Disabled rider

Rob83

New Member
Hi all

I have just purchased a Cruzbike Quest. I brought it because when riding my ICE Sprint I feel that I am to low when it comes to riding with the club, o wanted a higher riding position.

I have no use of my left arm and a limp in my left leg. this means I have balance issues. I was wondering if there was anyone who had experience of riding a cruzbike with a disability and any tips?
 

Charles.Plager

Recumbent Quant
Hi Rob,

I don't have any experience. What I can tell you is that once acclimated, you should have very little issues. Getting acclimated will be your challenge.

I do recommend starting off with Kim's videos. Bob Pankratz also has good tips on how to start off as well. I'd recommend spending a lot of time with flinstoning and just pulling your feet up to the pedals without pedaling.

Hopefully you'll get other advice as well. Good luck and let us know how it goes (and come back with many more questions)!

Charles
 

jond

Zen MBB Master
hi rob great advice from charles. there is a plethora of great advice within this forum. i am now at about 1200klm mark with my bike. i think that a thousand kilometers is required before you can take the bikes out on the roads with confidence. i anticipate another 4000klm before i consider myself a cruzbike pilot. this distance aligns with other peoples experiences from what i see in the forums. i can best describe cruzbiking as " it really is like learning to ride on two wheels all over again." thus initially it is very important to limit the oft quoted "oh no what have i done." moment. you can limit this by following the sage advice of frequent quiet carpark training sessions at a slow pace. it will be a challenge without doubt but i am sure rob you are used to overcoming challenges with aplomb.
you will find your learning has leap forward moments as the connections are made between head legs fine motor skills and your bike. ratz is spot on when he says repeat often your slow training sessions figure 8s etc etc. platform pedals initially is a good idea.

good luck and best wishes.

jon
 

thwaters

Member
What about the TTrike Project? Robert Holler (Cruzbike marketing) , is there anything you can do to help? Here's one (admittedly far-out) idea:

img_bottom_2_en.jpg
ht tp://www.ez-trainer.com/?c=prod These are quickly removable -- good for temporary (learning) use. Would interfere with rack on Quest, but otherwise should work.
 

Charles.Plager

Recumbent Quant
Hi THWaters,

Both of these suggestions I think are interesting. :)

What about the TTrike Project? Robert Holler (Cruzbike marketing) , is there anything you can do to help? Here's one (admittedly far-out) idea:

img_bottom_2_en.jpg
ht tp://www.ez-trainer.com/?c=prod These are quickly removable -- good for temporary (learning) use. Would interfere with rack on Quest, but otherwise should work.

I don't think the training wheels make sense for riding once acclimated to the bike, but they could be useful in getting used to how the bike behaves and learning how to pedal to minimize pedal steer.

The TTrike project is interesting, but will need a tilt-lock before it would be useful (which it is rumored to be getting).
 

thwaters

Member
Agreed. The spring design hopefully would allow some feel to aid the learning process; then quickly and easily removed. I have taught driver education to students with various disabilities, but never worked with someone learning to ride a Cruzbike!
 

bradwoodbr

New Member
Hi all

I have just purchased a Cruzbike Quest. I brought it because when riding my ICE Sprint I feel that I am to low when it comes to riding with the club, o wanted a higher riding position.

I have no use of my left arm and a limp in my left leg. this means I have balance issues. I was wondering if there was anyone who had experience of riding a cruzbike with a disability and any tips?

With your arm I suggest using wider handlebars with all the controls on the right.
You can get brake levers that work both brakes at the same time (you have probably already done this). The wider bars will provide more control at low speeds.

With the limp in your left leg I assume it is shorter than your right?? If that is the case then set the boom
for your left leg.
You could get shorter cranks like 155mm and lower gearing to make riding even smoother.

My right leg is 32mm shorter than my left (motorbike accident) and I also have limited right knee bend.
I have shorten my cranks to 125mm and reduced the size of the chainrings by the same percentage.
This setup works really well for me.
Cheers
 

MrSteve

Zen MBB Master
With your arm I suggest using wider handlebars with all the controls on the right.
You can get brake levers that work both brakes at the same time (you have probably already done this). The wider bars will provide more control at low speeds.

With the limp in your left leg I assume it is shorter than your right?? If that is the case then set the boom
for your left leg.
You could get shorter cranks like 155mm and lower gearing to make riding even smoother.

My right leg is 32mm shorter than my left (motorbike accident) and I also have limited right knee bend.
I have shorten my cranks to 125mm and reduced the size of the chainrings by the same percentage.
This setup works really well for me.
Cheers

How about that!
A fellow gimp!
On a Cruzbike, as well.

In my case, a car crushed my right leg into the motorcycle I was riding and,
after all the recovery, healing and physical therapy were over, my right
leg ended up a half inch shorter and the knee lost some range of motion.

So, we have similar leg injuries.

Shorter crank arms don't solve for my shortened leg.
A shortened crank will just change the angles and make the pedaling circle smaller.

Here's my short leg problem:
My right foot/right leg X-seam is shorter than my left foot/left leg X-seam.
My knee can handle pedaling big circles, small circles: Pedaling is no problem for my knee.
-Your knee may well be different.-

Here's my short leg solution:
So, to accommodate the different measurements, I added a 'lift' or a shim to the right
pedal.
The shim makes up the difference between my shortened leg and my original-length leg.
Both legs pedal the same circle, balance is restored and all is well in my biking universe.

The shim is a piece of spruce that I whittled to fit the pedal.
The shim is longer and a bit wider than the pedal, for longitudinal stability -this is important.
I lashed the shim in place, because my kayak frames were lashed together.
Lashings are incredibly strong, stable and light-weight: my kayaks never let me down...
and neither has my pedal.
For my long left leg, I lashed a thin red oak shim to the pedal, so that both pedals
would have the same feel underfoot.
The wood is sealed with coat of epoxy resin or two.

f8906482.jpg



46953430.jpg

First image is the underside of the 1/2" spruce board that shims my short right leg;
the blurry last image shows my aluminum flashing & aluminum flat stock/epoxy resin/red oak composite platform lashed to the left pedal.

Hope this gives you some ideas, some inspiration.

-Steve
 
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