Large adult son wants to ride

[SandyLS]

I got a great call from my son last week. He is interested in starting to ride and has asked me to do a supported tour with him Sept. of 2009. The guy is about 6'3" and around 350 lbs. Do any of you have knowledge about buying a bike that will work for someone his size. I am so glad to see he is trying to take control of his health and excited about having another of my kids to ride with.

[Blueberry]

Lots of the touring bikes would work - a shop should be able to work on the wheels to make sure they're properly tightened, and sturdy. That would owrk well, too, given your goal. He may still break spokes - and may eventually need hand built wheels. Most bikes would actually work - I would worry more about the wheels than anything (though there are those who say that even the low spoke wheels work).

Kudos to him for wanting to ride - and what fun!!

CA

[farrellcollie]

He might want to check out the bikeforums.net clydesdale thread - it has a lot of encouraging information for larger riders including bike choice info.

[Eden]

As long as he avoids ultra light weight parts he should be OK - so no carbon or light weight aluminum on the breakable parts - handlebars, seatposts, cranks. I agree with CA, a touring bike would be a good choice. The wheelset is likely to be the fragile point for him, so high spoke count wheels would be the thing to look at, 36 spokes, which is what is often used on tandems should be fairly trouble free for him. (my 190 lb 6'4" husband used to break spokes on his touring bike, esp when the bike was loaded, until he got the heavier wheelset).

A hard tail mt bike with a pair of slicks might also be a good starter, as they are sturdy, but he'll may "out grow" something like that pretty quickly.

[KnottedYet]

One of my patients has similar needs, and was looking at the Surly Long Haul Trucker. (wheels are 36 spoke)

[sundial]

Ok, I'll shoot.....

We southerners have a tendency of running the gamut in sizes, particularly in the larger sizes. With that being said, I have known Clydesdales and Athenas that ride carbon fiber bikes. The trick to this is getting properly fitted bikes and then splurging on nice, bomb proof rims. A rim with more spokes will work better for the larger rider or a bomb proof rim with fewer spokes. I like the Mavic Ksyrium rim for road bikes and Mavic Crossmax for the mtb because not only are they super sturdy, they are virtually maintenance free. The spokes won't need truing for at least a couple of years. One gentleman who is 6'4" and 280 lbs rides with the Ksyriums and swears by them.

Hope this helps and it's nice to know your son is getting bitten by the cycling bug.