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Adult disabled tricycle


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Does anyone know of a supplier of these in France? We are looking for a tandem trike for our disabled son, preferably with assisted power, to keep in France where we will get most use of it during the summer. I have contacted a German manufacturer who delivers to the UK but despite explaining that we would like one delivered to France (and emailing from France at times) we just get a standard answer to contact the British agent (which we have done but obviously no help for France). It would be too large to bring over ourselves by car.

Even better would be a good second-hand model but I think that is too much to ask for.
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You may have read my thread about getting a mobility scooter.

In the end I got a very good condition one, which was then delivered to me in the Languedoc for around £200, but I would imagine the type of thing you are looking for would be easier to transport and so cheaper.

If you would like the email of the person who deals in second-had vehicles in the UK send me an PM

He also supplied another Forum member with a smaller and very much cheaper scooter, so I imagine he has quite a range.

I have no connection with him except as a satisfied customer

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Where are you, Cherry?  My rehab' centre in the Sarthe has a couple of these so they are obviously available here.  Best bet though is to ask you ergo' (occupational therapist) - get your gp to refer your son - and you may well get some state aid to buy it if you are in the system here (ie working.)  Quite a number of the sportier, younger guys and lasses at my centre have had sporting equipment bought for them in this way.  Also try Handisport in your area (they have a website) - they've been great in finding me a riding stables which will take me so I'm sure they'll help.

EDIT : Here:

http://www.handisport.org/

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We are in the Mayenne (53) but right at the top so almost in Orne and for that matter not far from La Manche and Ile et Villaine as well! BUT… it is a holiday home so we are not in the system at all. We have never had any state aid towards bikes in the UK and I am sure they would be even more reluctant to fund anything that was going to be kept overseas. We were given a basic trike by French friends over there which their son had grown out of but they had bought it themselves from Italy originally. This has served many a summer for us but is really far too small now and it is only the cramped style this produces that enables me to just about keep up with my son on the end of a rope. I know (from trying trikes at his school) that once on one where his knees are not under his chin I will never keep up and as he has no road sense I really do need to be in charge. Hence we are looking for a tandem trike.

Our holiday home is very rural and our son loves pedalling along the lanes there. We don’t have the same freedom in the UK.

Thank you for th e website link. I have found a contact for the Mayenne on it and will email them to see if they have any ideas.

I have written to Norman’s contact but not heard back yet. Thank you again, Norman.

If anyone with a French internet account can Google ”special needs tandem trikes” or something similar (and perhaps more French) I would be grateful for any websites listed . Even when we are in France our laptop seems to only direct to UK sites.

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I don't think I really understood what you are after ...perhaps Cooperlola's link might be your better bet

Although this looks a bit too 'competitive' there is a section:

Le cyclisme handisport existe en France depuis près de quarante ans

en solo pour les handicapés physiques et depuis une trentaine d¹années

en tandem pour les déficients visuels. A la fin des années

90, une pratique du cyclisme adaptée pour les personnes en fauteuil

roulant apparaît : le handbike. Quelle que soit votre envie et votre

handicap il existe donc toujours une possibilité de pratiquer ce

sport.

http://www.handisport.org/content/competition/cyclisme.php

and I found some ads for tandems here

http://paracyclisme-handisport.fr/infoclubs.htm

but they do look a bit OTT

I don't wish to be patronising, but if you have any problems with the French on any of these links (seeing as you aren't here all the time) please just ask...

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Thank you Pierre, that is the sort of thing I am looking for. When I put “spéciaux en tandem trikes” in the search I only get UK sites come up. I will have a good look through your link.

Norman, I probably didn't explain myself very well. This is the trike we have actually tried out: http://www.allabilitycycling.com/companion-cycles/tandem-tricycles--bicycles/duo.aspx but I can’t find a supplier in France for this particular make. It doesn't have to be this exact one though so Pierre’s suggestion may be helpful.

Thank you very much for the offer of help with translating the ads, my French needs a hand! I think I can work out most of the technical description but I can’t really work out exactly what the tandems in the ads are like. They sound a bit sporty to me. Was there anything to say they have three wheels? I see from the phone numbers that they are not in our area of France but I have written to the Handisport branch in our department so perhaps they will have some information.

