I have a phobia of making sharp turns while going downhill. It doesn’t help that I’ve low-sided four times while doing exactly that. Twice on a bicycle and twice on a motorcycle. Cornering 30-40 mph where your pedals almost hit the ground and crossing over water runoff or a patch of sand is not a good combination.
So nowadays I take extra precaution going over water or debris while cornering. Slow down before the turn and don’t brake during the turn, and straighten up the bike before going over any slick surface.
I really understand where you’re coming from. Although I’m not as fearful as you are, I’ve recently started riding a bike again and have nowhere near the comfort and confidence I did as a young woman. The link about fit makes me think I need to take my bike back to the shop and make sure it’s adjusted for me. Suggest you do that, too.
The reason for pedaling on the balls of the feet is because of the forces generated on the joints (particularly the knee) when the leg operates outside it’s optimal range or motion.
If the seat is too high or you have the arch or heel on the pedal, the knee will lock out on each pedal stoke and there’s a tendency to sit crooked, furthering the imbalance.
If the seat is too low, the knee comes too high and forms a poor angle for applying force at the start of the power stroke.
The thigh should be no higher than parallel to the ground at the top of the pedal stroke and the leg should have a slight bend at the bottom.
I hate to even add to this discussion as I’m probably not going to be much help. I ride over 4K miles a year on my bike. For the most part I just have a healthy respect for what could go wrong while riding - more so than when I’m driving my car. I have wrecked a number of times over the years some worse than others. Two things have really scared me when riding.
In 1993 I had a car pull out in front of me at a stop light. I slammed into the side of the car and flew over the hood. Thanks to my helmet, I got off pretty easy with only one broken bone and lots of road rash. To this day I avoid that intersection and tense up when in a similar situation at other intersections.
Twice over the years I’ve had a bike go into what is known as a ‘death wobble’. The bike just starts to shake uncontrollably as high speed. Both times this has happened at over 40 MPH. Very scary. So now I don’t go over 35 mph on a bicycle.
Still it sounds like your fear might be getting into the area of a phobia. I’d say that most people have at least one. I was extremely afraid of public speaking. Extremely afraid. So I became an instructor and forced myself to talk in front of groups. Sometimes confronting a phobia is one way to defeat it.
A few thoughts:
You don’t need cleats or clipless pedals for recreational or commuting rides under 10 miles.
As other mentioned, what kind of bike do you have? There are some comfort or city bikes that are much more stable. REI sells the Electra brand of bikes. Electra sells a wide range of comfortable and stable bikes.
Are you mashing or spinning the pedals? You should be over 60 rpm minimum when riding. Mashing the pedals could make your legs shaky.
Did you have those bikes checked? No bike should wobble. Or you might have had too tight a grip on the bars. Any slight muscle twitch goes straight to the steering.
I’ve had road and mountain bikes over 60 and 53 on my handcycle . Rock steady in all cases.
Take the bike to a pro shop (not the bike dept of wallyworld or similar) and have them look at it, and fit it to you. There could be something wrong with the bike that’s contributing to your difficulties.
Talk to a sports psychologist. I know that sounds extreme, but it’s been a huge help to a few friends who were having irrational anxiety about riding (horses, but much the same problems).
How is your balance on your own two feet? Can you stand on one leg comfortably? Are you unsure when walking over uneven ground? Doing exercises to strengthen your core and teach your body how to react to unbalanced situations can be a huge help. There are lot of strength-band (giant rubber bands) exercises that can really work.
Go at your own pace. You don’t have to fly along, but steering IS easier with a little bit of speed. And wear as much protection as you can - helmet (properly fitted, please!), shirt that covers shoulders, long pants. These at minimum will make any fall a bit less damaging. If you really want to play it safe wear leather gloves (if you come off you’re instinctively going to try and put a hand out) and possibly elbow pads like skateboarders wear. It might look silly but it may also give you more confidence.
I have one and love it, I use it all the time for getting exercise during lunch break. But I find it to be less stable than a regular bike. I wouldn’t recommend it to the OP.
A recumbent trike like this may be a better option for the OP, if there is an anxiety issue associated with balancing a bike.
In one case it was a combination of a loose headset and wheels that needed retensioning. The wheels were true; however, the spokes were all a little loose the same amount. Plus they were some fancy reduced spoke wheels and at 210 lbs, I’m better off on my replacement 32-spoke wheels.
The last time was harder to duplicate. I had jacked up the handlebars with a higher angled/shorter stem plus moved the seat forward so that I could reach the aerobars easier. I’d basically messed with the geometry of the bike. BTW: I wasn’t down on the aerobars at 40+ mph :eek:. Moving the seat back and putting on a longer stem with less angle has seemed to fix the problem. I don’t go over 35 mph anymore so I’m not going to know for sure.
