Post brain injury advice

[fossyant]

Stay off two wheels and driving etc until you are fit to do so - you don't want another accident.

 

[Georgelovesjumping]

Amazon product ASIN B0082A6SYCView: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adult-Bike-Stabilisers-Fit-Wheels/dp/B0082A6SYC

Thanks for finding the link ☺️
I can balance, I just feel really unsafe when on the move. My balance will come back in time they say I just need help in meantime!



Can I ask if you are able to balance upright whilst seated, with no problems?

 

[Georgelovesjumping]

Stay off two wheels and driving etc until you are fit to do so - you don't want another accident.

I have a hoodie with "ride it like you stole it" on the back.☺️ I most certainly don't want another accident...but want to get out and manage the risk as best I can.
Thanks for getting in touch

 

[PaulSB]

@Georgelovesjumping in January I suffered a subarrachnoid haemorrhage - a bleed on the brain via an aneurysm. Long story short I had 8.5 hours surgery, 13 days hospitalised, 3.5 months recuperation. I started to ride again in late May against doctor's advice.

I do not advocate ignoring medical advice. I was entering full on depression and took a considered risk.

I completely understand your desire to return to normality, it was a huge driver for me. The brain is a wonderful and complex thing. You can use it to fool yourself. I believed I was well long before I was. It took weeks for proper balance to return just when getting out of a chair.

I began to get back on a trainer, then 3-4 short rides with friends, next 10-15 miles solo and slowly built back up to 100+ mile rides.

You don't say when this was or how serious. If you are physically fit but still off work I suggest you are allowing yourself to believe you're ready to ride when you may not be. For me it was not just a case of balance, in fact that was easy, but being aware of everything else happening around me.

My advice would be baby steps, get friends to ride with you and listen carefully to your body. To be honest if you think you need stabilisers I don't feel you are yet ready to ride on the road.

By chance I was given the all clear yesterday. We do recover but it can take time. The frustration of losing normality is huge, this drove me to the brink of depression. Keep as busy as possible, find stuff to do and above all talk to real life people if you begin to feel low. The internet is great but you may hear what you want to hear rather than get the truth from folk who can see you live!!

I'm 100% now.

 

[Georgelovesjumping]

@Georgelovesjumping in January I suffered a subarrachnoid haemorrhage - a bleed on the brain via an aneurysm. Long story short I had 8.5 hours surgery, 13 days hospitalised, 3.5 months recuperation. I started to ride again in late May against doctor's advice.

I do not advocate ignoring medical advice. I was entering full on depression and took a considered risk.

I completely understand your desire to return to normality, it was a huge driver for me. The brain is a wonderful and complex thing. You can use it to fool yourself. I believed I was well long before I was. It took weeks for proper balance to return just when getting out of a chair.

I began to get back on a trainer, then 3-4 short rides with friends, next 10-15 miles solo and slowly built back up to 100+ mile rides.

You don't say when this was or how serious. If you are physically fit but still off work I suggest you are allowing yourself to believe you're ready to ride when you may not be. For me it was not just a case of balance, in fact that was easy, but being aware of everything else happening around me.

My advice would be baby steps, get friends to ride with you and listen carefully to your body. To be honest if you think you need stabilisers I don't feel you are yet ready to ride on the road.

By chance I was given the all clear yesterday. We do recover but it can take time. The frustration of losing normality is huge, this drove me to the brink of depression. Keep as busy as possible, find stuff to do and above all talk to real life people if you begin to feel low. The internet is great but you may hear what you want to hear rather than get the truth from folk who can see you live!!

I'm 100% now.

What a wonderful post. I was looking for the internet community for advice on bike accessories but really should be focusing on whether it's a sensible idea in the first place.
I got a bleed on the brain so am currently struggling with fatigue and concentration. It's taken me some time to stop "arguing against it all" and accept it will take some time to get sorted. Fell early June this year.
I think I will leave the stabilisers on the shelf for the minute.
Glad you are better ☺️ and glad you have taken the time to post.

 

[classic33]

I'm no medical expert, only aware of how I'd want to get back out on the bike after clouting the head.

Simple test to perform whilst walking, easy do in the house out of sight. Whilst walking forward, aiming for a door maybe, try looking over both shoulders by turning the head. Does turning your head have any effect on the balance? If it does, I'd wait that bit longer before getting on a bike/trike. Even if the effect is minor.

