There are other ways to build muscle that don’t risk chondromalacia. Exerting too much force through the knees is just asking for trouble, and one would be wise to avoid it.
Steel frame bikes are getting hard to find, but it’s no big deal - aluminum frames can be just as strong, if not stronger. MTB frames are generally built to withstand abuse, regardless of frame material, so they should all work fine.
In any case, go to a real bike shop, not a department store or sporting goods store. They should be able to set you up with a suitable bike, including building extra-strong custom wheels if necessary.
Also for heavier riders, it’s especially important to keep your tires properly inflated. Otherwise your tire gets squashed when you hit a bump or pothole on the road; you’ll end up with a pinched and punctured tube, if not a damaged rim. Get into the habit of pumping your tires at least once a week.
Getting back to the OP, I think 15 minutes each way every day would have some noticeable benefits. At the very least it will get you more comfortable riding the bike, and perhaps you’ll start riding to other destinations as well.
As for the sweating issue, a change of clothes goes a long way towards eliminating the sweaty feel (and smell), even if you don’t shower. If that’s not enough, wet wipes are a passable substitute for a shower.
You dont need to be sweating massively or out of breath. The goal is ‘6 out of 10’ intensity wise, ie you should be able to carry on a normal conversation.
The links I supplied gave more info. At your apparent current fitness level, you’re probably doing that, but are likely to quickly increase to a point where you’re doing the ride in 10 minutes, in which case you might want to add in a 10 minute walk or the like.
More intense activity carries more benefits (particularly with weight loss), but you only need to do a surprisingly low amount to get many of the benefits disease wise. What you’re doing timewise is worthwhile in its own right.
Otaral
I’m a big guy, 362 lbs, and my bike holds me fine. It’s an aluminum-framed Trek comfort bike. Now, the almost-bargain end of that line had front fork springs which pretty much compressed completely under my weight.
I either had to buy the solid front fork model or go up-scale and get the forks with the replaceable springs and replace the stock springs with stronger ones. I bought the solid fork.
The bike shop suggested the double-walled wheels, made for abuse down mountains. I bought the single-wall ones knowing they were replaceable later and I haven’t had any problems with light-trail and pavement riding.
Retrospect? Aluminum framed bikes have a very stiff ride compared to steel tubes. I notice that stiffness still. Perhaps I should’ve gone with the steel but I was seduced by the low maintenance nature of aluminum.
$.02
Do you listen to an mp3 player while you ride? Maybe some soothing morning stuff for the relaxing ride to work and some high-tempo beats for a strenuous endorphin-laden ride back could be a good starting point?
checked my tyres, and the rear one was spongy as hell, so filled it up some. Journey time down to 12 1/2 minutes this morning, but whether that was the tyre or peddling harder I couldn’t say.
As opposed to what? I have a steel framed Trek that I ride to work every day. It had it’s 10th birthday last year. I ride rain, hail or shine. I store it outdoors. I never dry it, polish it etc. I guess it’s probably been cleaned twice in that time. Maybe three times. You’d be hard pushed to find so much as surface rust anywhere on it.
Wearing headphones while bicycling is a really bad idea.
OK I take your point but cannot see your logic?
In the car you’ll be listening to the radio, possibly thinking about work or worrying about something, and be enclosed in a metal box with little exposure to the outside elements. On a bike you can feel the road a lot better, notice cross winds, hear/feel that enormous truck passing you, you can tell if the road surface is rough or greasy/damp a lot better etc etc.
Listening to music will, of course, mean that your hearing is not as good as when not listening to music, but your hearing is only one of, um, several* senses that get influenced when on a bike.
Or is it the cable to the headphones getting caught that troubles you? That didn’t occur to me as it always goes inside of any clothes I’m wearing, I hate it flopping about when I’ve got my 'phones on.
I myself am more worried about other drivers’ intentions when on two wheels. Wearing something bright is always a good idea.
*Touch, hearing, sight, damn sometimes smell and taste even, you certainly know when a truck has a strange payload or is leaking fluids.
I advise getting a pump with a pressure gauge. The recommend pressure written on the wall of the tire will almost always be surprisingly higher than what you think ‘fully inflated’ is. There may be some placebo effect at work, but I can almost always feel the difference after pumping the tires up, both in how the road feels, and in how much less rolling resistance there is.
Agreeing with the ‘get a pressure gauge’ (built in to the pump isn’t absolutely necessary, but it’s a lot more convenient than a separate one; and by the way your car tire gauge won’t go up high enough, so you need to buy something).