I do know the trick of clamping my knees to the top tube. 60 MPH? Wow! I’ve been over 50 mph a few times when I was young and dumb, but I’m older now.
The downside to recumbent trikes is the height. With all the large vehicles around a rider given to fearful thoughts will end up feeling (unjustifiably) invisible. However, an easy LWB recumbent bicycle like a Stratus might make CanvasShoes a little more comfortable riding, since she probably has a bit of doing-a-header-anxiety. AngleTech in Colorado Springs has a large variety that she could try out.
Tall flag, I use one on my handcycle. Actually, as a recumbent is odd and unusual(and a trike, even more so), it gets seen more than a standard bike. You do need more care dealing with parked cars combined with driveways.
I suggest you try to get a more realistic view of the actual danger level of bike riding. The helmet manufacturers and the nanny state control freaks have done a great disservice to Americans and Australians by convincing so many people that riding a bicycle is a dangerous activity, only engaged in by thrill-seeking young males dressed like Darth Vader. The rest of the world views bike riding as transportation, or even as fun, engaged in even by women and children who don’t wear plastic hats or elastic pants.
When you examine the actual statistics, riding a bicycle is about as dangerous as walking.
Here are a couple of links to some real information:
I’m afraid my input won’t be helpful, but I had a similar reaction when I decided to get a bike and start riding it. The bike was the right size, I had a good helmet, I wore good clothes for riding, and from the minute I got on the bike until the minute I got back home on it, I was out-and-out terrified. I tried it a few more times, but I’m not as intrepid as you are - I just gave up the bike and decided to get exercise in a way that didn’t make me shake with fear.
I’m pretty sure she needs a cychiatrist and anti-anxiety meds. Maybe you can get a friend to ride with you to critique your bike and riding style. How steep are these hills and what kinds of speeds are we talking about?
Hmmm. They’re doing away with the helmets because they just plain don’t work. In fact, it is probably not even possible to make a helmet that will prevent concussions.
Even if that 85,389 number is not completely made up, it is still talking about bumps on the head, not serious debilitating injuries or deaths. That’s twice the number killed in automobile accidents in the US each year. I have known several people who died in car accidents but none who died in bicycle accidents. Something is wrong with that figure. At best, their statement is misleading.
Read further and they state accurately that around 600 cyclists are killed each year. However, not all of them die from head injuries, and even those who do tend to have other serious injuries that may have killed them even without the head injury. And nearly all them have been hit by motor vehicles – they were not killed in “bicycle accidents”.
Even the federal government is, well, not retracting, just eliminating the claim that bicycle helmets reduce injuries by 85% because is it simply isn’t true.
Neurosurgeons are not a good source of information about helmet safety. It was a neurosurgeon who started the helmet crusade when Lawrence of Arabia was killed in a motorcycle accident, but it was a personal crusade based on emotion, not science … and it still is. Many states have repealed their mandatory motorcycle helmet laws because the evidence simply does not support the idea that helmets reduce or prevent injuries.
That AANS page is full of misinformation. Casual bicycle riding is simply not a dangerous activity. Now cheerleading, oh my. It appears to be even more dangerous than golf, if you take the neurosurgeons’ word for it. And how did they miss sleeping helmets? About 450 people die each year by falling out of bed.
CanvasShoes, would you feel more comfortable if you knew you could put your feet on the ground at any time? If so, you might want to visit a bicycle shop and test ride a “crank forward” bike. These are also known as semi-recumbents. The feel you get sitting on one at a stop with both feet on the ground is similar to that of sitting on a motorcycle. They are extremely comfortable and as the name implies the crank is further forward than normal, which gives you the leg extension you need while at the same time allowing you to put both feet on the ground while still in the saddle. IIRC a Doper by the name of Stoid rides one as her only means of transportation and she loves it. I’m sure she’d be happy to give you more info on that type of bike by PM if you might be interested. Here’s a photo.
Canvass Shoes
My wife can fly down a mountain on skis but put her on a bike and she rides like she is going to fall at any second. Her big thing, both feet, not tip of feet must touch the ground while seated, IE, a beach cruiser will allow for that, most hybrid/comfort or road bikes fit properly will not. Her issue is part physical but mostly psychological.
How would you define your concerns? physical, psychological or a combination of both?
Turble, you don’t want to wear a helmet, that’s fine, have at. Personally I have but one brain & I’ve seen the effects of TBI. I will wear one, laugh away at me.
And now I will cease to hijack CanvasShoes’s thread.
CanvasShoes, you’ve gotten a lot of good suggestions here, hope something works for you. I sure like the look of that semi-recumbent bike! It looks really comfortable
