3: Cycling a pedal (regular) bike

I'm aware this won't be much use for some of you out there who can't use your legs at all. Sorry! I'll do something more general soon.

For those of you with disabilities that do allow you to cycle from time to time, a regular bike may need some adaptation. Here are some of my experiences recently which have helped me to stay safe and enjoy the odd gentle cycle ride. This post is about small, cheap changes that can be made. It is possible to get all sorts of bigger changes (stabilisers, hand bikes, etc.) but a post on that will have to wait for another time.

This post is designed to suggest answers to just two problems - how to stop safely if only one hand works, and how to keep feet on the pedals.

SAFETY FIRST

The first thing is simple - wear the right kit. This means a helmet, hi viz and, if visibility is bad and ALWAYS at night, lights. You need a white light on the front and a red light on the back, and they need to be bright enough for a car driver to see you from quite a way away. If you could possibly bear to leave them on constant mode instead of flashing then people who get seizures will thank you, and, contrary to popular belief, it will be MUCH easier for drivers to see you, judge whereabouts you are, and give you plenty of space.

Only cycle on the roads if you are confident that you know what you're doing and that you are capable of staying safe and of keeping other road users safe. Only cycle at night time if you have lights, hi viz AND you are confident cycling at night. I am not confident to cycle at night time at the moment because the lights from cars and other bikes sometimes set off seizures. I don't want to be lying in the middle of the road at any time of day, but certainly not at night time. Just be sensible.

Helmets HAVE to fit or they won't work properly. They are adjustable and you should check that it fits snugly every time you put it on. Make sure it isn't tilted backwards or forwards on your head.

For more info (including the source of this image), click here.

You also, of course, need a bike which fits you. I would also recommend the 'lady's style' (or unisex) even if you're a bloke - this features a cross bar which is dropped down so that riders can cycle in skirts, but the main advantage is that you can get your legs across it far more easily than with a man's style bike. This is helpful if you can't swing your legs much (e.g. if your hips are stiff or you just have poor control of your leg muscles). Make sure you have the right size - when sitting on the seat, your toes should touch the ground. If you're a bit wobbly or a bit nervous, it can help to be slightly lower so that you can save yourself with your feet if necessary. However, the higher up you are (within reason), the easier it will be to get moving and to balance.

Lady's bike frame style

Wherever you cycle, you have a responsibility not only for your own safety but also for the safety of people around you (especially pedestrians). As a pedestrian, getting hit by a bike can cause a lot of damage, so don't go out if you aren't safe.

The tricks

Handlebars - to operate the handlebars you only really need one hand, assuming that your balance is quite good. You don't need any special grip on the handlebars, so grip problems shouldn't affect steering. You may find that the extent to which you can move your wrists (or hold them in one position) will influence the style of handlebars you prefer. It might be best to start with a basic mountain bike style and experiment with dropped racing handlebars or a more traditional style, where the handlebars come closer towards the body. DO NOT tape your hands to the handlebars - doing so could be very dangerous if you fell off. You sometimes see people using grips to help them cycle (strapping which holds their hand to the handlebars). If you are confident that you can get your hands away from the bike quickly, that's OK, but if you aren't and you could be in a dangerous position (e.g. lying in the middle of a road) then you probably won't want your hands to be stuck to a bike.

This image (available here) demonstrates some of the setup options.

Brakes - these are usually operated by the hand, and might be the first thing to cause trouble if you have grip problems. Strictly speaking, you can stop the bike with only one hand as one hand will be connected to the front brakes and one to the rear brakes. Ideally, you would use the rear brakes most of the time rather than relying on the front brakes - if used suddenly without also using the rear brakes, they can result in a rather dramatic flying over the handlebars incident, as my brother once discovered! Assuming that you do not wish to add to any disabilities you already have, I would therefore recommend that you set up your better hand with the back brakes (a good bike repair shop can do this for you if you don't fancy getting oil all over yourself).

Get your back brakes connected to your stronger hand and you will be much safer.

If your bike is the right size for you (or possible a little small, to be on the safe side) you can always put your feet down, but if you're travelling above a certain speed this is also likely to result in injury unless you use the brakes first. If your bike has gears and you are able to use them, switching suddenly to a higher gear will slow you down as well, but it might well cause some chain issues so I wouldn't recommend it as a regular way of braking!

Pedals - one of the problems I've had with cycling is that my left foot isn't really under my control all the time, so it can slip off the pedal very easily. I also find it quite hard to put much pressure down through that leg, meaning that I cycle in quite a wonky way (using my right leg much more) which exacerbates the foot slipping problem. Here is the solution:

This foot strap (helped with staying in place with a bit of matching electrical tape) came in a pack of two from Amazon for £4.99. Here it's at a reasonably loose setting so that I could get my foot in and out easily (early experiments did result in a rather silly fall which I'd rather any readers did not replicate!). The photo below shows how tight I needed it to be to have the desired effect (keeping my foot in place, helping me to push down and pull up on the pedal) whilst also being safe.

My shoes have cherries on. This is not an essential feature of bike safety.

These straps are easy to use. They have two thin straps which go underneath the pedal (or through it, if possible). The two thin straps match up with the first broad strap, before the second layer broad strap goes over the top to hold them in place. All the straps are held in with velcro which is nice and strong and holds them firmly.

That's it for now - your good hand should now be doing most of the breaking and your naughty feet should now be kept safely on the pedals (but with space to escape).