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From: AMuzi <am@yellowjersey.org>
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.tech
Subject: Re: Riding safety with Alzheimer's?
Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2025 19:53:04 -0600
Organization: Yellow Jersey, Ltd.
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On 3/8/2025 4:43 PM, Joerg wrote:
> In my volunteer work I sometimes deal with folks who have 
> dementia, in this case Alzheimer's. Today we did a very long 
> walk together. He is athletic and used to be a powerful 
> high-mileage road bike rider so no problems in the power and 
> endurance domain. The disease has progressed to the point 
> where he would become disoriented on the roads or maybe ride 
> into freeway onramps and such. So he needs a companion. No 
> problem, that would be me. When I suggested that his 
> (otherwise now quite passive) eyes began to gleam.
> 
> Like in this paper he has lost the ability to shift and 
> since we live in the hills this means trucking our bikes 
> into the flatlands where you can remains in the same gear 
> the whole ride:
> 
> https://www.alzheimersresearchuk.org/news/cycling-dementia/
> 
> We would stick to bike paths, preferably ones with a low 
> amount of traffic and definitely not many pedestrians. About 
> 20mi from here we have an almost perfect one that is about 
> 15mi long and has no posted speed limit:
> 
> https://www.usbr.gov/mp/ccao/images/fsc-new.jpg
> 
> I will also switch out his pedals from clip-in to flat MTB 
> pedals, don't want to risk him not getting a foot out and 
> fall (he is >70). I always carry a first aid kit.
> 
> My question is, what else should I prepare for? Searches on 
> the web didn't reveal much, other than that cycling is 
> beneficial in slowing the progress of such diseases.
> 
> We'll see how the first rides go. If very well then there 
> will be other questions, such as whether there is a road 
> bike bike with automatic transmission. Maybe based on Di2. 
> They offer it but AFAIK only for electric MTB and maybe it 
> can be adapted to non-electric road bikes:
> 
> https://velo.outsideonline.com/ebike/shimano-introduces- 
> automatic-di2-shifting/
> 
> Of course, if the guy turns out to be a lot faster than I am 
> and leaves me in the dust that could present a very 
> different problem :-)
> 

I am not an expert.

If you want to shift the bike alongside you, set it up with 
SRAM and mount the mini-lever pod on your bike, not his.

https://www.sram.com/en/sram/models/EC-AXS-POD-D1

-- 
Andrew Muzi
am@yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971