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Glad the link was of use.  Just out of curiosity, I searched again on google.com and google.co.uk and yes, I got mainly UK sites only.  By using google.fr you get a completely different set of results.  I also saw this  which looks quite cool  [8-|]

http://alsavelo.net/prestashop/tricycle/273-tricycle-tandem-adulte-24-pouces-.html

They aren't cheap but I guess they're custom-made so that's to be expected but you get free delivery in France!

I used to do the London-Brighton cycle runs and similar and sometimes saw a chap with a  sort of rickshaw where the 2 wheels were at the font and the passenger sat there, not contributing to the peddaling though.   Now this guy must have been super fit and strong because the passenger wasn't small and the trike robust.  He had a good go at the hills and got a long way up Ditchling Beacon before having to push.  In the nature of the thing, people gave a hand pushing too, they looked like they were having a great time, I hope you do too. [:)]

 

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Ditchling Beacon... I know the area well having grown up close by! The guy sounds a lot fitter than me - luckily part of the fun for our son is the pedalling. Unfortunately he will suddenly decide he has had enough and leave the rest to me - naturally at the furthest point from home and usually at the bottom of a hill, hence if we can afford it I would like some assisted power.

I also need to have controlling steering at the back fo rmyself which unfortunately the trike on your link doesn't have. However following your advice on using google.fr I have been trawling through and found one called a fusione on a site owned by a company at Vannes in Brittany (EVOL-Mobilités) who I have emailed for details. I've still not had any replies to my other emails.

I know from the years of fun we have had with the child's trike how much enjoyment it will bring so I hope we can find something. Thank you for your encouragement!

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Thank you, and i think we might be getting somewhere - we had a very nice man ring us from a company in Mittainville (78) yesterday and as we are taking our son to Disneyland Paris next month we have made an appointment for the day of our return which won't be too much of a detour. He stocks the model we originally tried out and in fact has a display model for immediate purchase, (these things usually involve a lengthy waiting period after order).There is just the rather frightening price tag to consider now.

Thank you to everyone who helped in this search which has been immensely helpful. If anyone else needs information I do now have several contacts.
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Glad to hear you are on the right track, Cherry B.

There are a couple of points I would say about a normal tandem, from my VERY limited experience (just one afternoon!).

First is that the rear person does not have control of the steering (which I see you are already addressing).

The other is that one rider cannot "freewheel" while the other pedals. Both lots of pedals were linked. But maybe you can get round this as well.

Good luck with finding the right vehicle.

Angela
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Good point! I know the steering is not an issue, The particular model I am looking at enables the rear person (me) to have actual control while the front person will think they are steering but won't be (which is perfect in my son's case). However you have raised the question of free-wheeling which I can't recall thinking about specifically when we had our trial on the tricycle. I don't mind if my pedalling encourages my son to keep pedalling himself but I wouldn't want to be over-ridden by him when I was wanting to stop, or for that matter if he was able to stop me pedalling when I wanted to go. I will definitely have to check this out when we visit the supplier.

Just shows how valuable another person's experience is, thank you.
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Well, at least with a trike you'll be spared the tensions about getting ON to the wretched thing!  With the two-wheeled tandem, you had to get the bike all lined up just so, and synchronise the way you both sprung into the saddle and started pedalling.  It really was a recipe for divorce!

(We only rented a tandem because we wanted to tour a little island and there were no more individual bikes left that afternoon!)

Angela

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  • 4 weeks later...
Just an update for those who helped me - yesterday we took delivery of a fantastic trike that does everything I wanted. It came from a company in Toulouse called Evol Mobilities. We were advised that as my son is now taller than me we should go for a side-by-side rather than one-behind-the-other type and this is what we have got. I am in charge of steering and brakes and we can put the pedalling in a variety of modes - at the moment we are trying it where I can free-wheel but my son can't. The trike has 8 gears and is very low-geared so easy to ride but has the electric motor which I can engage to help us up hills. We have proper seats too, not saddles, so it is very comfortable.

Our small trike is now redundant and as we were fortunate to be given it we would like to pass it on to someone else, so if anyone knows of a smaller (but not too small) disabled child who could make use of it please let me know. It has had many years of use but still works well. We are in the corner of Mayenne, Orne and Ille et Vilaines. PM me for details. I will post in the West section too.
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