Almost nine years ago I was in an accident where I suffered traumatic brain injury. One of the several effects was constant vertigo. Riding a bicycle was difficult and so my wife and I bought Catrike brand recumbent tricycles at Easy Street Recumbents in Austin Texas. It was truly surprising how much fun these things are to ride. You lean back in a chair with your feet out in front of you. Your butt is about 6 inches above the road. Being over 60 years old riding anything that requires peddaling becomes tiring so we added Bionx brand electric motors and Lithium ion batteries.
The motors provide assist when you peddle. If you press the boost button the motor will propel you up to 20 mph for a short time without any peddling. Without the boost you can exceed 20 mph if, you are young, you have strong legs or you are going down hill. We have very little in the way of hills here in southern Louisiana so we rarely exceed 20 mph. I do recommend electric recumbent tricycle. If you live in hilly country be careful. I’ve heard of a 70 year old man in the Texas hill country young over 50 miles an hour down the hills (without any electric assist). If you go down a hill then you might have to go back up a hill. That can be very tiring for us old guys.
I first tried a Terra Trike, but decided to go with the Catrike. My wife has Degenerative Joint Disorder that has resulted in two surgeries in her lower back and three cervical fusions in her neck. As such she can no longer tilt her head up to ride a 10 speed bicycle. That is why we looked at recumbent tricycle. They are a blast to ride, but being so low to the ground they are mostly invisible to people driving cars. If you get one, be careful of automobiles but do have fun.
A hard stop is no problem unless you are turning to the side. A few months
ago I rode my Catrike about four miles to the pharmacy. As I got to the
pharmacy I made a hard left into their parking lot to avoid cars stopped at
the traffic light. The trike rolled over onto its right side. In the
pharmacy I asked for something to clean the blood and dirt from my several
wounds. The employees found it amusing. An old man wrecked his tricycle.
Before buying the trike I almost rolled it during the test ride. That
reminded me of the original 3-wheeled ATVs. They were dangerous.
Yes, test drive before you buy, and use a bunch of common sense. Good luck
in completing your bucket list before you are too old to some of the
things.
I guess that I’ll never climb K2 or Mt. Everest. I did manage to do some
amazing rock climbing and repelling near Chattanooga Tennessee, at a place
where they filmed the movie “Deliverance” in Georgia and at Arches National
Park in Utah. Not bad for a kid who grew up poor in the hills of northwest
Arkansas. I was lucky. I learned repelling as a combat engineer in the army
while stationed at Ft. Ord, California. In addition, one of my professors
in graduate school at the University of Georgia was an avid rock climber.
BobK
I am at a stage in life where I need to balance my bucket list with that of my children!..apparently they have small buckets too! - mamma keeps reminding me.
Ah, I remember that stage of life. My son had no interest in repelling, but
my step-son (the 24-year jar head) is very interested. As was his daughter
when she was about 8 years old. Now that she is 19 I don’t know. My son did
enjoy riding long distance on the back of my motorcycle back in 1983 when
he was 6 years old. We were in the Ft. Ord “Fog Busters” motorcycle club.
I have friends who live in Walla Walla, Washington. In the winter they
would do a lot of skiing. Their son was about 5 years old when I was there
in 1986. They would take him skiing with his own skis and a sled, pulled by
mom or dad, that he could ride on when he was tired.
Sometimes the kids list of fun things can match that of the parents bucket
list. Anyway, sorry for the ramble.
You should try a Organic Transport ELF. It’s Solar panel used as a roof charges it. It has a windshield and can go 20-30 miles with full pedaling or full electric or a mix as you choose with the throttle.
Hi there Bob. I was in the Ft Ord Fog Buster’s in 1985-86. I was looking them up when I came across your post. Looks like you are in LA too, although I’m in CENLA. I’d love to find some of the old crew!
Hello Kim,
The Fog Busters was a great group of people. I still have my son’s colors. My vest was left in a shop building that we built in so Missouri back in 2009. Hopefully those colors are still there. I would enjoy wearing that patch now and then to promote motorcycling and good motorcycle groups.
I now ride a Harley Sportster, but it is no longer a daily ride. It was great with the Fog Busters going to poker runs almost every weekend. On one trip to San Francisco I won a hard luck trophy. The frame that held my fairing to my Yamaha Venture broke at the top of Lombard Street. I was able to obtain a coat hanger and “secure” the fairing to the bike for the ride back to Ft Ord. It is odd that Ft. Ord and the Fog Busters no longer exists.
I don’t really remember any of the people who were in the club back then. I left Ft. Ord in May of 1984. I was assigned to the 13th Engineer Battalion. There was just one other person from the 13th that was in the Fog Busters. Actually there are quite a few friends that I knew in the Army that I’ve lost contact with. Of well. Thanks for contacting me. It has brought a smile to my face. My house is near Arnaudville (northeast of Lafayette)
