The Magic Trike

Elise was the reason my 7 year old didn't learn to ride a bike until she was 6.  We had given up on bikes as a family experience.

We gave up on bikes around the time her weight went over the trailer limits...and our muscle's coping options...she is terrified of the insecure-ness of bikes.  She is petrified of even the exercise bikes upstairs.  I bought her one that I hoped she could use for exercise alone and to get her used to bikes in general, hoping we could eventually graduate to a *real* one.  It was seriously ugly.

I have been chatting with my local bike guy about building her a tricycle.  Like this:

We have spent several sessions where I realize something and go back to him to see if it is feasible and how much it would cost to make it work. 

We were talking a minimum of $500.  Probably more.

Because this is a rather large cost, we had opted to wait another year, until she was 12, as she will probably be within an inch of her final height.

2 weeks ago, I found a listing on a Facebook local yard sale group for a trike.  It looked so cool, and it's cost was less than half of the Amazon listing. 

http://www.amazon.com/Mobo-Ultimate-Wheeled-Cruiser-20-Inch/dp/B003VGFN7K/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1388091429&sr=8-12&keywords=moto+trike

I chatted with the seller and Ethan and I decided that it was such a cool option that had a HUGE possibility, and we decided it was worth the trial.

So I broke my neck, to get an hour across town to buy this bike, when I should have been getting ready for Christmas.

Elise is so hard to buy for.  I spent very little on her for her birthday, because it makes no sense to spend big for ceremony's sake, and I decided that if she discovered anything during the year that she got excited about, that I would make up for it then.

Because the Mobo Trike is about 6 inches off the ground, it's rather like a bike and a Big Wheel got married and had a baby.  Because of its low profile, it is significantly less wiggly and scary sensorily.

The handles are a little different, so there was a learning curve.  But she had ridden a trike with a similar driving mechanism when she was in pre-K.  It took about 3 minutes to talk her onto the bike, 5 minutes for the steering idea to make sense, 15 minutes for her to remember, another 10 to remember the hand-brake, and 15 minutes for her to not slam her feet down on the pavement and yell "Scary!!   Fast!!"  There will need to be another few sessions to remember you always have to peddle in the same direction, but all in all, it was pretty much a miracle.  Easy, fun, and almost a typical experience.

She did great, and I plan to take her to my church parking lot, and set her free sometime over Christmas Vacation.

Here are a few pictures for you to enjoy, a helmet will be added next time, but with all the sensory issues, and that she was unlikely to fall off, it wasn't as necessary for our start trip.  In 20 square feet of driveway.

And that, Ladies and Gents, was darn close to a Christmas Miracle!!!

I hope that your holidays and Christmas are lovely and full of good memories...and we'll check in again, soon!!!