Thursday, March 27, 2008

Large Feet...

...Big Bike.

If you are Leonid Stadnyk, a Ukrainian man recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's tallest human, you can't simply walk into the local shop and ride off on a brand new bike. Afterall, there aren't any stock frames for someone 8-foot-5-inches tall and weighing 440lbs [and to think he was once the smallest child in his class].


Only a customized ride [this one given to him this past Sunday by an organization for the disabled] could work for the former veternarian, who suffers from acromegalic gigantism as a result of a benign tumor that stimulated his pituitary gland at the age of 14.

If you're wondering what type of dimensions the bike could possibly have, a one-of-a-kind bicycle once produced by Connecticut-based Cannondale Bicycles for basketball star Shaquille O'Neal might give you some indication.

To accommodate the 7'1", 320 lb. frame of O'Neal, the bicycle featured a super-beefy 2 3/8" diameter downtube, and had a top tube height of 37.2".

And yes, those are flats on end of those cranks, above, as even the finest Italian shoe maker doesn't have a last to make clip-ons for a size 27 shoe nor does Look make a pair of Keos that big.

No comments:

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Large Feet...

...Big Bike.

If you are Leonid Stadnyk, a Ukrainian man recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's tallest human, you can't simply walk into the local shop and ride off on a brand new bike. Afterall, there aren't any stock frames for someone 8-foot-5-inches tall and weighing 440lbs [and to think he was once the smallest child in his class].


Only a customized ride [this one given to him this past Sunday by an organization for the disabled] could work for the former veternarian, who suffers from acromegalic gigantism as a result of a benign tumor that stimulated his pituitary gland at the age of 14.

If you're wondering what type of dimensions the bike could possibly have, a one-of-a-kind bicycle once produced by Connecticut-based Cannondale Bicycles for basketball star Shaquille O'Neal might give you some indication.

To accommodate the 7'1", 320 lb. frame of O'Neal, the bicycle featured a super-beefy 2 3/8" diameter downtube, and had a top tube height of 37.2".

And yes, those are flats on end of those cranks, above, as even the finest Italian shoe maker doesn't have a last to make clip-ons for a size 27 shoe nor does Look make a pair of Keos that big.

No comments: