A late update; in answer to the question how did the ride go?
Once again a long hard slap of reality in the face. I’m woefully unfit, which I knew, but small uphills proved very, very tough (friends on regular bikes walked alongside me). Even match fit you’ll never progress uphill beyond walking pace. So rather demoralising – though the down hill bits proved fun. Also the bike I had (Sport-on XCR) was frickin massive. It took three people to get it into my house and when placed into an estate car the rear wheels were touching the tailgate and the front wheel (deflated) was on the dashboard. So nowhere to store it and without a van or trailer no way to transport it (apart from removing all the wheels & it had no quick release). So though it was great to be out with mates on the trails again, it was all rather depressing.
I mentioned to one of the other riders about a company in Southern Germany that makes a handbike that breaks down (proaktiv-gmbh). Hey presto said friend (who also happens to be German) called the firm and last week a rep from Germany turned up at my home in SE London with an offroad demo-handbike. I tried it and after some soul searching I put down a deposit (what you should do versus what you want to do). Once built to my measurements it’ll arrive in about 10 weeks.
I’m in the lucky position that I can afford to buy such a bespoke and horribly expensive piece of equipment (even without VAT); imagine an Orange 5 RS kitted out to the nines and you’d still have change for an Orange Clockwork.
I went for this bike as it also comes with German built Neo-Drive (regenerative electric assist). I realised that if I’m riding with the non-crippled (friends & family) then its not tenable for them to spend most of the time walking alongside me. I was always diametrically opposed to e-bikes on the trails, but once again I find reality proved what I can and can’t do. It also makes me think that e-bikes have a place for the ever ageing MTBer (all of you reading this in 10,20 or 30 years).
I will try to post updates, mainly for other spinal injury cyclists to refer to.
