E road bike for a disabled rider.

kernel_gadaffi

Hi all, I've not been around for a while due to huge changes in my personal life and situation.
My health has taken a big nose dive, so cycling and any other activites I enjoyed has gone out of the window, my doctor has suggested getting an electric bike, based on my love of cycling, the outdoors and the fact that I need to keep a level of fitness in order to allow me to exercise and keep arthritis away, plus my general well being.
I can no longer work, have limited funds and given the price of electric bikes, I cannot afford a lot, I've searched for scheme's to help me, but as I can't work, I don't qualify for the "cycle to work" grant or anything else, does anyone know of a way I can help fund a bike on another a grant or scheme?

Thank you.

Alan.

oxoman

I can't say I've heard of any schemes like your looking for. For kids and specific health issues maybe. I know various disabled charity,s will help provide mobility scooters but that's about it. Another option is to look at low interest loan or similar perhaps. Maybe worth asking British Cycling if they know of anything.

johnny_2_shoes

kernel_gadaffi said:

Hi all, I've not been around for a while due to huge changes in my personal life and situation.
My health has taken a big nose dive, so cycling and any other activites I enjoyed has gone out of the window, my doctor has suggested getting an electric bike, based on my love of cycling, the outdoors and the fact that I need to keep a level of fitness in order to allow me to exercise and keep arthritis away, plus my general well being.
I can no longer work, have limited funds and given the price of electric bikes, I cannot afford a lot, I've searched for scheme's to help me, but as I can't work, I don't qualify for the "cycle to work" grant or anything else, does anyone know of a way I can help fund a bike on another a grant or scheme?

Thank you.

Alan.

Free tandem hire for people with disabilities

http://charlottestandems.weebly.com/

thecycleclinic

The big problem with e bikes are the wheels. Often they are not up to scratch. An irish customer has some bikes and tthe hubs are bafang. The hub geometry is best though of as narrow and the glange overly large. So large that 1x lacing is all that possible on a 36h wheel. In fact the wheel is a crisp waiting to become a pringle. The original wheels were laced not fully tension and definitely not stress relieved.

If currently have 4 e bike hub motor wheels in for rebuildable the moment. If you buy one I would get the wheels immediately checked by a wheel builder. They may need tensioning and stress relieving properly.

kernel_gadaffi

Thank you for the replies and I apologise for my lack of appearance on the forum, illness, pains and physical inability has kept me occupied. I put a huge amount of thought, time and research into the bike purchase and managed to try a couple of E-road bikes, they were good, but I found the position on the bike very limiting, because of my back and the pains in my hands became too much to bear. I gave up on the road bike idea (for the time being) and looked at e-mtb's, I tried a few, hardtails and full springers, but the one that I found the most comfortable, adjustable to my physical condition and offered a control unit I liked, was the Cube Stereo Hybid SL160HPC 27.5".
While I was doing my research, I managed to sell off several items I no longer had use for, this included a motorbike, some fishing gear, a couple of air rifles and my rifle reloading equipment. This gave me a fund of almost £2,000 and was half of the price of the bike, the rest I could pay off, interest free over the next 2 years and wouldn't put a massive dent in my weekly budget, only about £21.
I've had 4 rides totalling 92 miles, all on road, the last and longest was on Thursday, it took me 28.5 miles and almost 3 hours, I kept the bike in "Eco" most of the time, using Tour and EMTB when the going became too hard for me to manage and only once, did I use Turbo, but that was on a 1:3 incline.
I still had roughly 40% battery showing when I got back, I was really tired and knew I'd overdone it, but I was so happy with my achievement, yes, I had assistance, a lot of assistance, but being out on the bike was a wonderful boost, yes, I did feel like I was cheating a little, but considering I was in Eco mode for 65-70% of the ride, I'm more than happy with my effort on such a heavy bike. I was a good workout
despite the assistance. I took the Cube saddle off after the first ride, and installed the Charge Spoon from my old bike, that saddle has done some miles and I know it offers some form of comfort, sadly, after such a long time off any bikes, my backside will have to get used to it again. It's now Saturday morning and I'm suffering, not just my bum, I'm tender all over. But the grin factor is still prevalent as my face will attest.
It's nice to be back.