[blindkid] bike riding

Wed Mar 30 14:38:19 UTC 2011

Richard - 

What great timing. We were just talking about this over the weekend.  We
love to bike but have not been able to enjoy long rides because Jonathan
could not keep up.   What a great solution.   We hesitated to purchase
the trail-a-bike because we weren't sure if he would stay on it.
Literally.  I had visions of riding along and Jonathan deciding to get
off while the bike was in motion.    I will look into the back rest.

Thanks for sharing.

Debi   (WI - Jonathan, age 5, ROP)

-----Original Message-----
From: blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org]
On Behalf Of Richard Holloway
Sent: Friday, March 25, 2011 3:30 PM
To: NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)
Subject: Re: [blindkid] bike riding

Marie,

A little off topic-- Is he going fast enough to start to get the balance
aspect of riding?

I'm very fond of cycling and love finding solutions for kids who might
not otherwise be able to learn to bike. My favorite thing so far, as far
as teaching how to get the "feel" of riding a bike is a strange tandem
that used to be called a "Love Bike" but now it is sold as a "Buddy
Bike".

Below is a link to a little article I wrote about it about 5 years ago.
The child sits in front of the parent with the parents arms around the
child. There are two sets of handle bars tied together so the child has
his own bars. For younger kids, there are optional pegs that fold down,
like on a motorcycle, and feet stay away from the pedals. As they get
older they begin to tandem pedal. It is a cool concept and would only
reinforce the feel of biking and steering alone. (Braking too if they
use the handbrake.)

http://www.gopbc.org/gopbc_love_bike.htm

They are now sold as Buddy Bikes here:
http://buddybike.com/

(And no, I don't sell them or make anything from them,)

As to riding alone at lower speed and staying vertical, I also have
found some really outstanding training wheels from a company called Fat
Wheels. I actually think of them more as "outriggers" because training
wheels to me seem so flimsy and unstable. Fat Wheels makes wheels that
will fit anything up to a full-sized 26" bike for 250 pound riders. I
have a couple of sets of their training wheels, one on a small tandem
bike for kids and the other on the back half of a 2-adult  + 2-child
setup that I custom configured.

Here is their web address:
http://www.fatwheels.com/

There are quite a few blind adults, BTW, who are riding enthusiasts on
conventional tandem bikes. They just tend to ride in the "stoker" (rear)
position, especially at high speed.

On the actual sound idea, as far as his riding alone, I'm reminded of
easter egg hunts and "beeping eggs". Sometimes on egg hunts with a lot
of blind kids we have also had people use pocket recorders which have
just recorded an alarm clock going nonstop (a beeping style). Maybe tape
a memo recorder with that playing to the tail of the lead bike? For that
matter, a small alarm clock itself could be used if you taped attached
it as well. A rear rack would be a nice stable solution for a mounting
location and they're pretty cheap.

I would be remiss not to put in my standard plug for recumbent trikes as
a really cool way to cycle for all riders (typically sighted and
otherwise) because they are super comfortable and there are no balance
concerns, and for the ultimate touring solution, you can get them in
tandem flavors. What's the catch? Well, they're sort of expensive, and
Buddy Bikes are also a bit "spendy", though not as costly as the better
recumbent trikes...

If anyone is curious to talk about them here or off list, feel free to
contact me. So far, I've managed to come up with single and double trike
setups and then single and double trailer solutions for up to 4 total
riders with just one driver. I have seen larges setups still though
usually just for conventional bikes that require more balance than
trikes.

I still have the Love Bike, BTW. Maybe you can try it out sometime when
you're over near Atlanta?

Richard

On Mar 25, 2011, at 3:40 PM, Marie wrote:

> Smiles
> 
> We did think of that but I was thinking that I had heard that there
was a
> louder and more durable option available.
> 
> Marie (mother of Jack, born May 2005)
> Check out our blog at http://www.allaccesspasstojack.blogspot.com for
> glimpses into our busy life with a boy who is busy growing and
developing in
> his own way in his own time
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org]
On
> Behalf Of lindashalm at aol.com
> Sent: Friday, March 25, 2011 2:31 PM
> To: blindkid at nfbnet.org
> Subject: Re: [blindkid] bike riding
> 
> 
> I'm aging myself here, but we used to make noise on our bikes with old
> baseball cards and clothes pins.  
> 
> Linda, NJ
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Marie <empwrn at bellsouth.net>
> To: 'NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)'
> <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Fri, Mar 25, 2011 3:28 pm
> Subject: [blindkid] bike riding
> 
> 
> Hello all, life has been crazy busy here so it's been quite a while
since
> 've posted. One thing we've been up to is bike riding. Jack is
currently
> iding a standard bike with the pedals removed so it functions as a
balance
> ike. He can ride with the pedals but lacks the confidence to do it
without
> s having a hand on his back so we thought going pedal-less a bit
longer
> ould help him grown in confidence. We are having a great time doing
this as
> family and our current system involves us calling out to Jack to
follow us
> r we ride behind him. I have heard that you can get some kind of
clicker to
> ake a noise that Jack could learn to listen for on our bikes. Can
someone
> ell me what this thing is actually called and I would love any other
bike
> iding tips/hints you'd like to provide. Jack is visually impaired with
> ision of 20/320 or so in his right eye and light perception in his
left
> ye. He travels with a cane when he walks and runs and is still
adapting to
> is lack of depth perception so any hints you can give on off road
riding
> ould be great too. As of right now, I yell out big bump or KABOOM to
let
> im know an obstacle or drop off is coming up while riding. 
> 
> Marie (mother of Jack, born May 2005)
> Check out our blog at http://www.allaccesspasstojack.blogspot.com for
> limpses into our busy life with a boy who is busy growing and
developing in
> is own way in his own time
> 
> _______________________________________________
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