I was a cyclist long before I lost the lower half of my right leg, but not to the level I am now, I just had an old “10 speed racer” or 5 speed if the front deraillieur was acting up, but, it got me from a to b and wasn’t really a form of exercise for me, just a mode of transport. After I became a below knee amputee, my cycling had to change, I didn’t have the strength to ride a road bike and so my foray into MTB came into being.  I was very wary of straps to keep my “stray foot” on the pedal and money was tight too. My birthday is a month after christmas, so funds became available and I delved into the world of SPD’s, what a relevation, it improved things for me no end, the tension was set just right and I was able to ride safely, but also had the chance to “step out” if needed.

Here I am, many years and miles down the road, with a road bike and two MTB’s, still enjoying life and spending as much time on the bikes as I can, but, I have a problem, I’ve not been able to get out of the seat and stand up to pedal, I just don’t have the strength, plus, there’s the imbalance of being able to put equal power into my cadence.

Can anyone offer a suggestion to if and how I can combat this?

Alan.

I was wondering if, from your username, you’d adapted another body part to compensate for your loss. I’m conflicted as to whether or not that’s something I’d want to see…

there’s the imbalance of being able to put equal power into my cadence.Can anyone offer a suggestion to if and how I can combat this?

Simples. Cut the other leg off. 😉

E bike?

Nooooooo, silly, put a much shorter crank arm on the side with your ‘whole’ leg. It’ll be harder to rotate due to the reduced leverage, thus eliminating the imbalance.

I can clear up one thing straight away, my surname is “Willey”, thus…………

really low gears and sit and spin?  I tend to only stand up descending and freewheeling – sit and spin my way up climbs

I have a mate who is great on a bike and has a similar amputation

He didnt like the ride on my Ebike because the torque senser threw him into imbalance of power

I can put you in touch with him and he may be able to help with your questions .

I dont think he is on stw

edit. he rides road and mtb

One would like to think that British Cycling is awash with the expertise to answer questions like this. Are they? Surely that is the fringe benefit of running para cycling

I myself have no idea. But on the road being seated all the time isn’t the end of the world with the right gears

Cycling UK is awash with the expertise to answer questions like this.

I never stand to climb on the bike. I sit and spin up everything with a really low gear (Middleburn or whoever now owns them do 20t granny rings!)

Try and Tweet Jody Cundy – he’s a dead friendly fella !  He kicked my ass riding into Manchester a few years back, and that’s with a missing lower limb.

Met this guy at the local bike shop a while back, apparently he’s a nice guy and pretty handy on a bike. Maybe contact him.

http://www.jozefmetelka.com/about-me#

Slightly off topic in the 1980a there was a guy in the North of England who rode motorcycle enduros (off road proper knarly) with one arm – no prosthetic he just had the clutch and break on one side.

I still can not get my head around it 30 years on

Standing up on your pedals is a great way to maintain balance on challenging terrain because you are bringing so many more points of movement (joints) into play that enable you to keep your centre of gravity nicely within your base of support. However, it is a skill you need to learn, and the only way to learn is by doing. Same as any physical skill from playing the piano to gymnastics, you are literally writing a whole new motor program in the neurones of your cerebellum (hind brain) and this is done through repetition of the skill you are trying to acquire. It’ll be challenging at first, but if you cast your mind back you probably found a whole bunch of stuff that you used to take for granted very difficult after your amputation and you’ve managed to get on with it and master all of that!! So crack on!! 🙂

tomhoward

E bike?

bingo.

Standing up on your pedals is a great way to maintain balance on challenging terrain because you are bringing so many more points of movement (joints) into play that enable you to keep your centre of gravity nicely within your base of support. However, it is a skill you need to learn, and the only way to learn is by doing. Same as any physical skill from playing the piano to gymnastics, you are literally writing a whole new motor program in the neurones of your cerebellum (hind brain) and this is done through repetition of the skill you are trying to acquire. It’ll be challenging at first, but if you cast your mind back you probably found a whole bunch of stuff that you used to take for granted very difficult after your amputation and you’ve managed to get on with it and master all of that!! So crack on!!

Now why didn’t I think of this? I could lean against a wall to start with, then build up to a track stand, then……..

Thank you.

My first thought was, there are loads of Paralympic cyclists, what do they do? A quick google brought up this guy, who has apparently designed the go-to prosthetic for cyclists

http://www.doryselinger.com/#ProjectSocket

1)  Stay seated anyway?  I assume you are riding fs?

2) I met a para cyclist at the track with a weak leg on one side – his other crank was tiny to compensate.  Something to investigate perhaps.

molgrips

2) I met a para cyclist at the track with a weak leg on one side – his other crank was tiny to compensate. Something to investigate perhaps.

That’s clever, so you’ve always got an effectively easier gear on the weak side.

oldmanmtb

Member
Slightly off topic in the 1980a there was a guy in the North of England who rode motorcycle enduros (off road proper knarly) with one arm – no prosthetic he just had the clutch and break on one side.

I still can not get my head around it 30 years on

There was a mountain biker riding like that a few years back.  Remember somebody posted a video up on here about it.  Mind blowing!

Edit: found it,

Hope you don’t mind the off-topic, OP

I met a one-legged cyclist on the Dun Mountain Trail many years back. He used an SPD on his leg, rode a FS and might have even had a suspension seatpost too.

Both my MTB’s are hardtails, I tried FS but couldn’t get away with it.

Don’t have any good advice to offer, but read this the other day which you might find interesting!

https://nsmb.com/articles/kc-fontes-and-his-bartlett-tendon-knee/

Just wanted to add a little to this, I’m just getting back into MTB after a while off, I got quite disillusioned with my ability as I just couldn’t seem to improve on my old hard tail. Ive just bought an old Giant Anthem X1 and suddenly I’m traversing stuff that used to stop me dead. Maybe it’s just psychological but mainly it’s easier to power through whilst remaining seated. I can’t stand and pedal, and can barely stand when it gets rough. My amputation is right leg through knee, so I have no control over the knee joint. It’s a free swinging hinge. I use a flat pedal on the left side and an SPD just to keep the false leg located on the pedal. Only issue I have at the moment is I have to have the saddle too high as the knee joint doesn’t bend quite far enough. I’m going to have a crack at finding a solid crank to shorten to see if this improves things.

I’m slow and wobbly but enjoying myself like I haven’t in years. Feels so good to get back into this properly. This forum seems like a goldmine, I’ll be scouring it closely!

Cheers, Jon.

This more for inspiration than for anything useful, but I’ve been out riding DH with Owain Pick (Paralympic Snowboarder and Team GB Flag-bearer). He has a similar amputation and rips around on a DH bike while not even (as far as I know!) being a particularly experienced mountain biker. He’s obviously pretty damn impressive on a snowboard as well!

I’m trying to improve my track stand skills as a priority (by improve my skills I mean learn how to do it…) as I’ve a feeling it would help with my low speed stability. Going fast (ish) I’m not too bad at, its the slower stuff I struggle with. Not being able to put my foot down on that side means I lack confidence to corner right slowly, and sometimes come crashing down if I misjudge things! I tend to go out riding areas at a time when I know I won’t see many other people, I hate holding people up. I’m quite self conscious about it all despite everyone telling me I shouldn’t be. However thats my issue to overcome; it’s not really a skills issue.

Track stands are a easier on a slight uphill, with your wheel turned into the slope. You can use a bit of pressure on the pedal to creep forward, then the slope to roll back a few inches. I suppose if you can crack that with your less strong let, that’d help.

Maybe a skills session would help also, certainly might give you a different perspective and some new ideas to try. Good luck with it.

Thanks tthew; my practise techique involves standing next to a tree and grabbing it when I start to fall! I’ve been using the slope up to the roots as my incline, pretty much exactly as you describe. I’ve been watching Seths Bike Hacks videos which have been quite interesting but nothing beats experience.

Thanks, Jon.

An ex marine I used to ride with occasionally was devistatingly quick. he had a below the knee on right leg and below elbow on right arm.

A chap I see running over dartmoor has two carbon blades…

I wish mine was below knee, would be so much easier.