Ten Lessons in Buying Bicycles for Large, Plus Sized, or Fat People

I remember, when I was a kid, how much I loved to ride my bike. I would speed over the pavement and fly through the wind. I also remember falling flat on my face and getting road rash on my cheek. Not that injury ever stopped me.

A couple years back my husband and I gave up our car. After we gave up the car we relied almost exclusively on walking or the bus to get us around. We weren't really sure if bicycles were a good alternative. We live in a tiny one-bedroom apartment so there was the issue of space. Bicycles were routinely stolen from around our apartment, so locking it up outside wasn't a great option. And we don't live on the ground floor, so there would be some hauling bikes up and down those stairs.

I was a chubby kid. Now, as an adult, you can call me large, plus sized, or fat. Whatever you call it, I'm overweight. My husband is also a large guy. When we finally decided to go ahead and buy a couple bikes I didn't think our weight would be a contributing factor. It turned out to be a much larger part of our bicycle experience than I ever expected.

We bought a pair of $100 bicycles from Walmart. We didn't see the point of multiple gears, since we only planned on using the bicycles for local trips, so we went with a couple cruisers. The moment we got our shiny new bikes home we decided to take them for a quick ride. A few blocks from home the chain on my husband's bike slipped off.

This is the first lesson we learned about buying bicycles from a corporate chain. Later that day I went online and read complaints from other people that had problems with their bikes the moment they got them home. The theme being that many chain stores have inexperience clerks put together the bikes in-store and they often assembled them improperly.

LESSON #1 : CORPORATE CHAINS SUCK AT PUTTING BIKES TOGETHER.

With a quick fix to my husband's bike, and a quick once over my new bike, we were once again happy with our purchase. After that it didn't take long for the bikes to become a part of our regular lives. My husband started to ride his to work and, on weekends, we'd ride together to various local destinations. Sometimes to the store or sometimes to our local bar.

And then a spoke on the back wheel of his bike popped. We didn't know this was to be the first of many popped spokes. We took the bike in for repairs, only to find another popped spoke a couple weeks later. We went online to research this problem and became aware of the weight issue.

Yes, we were too fat for our bikes. We were well over the weight limit. But the bike frame seemed fine. It was just the wheels, and the spokes that hold together those wheels, that we were having problems with. The wheels on our bikes were aluminum. So we tried to find a sturdier option. This is when we learned about steel wheels as compared to aluminum wheels.

LESSON #2 : STEEL WHEELS ARE STUDIER THAN ALUMINUM.

We took my husbands bicycle in to get a replacement wheel made out of steel. We went a couple weeks without any problems. And then a spoke popped on my bicycle. Replacing the wheel on my husband's bicycle was not cheap and we were suffering from a cash flow problem. So we did some more research, to see if we could just replace the spoke on my bike ourselves, as a temporary fix.

This is the point we learned that spokes on manufactured wheels are often either weak or installed improperly. I read, from quite a few online sources, that the best bet is to get a custom wheel made by a local shop. But we didn't really have the funds for a custom wheel, so we were still looking into the idea of replacing the spoke ourselves.

LESSON #3 : MANUFACTURED WHEELS SUCK.

We bought a spoke wrench and a couple spare spokes. My husband tried to replace the spoke on my bike but couldn't get it to work. Turns out that replacing spokes is something you should leave to the professionals. Or, at least, take a class before you try it on your own.

LESSON #4 : LEAVE SPOKE REPLACEMENT TO PROFESSIONALS.

I really thought, when we first considered the idea of buying bikes, that it would be a super cheap alternative. I wasn't thinking ahead to future costs. It wasn't just our weight that caused the spokes to break. There were other reasons. Sure, being overweight made it happen sooner than later, but it was almost inevitable that we'd have problems with our bikes. So, here we learned another lesson, bicycles require maintenance and that maintenance isn't always cheap.

LESSON #5 : BICYCLES REQUIRE MAINTENANCE AND THAT COSTS MONEY.

We spent many months with only one working bike in the house. And then I decided to see if I could buy a replacement wheel online for less money than getting the wheel replaced by the shop. This was a decent idea that ended terribly.

I found an online shop that sold steel wheels but I couldn't find any good online sources to explain wheel sizing to me. So, I ended up guessing the wheel diameter. It was a really dumb move. I got the package in the mail and the moment I unwrapped it I could see that it wasn't right. That move lost me money. It was a real bummer.

LESSON #6 : WHEEL SIZING IS CONFUSING SO DON'T BUY WHEELS ONLINE.

And then something really funny happened. Someone stole my broken bike. We were storing the broken bike downstairs in our apartment garage and we didn't think to lock it up because it was unridable. One day my husband came home, brought his bike in to lock it up, and noticed that my bike was gone.

So we decided to just go ahead and buy another bike. We went to Target and bought my husband this nice new bike for $200. The plan was to replace his back wheel the next time we had a bit of extra money. As luck would have it, quite a bit of time passed before that first spoke popped on his new bike. The new bike had shocks, whereas the old bike didn't, so we attributed this difference to shocks.

LESSON #8 : SHOCKS CAN BE GOOD THING.

So I started to use my husbands old bike. I didn't for a second think I would have any problems because this was the bike with a steel wheel. And then a spoke popped on that steel wheel. I rode home on that broken spoke and really messed up the back wheel.

A bit frustrated, we went in and talked to the guy at our local bike shop. This time we ended up talking to the manager and he suggested we get a "Workman's Wheel." Turns out that there is a company in the US that makes wheels for industrial use. These wheels are made specifically for hauling heavy cargo.

LESSON #9 : THE WONDERFUL "WORKMAN'S WHEEL."

It took a while for the shop to get a Workman's Wheel in stock. I spent more than a month waiting for my bike to be repaired but it was worth it. The Workman's Wheel looks and feels sturdier than any of the other wheels we've seen. It's been months and I haven't had any problems. For my husbands bike we went ahead and stuck a steel wheel on it, because it's cheaper, and the shocks on his bike seemed to make a difference.

With each bump in the road I did more research. I learned that you can buy bicycles made specifically for large, plus sized, or fat people but the cheap versions start around $500 and the midrange versions jump quickly to the $1000+ price range. You can also buy a Workman's bicycle for around $1000. Or you can have your local bike shop make you a custom bicycle.

LESSON #10 : EXPENSIVE OPTIONS?

I thought about these options. But, despite all the bumps in the road, I don't regret the path we've taken. We spent as much time using our bikes as we would have saving up for a more expensive version. And it was much easier to come up with an extra $100, here and there, than it would have been to come up with an extra $1000.

We went the route of choosing the bike we liked at a local retailer and then customizing it to fit our needs. I think it was the right route for us. And, for good or ill, these are the lessons we learned. It was quite a journey but I'm happy to be at the end of it. With two wonderful bikes, for speeding over the pavement and flying through the wind, on the way to more practical pursuits, like going to work and picking up groceries.