--- On Tue, 3/3/09, Bruce Lien bikedadlien@yahoo.com wrote:
From: Bruce Lien bikedadlien@yahoo.com Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Serving disabled populations in your shops/orgs? To: "The Think Tank" thethinktank@bikecollectives.org Received: Tuesday, March 3, 2009, 4:26 PM Jason's method sounds similar to the one in the video "Pedal Magic". I have seen this method work and never hesitate to recommend it to the newbies. There are, however, some people with various reasons for their disabilities that will never master life on two wheels. Our program received a nearly brand new 26" cruiser that was set up for a 12 y.o. girl with brain injury who did not have the balance. This cruiser set up was AWFUL!!!!!!!!!! Though it had training wheels, you could push the entire bike over with your little finger or maybe even sneezing on it. SO UNSAFE.
Along a similar vein (please forgive the motorized aspect) a friend of mine bought his young son a 50cc Honda dirt bike and equipped it with Honda accessory training wheels. His son never could get the hang of it even though he was very motivated and picked up bicycling easily. After another frustrating session in the back yard my friend decide to ride the dirt bike back to the garage and found it was so un-ridable he hit the side of his house (missing a 30 foot wide side lawn). Very embarrassing for a rider with 30 year experience. The training wheels went the the garbage that day and his son was able to ride the "un-assisted" dirt bike no problem! Many products aimed at kids are designed to make the adults feel better while having little or no functional value!
Chris Wells (Head Mechanic & Email Handler)
re-Cycles Bicycle Co-op 477 Bronson Ave. Ottawa
info@re-cycles.ca http://www.re-cycles.ca/