Looking for some advice on a potential build for a big guy

[dvarekamp]

hello velocipede salon folks,

i have built a couple of framesets for myself and a couple of my friends after taking ron sutphin/joseph ahearne's UBI class back in december of 2012 in pdx. obviously i am working in an extremely amateur capacity, but i enjoy the process and praxis of designing and making frames and forks a great deal and am excited about continuing to muddle along in a similar vein, making things for friends, family, and myself. in my explorations, i have found a great deal of inspiration and assistance in the pages of v-salon, and now i turn to y'all for some more direct help. i have an old friend who has approached me several times about building him a frameset. however, he is quite large, about 6 foot 5 inches tall and weighing in north of 350 lbs. he is currently overweight, but has always been large and muscular in his build. he isn't getting any lighter, even if he sheds some fat. anyone have any tips on building a bike for someone so far outside the bell curve? what sort of tubing should i be looking at? should i look at incorporating lots of gussets and other joint reinforcement pieces? i had thought of doing something reminiscent of steve garro's mountain cruisers. his riding would be fairly casual, some commuting, all of it done on paved surfaces or gravel paths. any thoughts and/or advice would be most welcome.

thanks-
dylan varekamp
nyc, ny.

[Too Tall]

Welcome Dylan. You are in the right place and thanks for following forum guidelines.
FWIIW have you considered advising him to buy a decent (older) used Mtn. bike and you make sure it's sound than go from there? Fitting people to bikes who don't ride and are out of shape is a tough road.

[anon.]

I would look to larger diameter tubing before going nuts on gussets and second top tubes. Start with something like the supertherm, VHT, or zona 29er 38mm DT and go from there. The solid bmx collars make large OD STs and standard seat post sizes a breeze.

If you don't have access to a sizing cycle or at least a really big bike and adjustable stem, I'd *strongly* suggest you send him somewhere to get a fit done. The combination of pretty tall and rather large makes getting comfortable on a bike really difficult, especially if he's not an athletic 350. Like, a horizontal TT 73/73 XXcm square road frame is probably not what he needs.

[Andrew R Stewart]

I'll just add our shop's experience with fitting and new riders. We have a pretty good rep for fitting in our area and get a lot of riders who bought elsewhere first (a constant source of grumbling by the management. I see the chance of capturing a new customer without the loosing margin bike sale...) When we fit riders who have not been a rider or athletic recently we take some time to explain that their position needs will evolve with riding, sometimes quite rapidly. We have sometimes not sold them the bike they initially thought they would end up with. Refitting their old bike, or a borrowed bike, or buying a very basic bike can be our suggestion for the first year. We often get resistance to this at first but more often then not 6 months later the rider sees our reasoning and is ready to pull the trigger on a bike that NOW will make far more sense for them (both in a better/longer lasting fit and in riding nature).

Customer service isn't just saying yes. Andy.

[dvarekamp]

thanks for the kind words! we have chatted about getting him on a solid used bike to get his feet wet, for sure. our tentative plan is to start him out on some sort of overbuilt older steel mtb set up pretty upright come springtime, see how it feels and how things change for him. he is on a diet/exercise plan that seems to be working for him at the moment, so we will see how things develop over the winter. there are certainly quite a few steps ahead of us yet.

dylan varekamp
nyc, ny.

[anon.]

He might enjoy a 700C wheeled hybrid a bit more than a 26er mtb. There are thousands of alu hybrids out there that could be had on the cheap that would better facilitate a reasonable commuter position and almost certainly be up to the job of carrying a 350lb dude.

Sounds like you're headed in the right direction either way. Best of luck with it!