Here is a neat link that a friend sent me. Another perspective of how fattist we as a society is (and yes, my day job is health promotion to combat obesity!) http://www.charlottecooper.net/docs/fat/rideabike.htm
Even though we were active cyclists as kids, for many of our adult years my girlfriend and I believed that we were physically incapable of riding. The reason? We had mountain bikes. There’s no polite way to put this but there was simply not enough belly space, and our wrists had to support our whole body weight. A holiday in Germany awoke us to the possibilities of upright European bikes: they were built for us, easy to ride and suddenly we felt like superwomen! Since then we have bought big, heavy Dutch bikes, which are smooth, extremely comfy, never break down, have big wide saddles and are hefty enough to get us where we need to go. The lesson? Don’t underestimate the power of fat-friendly design when considering a bike.
Reading this really made me realise how up until very recently, the bike industry excluded fat people. I never thought how painful having to bear all your weight on the wrists would be. It’s wonderful that now most bike shops stock some upright comfy bikes for the less svelte of figure!