change etc which wouldn't work.

The long term goal is to get to a level of fitness to take the kids out on their bikes when they're old enough, one isn't far off to be honest. Losing weight in the process would be great but the diet is for that, anything that the cycling helps is a bonus. Getting off the road in the car and sitting in traffic every day would also be a big plus for this.

Another question for anyone, are these aftershokz bonez headphones any good? Only owning in ear headphones I don't really want to be riding wearing them as they are noise cancelling, these look like the alternative? Are they worth the money?

steve_sordy

There is little worse for a bike than gears that don't shift, or shift badly.

Unless it is totally knackered, you should be able to get the gear shifting working better on your old bike. But I can understand why you are reluctant to spend any money on it.

Do you have any mates who ride a lot and know what they are doing, who can make some adjustments to cable tension, limit screws etc (ie free)?

blokie13

On the Aftershokz front I have some Aftershokz Trekz Titanium (the bluetooth ones) and they are absolutely brilliant, but I do not EVER use them whilst riding on the road, as I consider any type of sound distraction from the traffic to be too dangerous.

I use them whilst running and in the gym all the time, and the telephone call capability works surprisingly well too, but as above never on the road!

Dave85

Blokie13 wrote:

On the Aftershokz front I have some Aftershokz Trekz Titanium (the bluetooth ones) and they are absolutely brilliant, but I do not EVER use them whilst riding on the road, as I consider any type of sound distraction from the traffic to be too dangerous.

I use them whilst running and in the gym all the time, and the telephone call capability works surprisingly well too, but as above never on the road!

Cheers, I wasn't sure how good they would be.

I don't intend to bike on the road any time soon, my route from home to work consists of 2 side roads and the rest is a cycle path through parks and a small industrial estate again off the road.

Dave85

steve_sordy wrote:

There is little worse for a bike than gears that don't shift, or shift badly.

Unless it is totally knackered, you should be able to get the gear shifting working better on your old bike. But I can understand why you are reluctant to spend any money on it.

Do you have any mates who ride a lot and know what they are doing, who can make some adjustments to cable tension, limit screws etc (ie free)?

I'm very reluctant to due to the age of the bike. I sent my mate who rides regularly a pic of it and he laughed and said not to bother. My cycle to work scheme has been approved and I should get the certificate through in the next 9 days so I can begin to properly look then and hopefully get back out on a bike after years. I really miss it and regret being lazy in my late teens and early 20s and relying on the car for my small commutes to work.

bonzo_banana

My recommendation would be either of the Carrera Subway's. They are basically rigid mountain bikes with strong freehub based drivetrains. They are extremely strong and durable and cope well with heavy riders, very low maintenance too.

blokie13

I still own a 2010 Carrera Subway (obviously 26") that I got new from Halfords when I was significantly heavier than I am now. I've done nothing to it in 8 years except change saddle and pedals and it's never missed a beat.

The Rookie

Dave85 wrote:

My cycle to work scheme has been approved

OK what scheme do you use, there are lots and not all give access to all retailers, so its pointlesss recommending a bike as you may not be able to get it!

If its not with the Halfords scheme its much harder to get anything that's solely Halfords for example.

Dave85

I ended up going for this:

https://www.tredz.co.uk/.Wilier-503X-Pr ... gJV6vD_BwE

I almost went for the voodoo bizango but my certificate arrived a day after the sale so it went up by £140ish and the Wilier was £200 more for what my friend said was significantly better specs. I have no idea. Now I need to get out on it and get myself back into biking (and then the wife and kids!).

cooldad

At almost twice the price, and not significantly better, your friend is an idiot.

JBA

What happened to the £700 budget?

Dave85

I paid £750 for it.

JBA

That's a decent price for it. The list price is way too much.

cooldad

But back to lightish, steep XC bike. Wouldn't have been my choice but...

Dave85

Just thought I'd say, if any other fat biker finds this via any searches and is wondering whether or not to get a bike because they're too big (many google articles suggest not to unless under 260lbs ish!) don't listen and get on and do it. Since I posted this I've lost a further 30lbs and am now biking 15-25 miles a day 5 days a week depending on what routes I fancy.

I've only ended up in A&E once That kept me off the bike for a week but it was a schoolboy error! Fortunately I was wearing a helmet...

Also on the aftershokz trekz, I ended up buying some. They are pretty good, easy to control and good to ride with but as some said on here, on the road they're not worth the hassle. Even on the lowest setting they're a bit of a distraction when trying to hear for cars from behind. Decent for the cycle paths I use though.