Bicycles Asked on June 25, 2021
I have a 13 year old with a form of muscular dystrophy. He’s well physically, though not as strong as most kids, and can ride a bike.
We got him a cruiser bike, which I then modified to make appropriate for a young man, a couple of years ago and he does well on it. However, it only has one gear and I have to push him up hills (and we live at the bottom of a hill!).
I’ve looked into bikes with an electric booster but am concerned they’d go too fast.
What I’d like to get him is a bike with a few gears (so he has a better chance to make it up the hill) but I think it has to have a coaster brake. He has significant myotonia in his hands and, while he could operate gears, we don’t want to trust his hands to stop the bike.
I’ve looked and looked and cannot find a bike with gears and a coaster brake. Are there any out there? I’d appreciate it if someone could point me in the right direction. Thanks.
If I understood your question, you may want to look into internally geared hubs, it seems they are exactly what you are looking for.
I thought they were fairly popular, so I would be surprised if you really have not come across these - so I am sorry if I missed the point.
A landmark feature of gear hubs is that you can change gear while stationary - it sounds like this could be beneficial to you too.
Have you spoken to someone in a good bike shop? I would imagine it should be easy to find one where you can test ride a bike with a gear hub.
Alternatively, you could google something like "bike with sturmey archer gears". You mentioned "cruiser bike" - this seems to be a fairly broad term, if you can add the brand and model of the current bike (or a photo of it), people on here may be able to suggest similar alternatives, and I think it would be within the stack exchange rules about product recommendation.
If all else fails, you could probably get in touch with a bike manufacturer that sells bikes with these, to see if they can assist with getting a test ride? This almost sounds like a perfect story for a bike maker's Public Relations. Good luck and I'd love to hear how you got on with this!
Daniel R Hicks commented that gear hubs with a coaster brake are rare. Sturmey Archer website lists a few, you can't filter but you can search it for "coaster". I believe the company had some difficulty but seems to still be in business.
Answered by pateksan on June 25, 2021
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