Sunday, November 11, 2012

Baby steps in biking#5 - stroke rehab

I bought toe clips last week and today installed one for my left foot. It was a good thing I brought the bike inside the apt., I needed to kneel for quite a while as I tried to onehandedly attach a nut to the bolt holding the clip to the pedal. It only took 1/2 hour and lots of swearing as the nut fell off numerous times. Finally got it on and tried it out. My seat was twisting under me so I just walked/rolled the bike to the end of the parking lot and back, got my vise-grip and tightened it down. This was totally necessary as it becomes one less thing to distract me as I try to bike. Finally got going and since the seat is all the way down it feels like my knees are hitting my chest. Did maybe 10 minutes worth. This will probably be the last time since it hit 68 degrees here today.  When I talked to the bike shop owner about switching both brake cables to the right hand - he said he could do it but maybe I would like to get the SlidePad installed. The action of the rear brake causes the front brake to be engaged, so only one brake lever is needed. I'll get that done sometime this winter.  I figured out why I'm feeling so wobbly,  I'm not going fast enough to get past the initial balance issues and not having to worry about the seat twisting under me and the left foot coming off makes it much easier to bike, the last piece will be  being confident I can stop relatively quickly after I get the slidePad. My left big toe is hurting because my spasticity is forcing the left foot down and against the front of the toe clip, another thing to work on - keeping my left foot flat.  So much to consider, don't even think of following in my tire tracks, they've hit the ground a few times already.  Falls from walking are dangerous enough, from biking, I'm sure they are 3-4 times as deadly.

2 comments:

  1. Toe clips are such a great idea. I want to be on a bike by next summer. This will help.

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  2. Marcelle, please consider the walking/rolling along idea as the first step. I tried going for everything right away and failed miserably. Dean

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