for those who are interested in the bike experiment at cleveland clinic, please note that simple biking did not achieve the results as 'forced' biking. 'forced' exercise means that the machine is doing part of the work and the patient is doing part of the work. in that manner, the exercise level can be increased past what the patient is able to do himself. the cleveland clinic used lab assistants on tandem bikes with the assistant in the front as captain and the patient in the rear as stoker. in that manner, the assistant was able to keep the rpms up to the necessary number to attain positive change. a control group, with no 'forced' assist, did not show improvement.

nevertheless, if you are able to bike at that rate with PD, great! in our case, my husband could only bike 55-60 rpms and for a limited time....very limited. we did see positive changes in his digital dexterity and walking, immediately, with me assisting but we were unable to keep this up as i am 75 and couldn't maintain that.