Follow the advice given by others on here and you'll be back on a bike/trike, with fewer risks of further injury(Which will stop you riding), sooner than you think.

 

[Georgelovesjumping]

I'm no medical expert, only aware of how I'd want to get back out on the bike after clouting the head.

Simple test to perform whilst walking, easy do in the house out of sight. Whilst walking forward, aiming for a door maybe, try looking over both shoulders by turning the head. Does turning your head have any effect on the balance? If it does, I'd wait that bit longer before getting on a bike/trike. Even if the effect is minor.

Follow the advice given by others on here and you'll be back on a bike/trike, with fewer risks of further injury(Which will stop you riding), sooner than you think.

I walk wide stanced. My right hip seems to be taking the brunt of it as I have found myself "wandering off" to the right.
I asked physio if I could just force myself to walk normally and he suggested "only in a corridor in your own home"
I'll get there. Still so strange to go from "light speed" everywhere to "no speed". Never been a very good patient!
Thanks for the advice x

 

[Georgelovesjumping]

That's the battery rack for the Electric front wheel I fitted, the standard Trike looked like this before I modded it,

View attachment 490173

Really impressed with your handy work/skill. X

 

[classic33]

I walk wide stanced. My right hip seems to be taking the brunt of it as I have found myself "wandering off" to the right.
I asked physio if I could just force myself to walk normally and he suggested "only in a corridor in your own home"
I'll get there. Still so strange to go from "light speed" everywhere to "no speed". Never been a very good patient!
Thanks for the advice x

Not a very patient patient myself. In that test, you're eyes are feeding one lot of information to the brain, the inner ear another lot.* It's a quick test to see what happens when both don't match.

*That's what the nurse told me, after I'd lost balance whilst trying it.

Here's to getting back on your bike/trike in safety. And don't let it put you off in the meantime.

 

[Georgelovesjumping]

Not a very patient patient myself. In that test, you're eyes are feeding one lot of information to the brain, the inner ear another lot.* It's a quick test to see what happens when both don't match.

*That's what the nurse told me, after I'd lost balance whilst trying it.

Here's to getting back on your bike/trike in safety. And don't let it put you off in the meantime.

As a not very patient patient I'm very determined haha. Thanks for the advice/understanding x

 

[mickle]

Place marker for a proper response.

 

[Georgelovesjumping]

Place marker for a proper response.

Sorry to be dense. Have no idea what that means. How do I do a marker?
Another lad said that you are expert at this sort of thing (helping those that can't walk down stairs properly)
I think I need to wait a little, my dad had another stroke and has been in hospital for some time. I went down and wasn't much use (went backwards/brain speaking) and will have to go again shortly if he gets discharged.
That said, I would be so grateful of your experience and advice. If I can have any sort of "victory" in getting back out there and enjoying my surrounds I'd gratefully take it.

 

[mickle]

Id be a big fan of stabilisers if they actually lived up to their promise but I'm sorry to say that stabilisers are absolutely shite. There's no getting around it. Even the best ones are awful. They have all of the drawbacks of a tricycle - and then some. They add a lot of weight and are often extremely difficult to install.

If you know how to ride a bicycle then to ride a tricycle you have to 'unlearn' countersteering. Countersteering is essential for users of two wheeled vehicles. We've forgotten how complex countersteering is, because at the age of three/four/five when it eventually 'clicked' and were able to wobble away under our own steam we never gave it another thought. Countersteering is the action of turning the bars away from the direction that we want to turn so that we begin to fall towards the corner, and then we turn the bars to bring the wheels under our centre of gravity.

When cyclists get on tricycles only about 20% of them can do it right away. The majority of them jump on, pedal away, try to turn the way they want to go but instead they career off in the opposite direction. It feels like the trike has a mind of it's own. Then to compensate they countersteer harder and end up riding in a very short spiral. It's so very disconcerting that lot of people freak out and never go near a tricycle again.

As you can imagine, cyclists who have developed balance problems find the transition from two to three wheels even more of a challenge.

I mention all this really to explain just how shoot stabilisers are. When installing stabilisers one has to ensure that the contact points of all three wheels isn't level. The outer wheels have to be slightly higher than the host bicycle's rear drive wheel. The reason for this is that if the rear wheel travels over a dip in the road it will instantly lose traction. Stabilisers must be set up to wobble. So a bike with stabilisers isn't a 'delta quadricycle' it is, in effect, two tricycles conjoined at the centre-line of the bike. And the poor rider must topple from one to the other. Much less stable than a trike with the same footprint. A stabbed bike is almost never vertical. Riding one on uneven terrain or a camber is hellish.

So the answer then is a recumbent trike. As mentioned upthread they are super stable (compared to an upright trike). Very low examples are more stable but can be challenging to get out of - so low tadpoles tend to be the choice for the sportier rider whilst semi-low deltas tend to be the choice for diffabled people because the seat height is easier to live with.

Mission Cycles in Kent import a decent (above seat steering) Rehatri delta trike which sometimes turns up on ebay. Often with these things, the biggest depreciation drop is for the the first owner. Often you can buy a used one, run it for a season or two and then get most of your money back when you sell it on.

 

[Georgelovesjumping]

Id be a big fan of stabilisers if they actually lived up to their promise but I'm sorry to say that stabilisers are absolutely shite. There's no getting around it. Even the best ones are awful. They have all of the drawbacks of a tricycle - and then some. They add a lot of weight and are often extremely difficult to install.

If you know how to ride a bicycle then to ride a tricycle you have to 'unlearn' countersteering. Countersteering is essential for users of two wheeled vehicles. We've forgotten how complex countersteering is, because at the age of three/four/five when it eventually 'clicked' and were able to wobble away under our own steam we never gave it another thought. Countersteering is the action of turning the bars away from the direction that we want to turn so that we begin to fall towards the corner, and then we turn the bars to bring the wheels under our centre of gravity.

When cyclists get on tricycles only about 20% of them can do it right away. The majority of them jump on, pedal away, try to turn the way they want to go but instead they career off in the opposite direction. It feels like the trike has a mind of it's own. Then to compensate they countersteer harder and end up riding in a very short spiral. It's so very disconcerting that lot of people freak out and never go near a tricycle again.

As you can imagine, cyclists who have developed balance problems find the transition from two to three wheels even more of a challenge.

I mention all this really to explain just how shoot stabilisers are. When installing stabilisers one has to ensure that the contact points of all three wheels isn't level. The outer wheels have to be slightly higher than the host bicycle's rear drive wheel. The reason for this is that if the rear wheel travels over a dip in the road it will instantly lose traction. Stabilisers must be set up to wobble. So a bike with stabilisers isn't a 'delta quadricycle' it is, in effect, two tricycles conjoined at the centre-line of the bike. And the poor rider must topple from one to the other. Much less stable than a trike with the same footprint. A stabbed bike is almost never vertical. Riding one on uneven terrain or a camber is hellish.

So the answer then is a recumbent trike. As mentioned upthread they are super stable (compared to an upright trike). Very low examples are more stable but can be challenging to get out of - so low tadpoles tend to be the choice for the sportier rider whilst semi-low deltas tend to be the choice for diffabled people because the seat height is easier to live with.

Mission Cycles in Kent import a decent (above seat steering) Rehatri delta trike which sometimes turns up on ebay. Often with these things, the biggest depreciation drop is for the the first owner. Often you can buy a used one, run it for a season or two and then get most of your money back when you sell it on.

What wealth of knowledge. I suspected that stabilisers would be a gamble but you have quite comprehensively confirmed that.
Sheffield is well famed for bad roads and anything less than something with suspension is enough to kill you.
I've seen people on reclining bikes and it frightens me. I'm on an upright and I'm still no bigger than the tyre next to me. I may be dressed head to toe in orange and have wheel lights/reflectors/bright lights...but you still have ride like you drive.
I'm not frightened I just think you have to be seen and no excuses.. passed too many black clad bikeists on way home in gloom and wanted to show them how invisible they are.
If balance issues persist I will pursue a recliner.
Invaluable info, thanks

 

[Georgelovesjumping]

What wealth of knowledge. I suspected that stabilisers would be a gamble but you have quite comprehensively confirmed that.
Sheffield is well famed for bad roads and anything less than something with suspension is enough to kill you.
I've seen people on reclining bikes and it frightens me. I'm on an upright and I'm still no bigger than the tyre next to me. I may be dressed head to toe in orange and have wheel lights/reflectors/bright lights...but you still have ride like you drive.
I'm not frightened I just think you have to be seen and no excuses.. passed too many black clad bikeists on way home in gloom and wanted to show them how invisible they are.
If balance issues persist I will pursue a recliner.
Invaluable info, thanks

Thought I should clarify - no excuse not to see us. Maybe it's a horse thing as we are often in the middle of nowhere.