Getting on and off a bike

[guerney]

I used to be a keen runner in the past. When I was forty, I could do a half marathon in 1 hour 18 minutes. It is important for those who have not been running recently, that they start SLOWLY and GENTLY and do SHORT distances, gradually increasing in all three dimensions.

If you don't start easy and build up, but instead just rush into it, you will suffer for it and this will stop you continuing.

A good approach for the non runner wanting to get fit, is to walk 100 paces, or a fifty meter lamp post interval, then slow jog the next same interval, and then walk, and then slow jog. After a daily round of about a mile like this, after about a week, increase the speed a little, and do another week. Then double the length of the running distance, but keep the walking one the same. Then stop the walking and run the mile for a daily exercise for a week or two, then do two miles. Pretty soon you will be doing half marathons if you build it up like this.

No pain
No exhaustion
No bad joints.

People who have heart problems should talk to the doctor first. Other people can just do what I said above. Never keep going as a beginner if you start to feel bad. Just walk home and sit down.

All sensible advice, but if I had listened to my doctor, I'd have been on statins for the past three years instead of having lost over 3 and 3/4 stones. He couldn't believe it, said people tell him they'll lose weight, but never do.

I never ran marathons, because I think they're bad for joints. I did run three miles or more every night, or every other night for years until life got in the way. What you decsribe is known as "Fart stopping" in the army. An ex-SAS dude many years told me about it: run a little, calm down as you walk a little, run, walk etc - "Start/stopping". And that's how I resumed jogging (but slow, not bounding about like when I was young) three years ago... first time out I slow jogged about 10 feet and almost died shouting "WHAT THE HELL HAS HAPPENED TO MY BODY?!?! IT'S ONLY BEEN A FEW DECADES!!!" Six months later I was able to run three miles in one go again. But I lost weight through intermittent fasting, not exercise.

That hill becomes steeper further up, while it's absurdly easy to shoot up at 25kph, even with the 36V BBS01B controller on my 20" wheels at only 18.4A, not the 20A available...

(apologies to Richard Strauss, who can't possibly care, because he has no glands)

... I'm down to about 6 gear stride inches slow jogging up that. Brutal. I would have been sprinting up like Linford Christie in my 20s. Raw garlic for three days + actual bloody exercise = no chest pain at all this morning, something has been fixed by mysterious bodily forces. Feels like a faint ache, rather than the horrible tightness present a couple of days ago, which has been bugging me for weeks. Also experienced intense deja-vu twice yesterday - change in bloodflow to brain areas, or glitches in The Matrix/holographic simulated universe we inhabit?

This good looking bird says ebikes are good for you...

...mine isn't! But it isn't meant to be. Exercise is not what my ebike is for. I can't imagine an appropriately programmed 20" wheeled cadence sensing Bafang mid-drive conversion being beaten for ease of hill ascents, at least not using the same basic inexpensive 36V battery. I reckon even extremely old and ill people would be able to pedal activate such conversions easily.

Off now for more slow uphill running. It's easier for feet to land silently uphill.

 

[Waspy]

For some reason he didn't consider the combination of tilting the bike and then leg over the top tube; and the top tube is lower than the saddle he has to get over in his second (preferred) method. He also didn't mention getting on the front of a tandem.

Meanwhile... I'm still looking for a decent second hand low step tandem, and love our low step solo.

 

[sjpt]

Thanks. I have been keeping an eye on the Ecosmo/Panlova tandems but have yet to try one (or even to see one). Better crossbar than our current tandem, but still for from step-through.

Does anyone know the bottom bracket to bottom bracket distance on them (of course may differ for the different models)? We tried a Circe Helios and my wife found herself too bunched up at the back, and I feel the same may well be true of the Ecosmo.

 

[Az.]

We tried a Circe Helios and my wife found herself too bunched up at the back

Why won't you try to sit at the back, heh?

 

[guerney]

Thanks. I have been keeping an eye on the Ecosmo/Panlova tandems but have yet to try one (or even to see one). Better crossbar than our current tandem, but still for from step-through.

Does anyone know the bottom bracket to bottom bracket distance on them (of course may differ for the different models)? We tried a Circe Helios and my wife found herself too bunched up at the back, and I feel the same may well be true of the Ecosmo.

If contacting them yields no joy:

Ecosmo Fold-Up Tandem Electric Bike - White | Panlova

Experience adventure with Ecosmo Fold-Up Tandem Electric Bike. Lightweight, foldable design, 8-speed gears, disc brakes. Shop electric tandem bikes today!

panlova.com

An approximation could be reached perhaps, through image editor/printout scribblings over, assuming the full size of the bike is as quoted?

"Bike full size: 220x18x66 cm"

 

[sjpt]

Thanks.

If contacting them yields no joy:

I'm silly ~ I hadn't contacted them but have now.

An approximation could be reached perhaps, through image editor/printout scribblings over, assuming the full size of the bike is as quoted?

I also measured up on the image as suggested (using IrfanView) and it came out to 27.0022 inches; almost exactly the same I had measured on our 700c wheeled Viking. I guess the accuracy is a whole lot lower than the precision, but the two zeros seemed too good not to quote!

 

[guerney]

I also measured up on the image as suggested (using IrfanView) and it came out to 27.0022 inches; almost exactly the same I had measured on our 700c wheeled Viking. I guess the accuracy is a whole lot lower than the precision, but the two zeros seemed too good not to quote!

Does look like a photograph rather than a 3D rendering from CAD, and the rear wheel looks round despite the bike leaning over towards the camera a little, therefore they're using a lens with little distortion and your calculation surely must be reasonably close? With the death of physical shops, I don't suppose there's anywhere you could try one for size? Of course it'd be wonderful if they were sold on AliExpress with free returns to China somehow - cheap shipping ingenuity of the Chinese must surely have limits.

 

[Middlewife]

@saneagle

It's a 20inch frame and with the battery and pannier weight plus getting leg over pannier I can't do it very well.
I've tried and nearly fallen off a few times. Guess I don't bend like I used to

LOL, I fell onto my driveway trying to get OFF my step thru - just finished the longest ride I'd done, forgot I'd put the saddle up to see if it helped my knees, then found my legs weren't working and once I'd tipped the bike sideways, 20 kg of bike, pannier and locks kept going, so I let go, pushed it away and fell backwards onto my (thankfully) padded arse and hands. Luckily, no one saw, however have now had a nastier crash going downhill at speed, so feeling sore and sorry for myself, how anyone manages a cross bar with a heavy bike and short legs is beyond me!

 

[Ghost1951]

LOL, I fell onto my driveway trying to get OFF my step thru - just finished the longest ride I'd done, forgot I'd put the saddle up to see if it helped my knees, then found my legs weren't working and once I'd tipped the bike sideways, 20 kg of bike, pannier and locks kept going, so I let go, pushed it away and fell backwards onto my (thankfully) padded arse and hands. Luckily, no one saw, however have now had a nastier crash going downhill at speed, so feeling sore and sorry for myself, how anyone manages a cross bar with a heavy bike and short legs is beyond me!

That reminds me of the day last year when i was backing my straddled Royal Enfield 350 (198 kilos) out of a garage and my foot slipped on loose gravel and the beggar fell on me. My main concern was for the state of the bike, becausr it was brand new. . Fortunately, when i squirmed out from under the iron horse, it was perfect. My right hand wasn't quite so good. Then i had to pick the sod up again and ride it.