Tuesday, 10/20/09 at 2:20 PM
by Tara Llanes
by Tara Llanes
Hand Cycle Nightmare!
Some might say that it’s taken me quite some time to start riding a hand cycle and some might say that I’ve been pretty quick to, but I think in this particular situation everyone comes around when they feel it’s the right time for them. For me it happened to take about a year and a half post injury. The biggest issue for me was to deal with it mentally. The fact that a hand cycle is just not as “cool” as my mountain bike is something that will always be the case for me. However, right now a hand cycle is what I’ve got to work with in order to: a.) Get some exercise in and b.) Be able to train for the Ironman qualifier in 2010!
I have been fortunate enough to be able to borrow my friend Ricky’s high-end custom hand cycle and have been putting in the miles as much as possible. Not only have I been training, I have also been traveling quite a bit up to Vancouver, Canada which has somewhat disrupted my training. Traveling with the hand cycle is quite a production so I have been using the stationary hand cycle at the local gym when I’m in Canada to get the blood pumping.
Well, this last trip up we did a little research to find a hand cycle I could rent, borrow, or steal. Okay well let’s be honest I couldn’t steal it because there’s no way I could get away fast enough! So the first two were the best options. Well, I ended up renting one for $50 a day. Yeah! $50 a day!! And the thing was a pile! A total jalopy! Now okay I knew I wasn’t going to be getting the kind of bike I’ve been training in, but I mean something that at least made you look like you at least spell the word SPORTS would be nice. It sort of resembled a lawn chair on wheels and the wheels had flat tires with wonky spokes. Okay I think you’re getting the idea.
With all that said I couldn’t wait to get in my rolling lawn chair and sweat a little and I don’t mean from sun bathing. So we get to the start of the ride and I transfer into it and do a quick up and back in the parking lot. Right away I notice a pretty hard pull to the right and I’m thinking that the bars are crooked or the wheel camber is off. So Elladee looks it over and everything seems to be okay, but as I do another hot lap it’s definitely still pulling to the right. The second thing that isn’t working for me is the fact that my arms are pretty much hyper-extending with every pedal stroke. The cranks don’t seem that long so we try to find where to adjust the distance and what would seem to be the most obvious choice turns out not to change the distance at all. At this point we’re puzzled, scratching our heads, and getting frustrated. We try toying with it more, but nada. We ended going out on the ride anyway because I REALLY wanted exercise other than lifting weights at the gym. We made it about 6 miles before I lost my cool and decided to turn around. Even after all that I still wanted to go on a ride the next day. So we planned on going out front and doing some adjusting and making sure we had all the tools to do so and still we couldn’t fix the darn thing. So after about 45 minutes in the hand cycle, 3 hours trying to fix it, and about $20 in the piggy bank for swearing I called it a day!
I can’t wait to ride my mountain bike!
Tara
I have been fortunate enough to be able to borrow my friend Ricky’s high-end custom hand cycle and have been putting in the miles as much as possible. Not only have I been training, I have also been traveling quite a bit up to Vancouver, Canada which has somewhat disrupted my training. Traveling with the hand cycle is quite a production so I have been using the stationary hand cycle at the local gym when I’m in Canada to get the blood pumping.
Well, this last trip up we did a little research to find a hand cycle I could rent, borrow, or steal. Okay well let’s be honest I couldn’t steal it because there’s no way I could get away fast enough! So the first two were the best options. Well, I ended up renting one for $50 a day. Yeah! $50 a day!! And the thing was a pile! A total jalopy! Now okay I knew I wasn’t going to be getting the kind of bike I’ve been training in, but I mean something that at least made you look like you at least spell the word SPORTS would be nice. It sort of resembled a lawn chair on wheels and the wheels had flat tires with wonky spokes. Okay I think you’re getting the idea.
With all that said I couldn’t wait to get in my rolling lawn chair and sweat a little and I don’t mean from sun bathing. So we get to the start of the ride and I transfer into it and do a quick up and back in the parking lot. Right away I notice a pretty hard pull to the right and I’m thinking that the bars are crooked or the wheel camber is off. So Elladee looks it over and everything seems to be okay, but as I do another hot lap it’s definitely still pulling to the right. The second thing that isn’t working for me is the fact that my arms are pretty much hyper-extending with every pedal stroke. The cranks don’t seem that long so we try to find where to adjust the distance and what would seem to be the most obvious choice turns out not to change the distance at all. At this point we’re puzzled, scratching our heads, and getting frustrated. We try toying with it more, but nada. We ended going out on the ride anyway because I REALLY wanted exercise other than lifting weights at the gym. We made it about 6 miles before I lost my cool and decided to turn around. Even after all that I still wanted to go on a ride the next day. So we planned on going out front and doing some adjusting and making sure we had all the tools to do so and still we couldn’t fix the darn thing. So after about 45 minutes in the hand cycle, 3 hours trying to fix it, and about $20 in the piggy bank for swearing I called it a day!
I can’t wait to ride my mountain bike!
Tara
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