: Participants (n = 24) will be up to 30 days since stroke onset, with unilateral weakness and
unable to walk without assistance. This study will use a modified exercise bicycle fitted with a UniCam crank. All
participants will give informed consent, then undergo baseline measurements, and then attempt to pedal. Those
able to pedal will be entered into a single-centre, observer-blinded randomised controlled trial (RCT). All
participants will receive routine rehabilitation. The experimental group will, in addition, pedal daily for up to ten
minutes, for up to ten working days.
Prognostic indicators, measured at baseline, will be: site of stroke lesion, trunk control, ability to ambulate, and
severity of lower limb paresis.
The primary outcome for the RCT is ability to voluntarily contract paretic lower limb muscle, measured by the
Motricity Index. Secondary outcomes include ability to ambulate and timing of onset and offset of activity in
antagonist muscle groups during pedalling, measured by EMG.