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Thanks for the mention.
I did build my dad a bike.
He suffers from Parkinson's but has always been a keen cyclist and used to race and we trained together when I was a child.
But he lost confidence and balance as his illness got worse.The bike is a Surly Crosscheck I converted to disc brakes and 650b.
My experience is that in order to inspire confidence and cycling ability you need:
- hydraulic disc brakes
- low bottom bracket
- big tyres
- low toptube
- bars level with saddle position (not much higher and not any lower / comfort is king)
- good fit
- big grippy pedals
AND I had to fit a dropper seatpost because Parkinson's fucks with the ability to get on a bike and he refused to have a dropped seattube. It was very important for him that the bike didn't look any different.
3 Attachments
- hydraulic disc brakes
Hulsroy
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@Hulsroy that is absolutely beautiful in every sense.
Cycling can be brilliant for people with Parkinson's even when they've lost a lot of mobility in terms of walking. There are some fantastic examples (videos show people with fairly advanced symptoms) here
and here - go to 2:18 for cycling
My guess is that it's something to do with the difference in balance requirements between walking and cycling (cycling doesn't require you to balance on one foot to initiate it) and the linked, pre-determined/cued leg motion of cycling. Whatever the reason, it's a lovely phenomenon in an unpleasant disease.
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Fantastic bike - it looks great, and long may your dad enjoy it!
ffm
si_mon628
Having built a bike for my mum who was a daily local, short trip cyclist, and adapted my 1x1 for my dad who was similar, I found useful things were
Saving weight- made them moving the bike about on foot easier, helping with that balance issue I guess
Simple gears- my Dad rode ss as his ride was totally flat and my mum had 1x to save messing with two shifters
Good brakes- adjusted reach for small hands for mum, powerful old xtr v brakes for dad as his grip wasn’t great
Totally puncture proof tyres even at the expense of a bit of weight and feel so they never had to change a tube
@Hulsroy I think did a good project for his dad with a dropper to help his stopping and starting I think