And also agreeing that steel frames aren’t any harder maintenance than aluminum (in fact, they’re easier, since they can just be bent back into shape if they get slightly out of line, whereas pretty much any other kind of frame is toast in that condition). My bike is an 80’s vintage steel frame. The only real frame maintenance I’ve done is bending it back into shape when I bought it, and I’m pretty sure that barring accident it will well outlast my knees. I even intentionally don’t repaint scratches (to decrease attractiveness to thieves), and there hasn’t been a rust problem (I store it inside, but might leave it locked in the rain at a destination).
I tried listening to music while cycling, once, and found it extremely unnerving. You can’t hear the traffic, and you really need all your senses unencumbered.
I agree about pumping the tyres up hard - that is probably the single biggest factor in reducing the effort required. A close second would be making sure that the saddle is the right height.
I have been commuting by bike, about 18 miles per day in total, since the start of this year - 6 miles to the station, then a train ride, then 3 miles to work at the other end. While I wouldn’t say I feel particularly different, my fitness must have improved. My 6-mile ride to the station now takes less than 25 minutes, which is a lot quicker than it used to be.
In fact my commuting time, each way, has dropped from almost 2 hours by car, train and Tube, to 1hr 20min by bike, train and bike. That’s well over an hour per day saving when you factor in both directions. Not to mention the monetary saving of about £11 per day.
On the saddle thing, the rule of thumb I have been using is to have the saddle at hip height as i stand next to the upright bike, however I have shorted legs than is typical for someone of my height. Is there a better rule of thumb I can use for checking if my saddle height is correct?
Basically, your knee should be almost straight when the pedal is at the bottom of its revolution (not completely straight, otherwise you won’t be able to put your foot on the ground).
If the saddle is too low, your knee won’t extend enough and you’ll find it much more tiring to pedal.
Putting your foot on the ground doesn’t really come into it. You don’t sit on the seat with your foot on the ground, or at least you don’t need to. As a rule of thumb, your leg should be straight with your heel on the pedal. You should not have to drop your hip to keep your heel on the pedal. Then when you ride normally with the ball of your feet on the pedals you will have a slight bend in your leg.
I disagree completely.
If you feel, smell, or taste a truck, it’s too late!
I find even with wind noise in my ears that I don’t hear traffic in good time to have a clear idea of what is happening behind me. I like to turn my head slightly every now and then which allows me to cut the wind noise from one ear and hear better.
In a car, if you have a ding with another car at 30 mph you might cut your head and bruise your ribs. If you are riding a bike and get hit by another vehicle you have a high chance of getting killed or suffering serious injuries. you cannot afford to compromise your primary sense of what is approaching from behind by listening to music.
Having too low a saddle is easily the single most common example of poor riding form you’ll see. Consider the typical “pedestrain cyclist”—the guy riding on the sidewalk in blue jeans. I’ll bet you he’s got the seat as low as it goes, because he thinks it’s more comfortable that way. He’s wrong, he just doesn’t know it. My knees ache just looking at someone ride that way. It’s ergonomically bad and horribly inefficient.
Now contrast that with almost anyone who appears to take riding seriously (riding on the road, with a helmet, often in “cycling” attire) and you’ll almost always see them with legs nearly fully extended at the bottom of the pedal stroke.
The reason you never see “serious” people ride with their knees nearly hitting their chin on the upstroke is because it makes cycling so tiring and miserable that no one could possibly stick with it. By the time you get to the “serious” point, you’ve either changed your habits or given up entirely.
No, it’s “not completely straight otherwise you’ll rock your hips, lose efficiency, and overstress various body parts.”
What s/he said. On a bike, you don’t have the nice system of mirrors that a car has, and so hearing is the primary sense for knowing what’s going on behind you. Also, after 14 years of being a pedestrian & cyclist, I can often tell what a car behind me is going to do just by the sound of its tires on the pavement.
Quite right. Not long ago, while cycling across a fairly narrow bridge (not wide enough to overtake on) I could tell from the sound that a car was coming up fast behind me and was not about to slow down. Even though I took immediate evasive action, swerving right across to the side of the road so my tyres were practically rubbing the kerb (never mind taking the centre of the lane in this instance!) the wing mirror still skimmed my arm. I saw the car – a Saxo with blue LEDs and an aftermarket spoiler, naturally – having to stop at traffic lights up ahead so I raced after it. The passenger-side window was open so I yelled a few choice words to the pair of kevs inside. The slack-jawed response suggested they hadn’t even noticed they’d nearly killed me. If I’d been unable to hear them approaching from behind they may well have done.
I disagree. The ball of your foot should be on the pedal, not your heel. And you want about a 30 to 45 degree angle at your knee when at the lowest point of your pedal stroke. The stiffer the shoe you wear, the better. If you can, get toe guards or even clip in’s (practice with the clip in’s before you head out though!) to maximize both halves of the stroke - down and (pull) up.