# Adaptive bicycles for disabled children and adults



## harlechjoe (24 Mar 2022)

The e-bike revolution has made it possible to ride heavy bicycles that are adapted to enable disabled children and adults to enjoy cycling with greater ease. Yet even before the popularity of e-bikes many disabled people have been cycling ordinary bikes, tandems, recumbents and other types of bikes. Yet a challenge for riders of longer or wider bikes are physical barriers designed to prevent motor vehicles and motor bikes using traffic free trails that include 'A' frames or complicated gateways that are impossible to get through.


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## Oldhippy (24 Mar 2022)

Agreed. I think there are quite a few of us on here that have written to, called and petitioned our respective councils to point out this stupidity out many times.


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## KnittyNorah (24 Mar 2022)

You mean those gates/stiles/things are actually _meant_ to allow normal, even small, bikes through without hindrance? They don't round here!


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## Andy_R (1 Apr 2022)

Have a look at the Social Model of Disability...where society puts barriers in the place of those who are differently able.


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## fossyant (1 Apr 2022)

KnittyNorah said:


> You mean those gates/stiles/things are actually _meant_ to allow normal, even small, bikes through without hindrance? They don't round here!



They don't here too. You have to be quite able bodied to get a bike through.


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## KnittyNorah (25 Apr 2022)

Just seen this on BBC news. Don't get me wrong, it's great that people can get such a sense of freedom by riding round a park - but how much more freedom there could be if bike paths were made _accessible _for all bikes ... and it surely wouldn't be all that difficult on _most_ paths. There'll always be some that are just impossible for full access because of the lay of the land, older construction etc etc but anything that can be classed as 'recent' or 'modern' should be relatively simple to modify for full accessibility for tandems, trikes and the like.


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## harlechjoe (25 Apr 2022)

KnittyNorah said:


> Just seen this on BBC news. Don't get me wrong, it's great that people can get such a sense of freedom by riding round a park - but how much more freedom there could be if bike paths were made _accessible _for all bikes ... and it surely wouldn't be all that difficult on _most_ paths. There'll always be some that are just impossible for full access because of the lay of the land, older construction etc etc but anything that can be classed as 'recent' or 'modern' should be relatively simple to modify for full accessibility for tandems, trikes and the like.



I am often left with a strong sense that organisations such as Sustrans, Cyclin Uk and British Cycling talk about inclusiveness yet evidence reveals their failure to influence practical changes to benefit users of adaptive bicycles.


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## Oldhippy (26 Apr 2022)

harlechjoe said:


> I am often left with a strong sense that organisations such as Sustrans, Cyclin Uk and British Cycling talk about inclusiveness yet evidence reveals their failure to influence practical changes to benefit users of adaptive bicycles.



Very well said indeed! They and other groups should be promoting at every opportunity both for bikes and those stupid bloody gates that prevent so much access should be vilified.


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## KnittyNorah (26 Apr 2022)

Oldhippy said:


> Very well said indeed! They and other groups should be promoting at every opportunity both for bikes and those stupid bloody gates that prevent so much access should be vilified.


It is clear to me, at any rate, as a normal 'utility/leisure cyclist' that if I were to _need _to ride a recumbent, a tricycle, tow a trailer, use adult stabilisers or indeed if I were less 'sturdy' than I am now - and at 75 already, I doubt I'm going to be getting any _more_ sturdy! - that I would be very, very limited in where I could ride my bike as I would not be able to _physically access _a great many of the paths and tracks where it is safer for an older, younger, inexperienced or handicapped-by-anything-else cyclist to ride.
Just as great a problem as not being able to physically access a pleasant path is when one can access the path - but not leave it at an appropriate point, and must either continue on further or turn back and return. I occasionally meet up with a gentleman who rides an electric trike due to Parkinson's disease, and there are several points like this. At some of these so-called 'bike access points', there is a wide gate that could be opened if (a) he had a key and/or (b) he could get off his trike, manoeuvre the heavy gate open and closed, then get back on his trike. Now, this being the outskirts of a city, and he only goes out in the middle of the day in fine weather, he does sometimes 'take the risk' and rely on someone coming along who will be able to open and close the gate for him - and has not been disappointed yet but that's not the point ...

Nowadays we consider a modern or updated public building to be 'not fit for purpose' if it is physically inaccessible for people with a range of handicaps, disabilities and/or differences. Why should modern or updated provision of public paths and roads not be subject to similar rights of accessibility?


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