May 22 2016 - Cycling...or not.

I just tried to cycle on my stationary exercise cycle.
Boy do I have a steep learning curve if I want to do this cycling for real.

I need to get exercise without the risk of falling and hurting myself.
Every time I go shopping, or go for a walk, I weigh up the risk of major injury from a fall. I have a long way to go before I feel safe walking on any prosthesis.

First I have to come up with a way to hold the prosthetic foot on the pedal. The pros use cleats that attach right onto the pylon. Most amputee cyclists don't have a foot on their leg. The cleat snaps onto the pedal, and twisting it snaps the leg loose from the pedal.

 I can not afford a special prosthetic just for cycling, so I have to "make a plan".
To tie the foot on the pedal I decided to use a bungie cord. I have to get on the floor to do this. That is a mission in itself. Once tied on it looks like this.

Now how do I get my stump in the socket? The only way I found was to stand on a table with my good leg, and lower the stump into the socket. It would be easy to screw that up, but I managed to do it a few times without falling off the table.

But now a bigger problem. The leg is locked straight.

The foot is tied to the pedal, and now I need to take all weight off the leg, and break the knee loose with toe pressure. But my toe is not in contact with anything.
So I put all the pressure I can on my good leg, and try to break the knee loose with my hands, while I am balancing on the good leg on the pedal. Scary stuff.
Most of the pro cyclists use either the Total Knee 2000 with the lock removed, or else they use the Mauch Knee.
I finally get the knee to break lose, and collapse. I am reward for this effort by having my nose smashed into the cycle control panel.

Now I can make the pedals go around. The socket hits the seat every rotation. The pros have a special cycling socket that makes the socket good for cycling, but not so good for walking.

The force from my stump is pushing sideways on the socket, not down into the socket like normal. This means the vacuum is not being maintained, and the socket falls off, crashing to the floor.

The pro cyclists mostly use another way of attaching the socket to the stump. They wear a liner with a metal spike on it. This spike fits into a hole in the socket, and locks there.

So the bottom line is I need to learn to hold the foot onto the pedal, get the leg on , unlock the knee, then keep the socket on the stump.

But at least I didn't fall or hurt myself.
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