Are Tricycles Easier to Ride Than Bicycles and Cars for People with Disabilities such as Asperger's?

[Cassidy Hooper]

Are tricycles easier for people with Asperger's to ride than bicycles or cars? Are there tricycles for people with autism/Asperger's? Anybody got links? Who here does not drive? I just want to go to town and back mostly. Will a tricycle be an option for this? I have a biking trail down the road from me that goes through town. It is expensive so I'm going to wait and save money until a get a trike. Just wondering what you guys think.​

 

[Nitro]

I don't know where you live and if it is flat there,but Walmart and Sears both sell trikes for adults,some as single speed trikes and some with gears to shift
Prices of the machinery will range from $200-$400 depending on how it is equipped...most of them have a basket on the rear for carrying your items with you...I don't think you will find any of them specified for use by those with ASD,but more in line with people who have issues with strength and balance

 

[Cassidy Hooper]

I don't know where yo:u live and if it is flat there,but Walmart and Sears both sell trikes for adults,some as single speed trikes and some with tro.gears to shift
Prices of the machinery will range from $200-$400 depending on how it is equipped...most of them have a basket on the rear for carrying your items with you...I don't think you will find any of them specified for use by those with ASD,but more in line with people who have issues with strength and balance

Ok. Thanks Nitro.

 

[On the Inside]

I drive, and have done so accident free/ticket free except for two times long ago when people ran into me when I was stopped at a stop light.

I also ride a bike, a lot, have no issues with that. I ride to work nearly everyday and ride for enjoyment as well.

However, I sustained a hand injury 4 years ago and a friend of mine lent me his Sun EZ-3 trike, which has multiple gears, handled really well and was pretty efficient and well made. I have some considerable hills to ride up and down, and it was geared well for getting up, and handled well going down. Pretty comfortable, too. I was even able to attach a trailer to it for extra hauling capacity. Well, at the time I was hauling my son to pre-school in a trailer.

Sun Bicycles EZ-3 SX Trike - Sun Cycle Centers - Tavares & Inverness, FL

My friend had bought the trike for his wife, who had injured her hip and wasn't able to ride a bike anymore, but she never took to the trike. He used it as the grocery getter.

 

[Purplepiper7]

Believe it or not, riding tricycles is a challenge for me. I prefer to use a scooter.

 

[AsheSkyler]

Tricycles annoy me, I always get a back wheel hung on something. If I was on a motorized something, I would prefer a trike to a bike, or even one of those weird four-wheeled motorcycles.

 

[Nitro]

I ride a performance enhanced 1200cc Harley-Davidson Sportster.
In my past,I rode high performance offroad racing motorcycles that were over 400cc.
The absolute most dangerous machine I ever saddled up was a 350cc motorized offroad trike with a solid rear axle
As a rider of two wheeled motorcycles offroad,placing one boot on the ground was a part of cornering in bad conditions. The end result of attempting that on my trike was it running up the back of my leg as it ripped me past the handlebars before it finished running over me. The sale of new offroad motorized trikes was made unlawful in the USA over the damages,injuries and deaths resulting from them.
Street trikes are not illegal,but are quite dangerous just the same.
The latest street trike configuration of having two wheel in the front with one in the rear are considered safer because the front end will have less tendency to wash out resulting in loss of control.
Most motorcycle accidents are a result of failing to negotiate a turn as a result of steering traction loss
Being a motorsports enthusiast,I can tell you that any motor vehicle with three or less wheels is considered a motorcycle,adding a fourth wheel makes it a car
A pedal powered 4 wheel machine is considered a quadricycle,but the additional rolling resistance of the fourth wheel makes them impractical, heavy and not well suited to rough terrain due to lack of suspension.

 

[AsheSkyler]

The absolute most dangerous machine I ever saddled up was a 350cc motorized offroad trike with a solid rear axle

That makes me shiver just reading "solid rear axle". My husband is rather fond of things with wheels, and the way he gripes about those solid rear axles... Especially on anything hardcore off-road, he likes some flexibility when rocks are involved. Or boulders, or mountains, or abnormally large lumps of stone a wee bit too big to be called a rock.

Being a motorsports enthusiast,I can tell you that any motor vehicle with three or less wheels is considered a motorcycle,adding a fourth wheel makes it a car

That's what confused me. It look like somebody superglued two motorcycles together to make some kind of weird, prehistoric car. (Er, or early model car...) It wasn't some flavor of gokart or ATC either.

 

[Nitro]

Piaggio and Yamaha both make a leaning scooter,but they are not legal for road use in the USA...the American definition of a 4 wheeled vehicle will not allow sale or registration of one here and the USA sold bikes will only have 3 wheels to be allowed motorcycle registrations

 

[Heissonear]

At low speeds (less than 10 mph) the smaller the tires on a bicycle the easier it is to ride.

Larger tire bikes are easier to ride at higjer speeds, but beginners should avoid high speed initially.

I fully agree with "tricycle" wheeled movement, they are dangerous the higher the speed you go.

But if only at 5 mph a tricycle setup is easy to ride - and safe since balance is not a problem.

Think of your speed you will be comfortable with as a beginner and as you gain expertise.

For older beginners, going slow and taking your time I would recommend a size of tricycle comfortable for you with a rear basket for carrying items back from the store. A 5 or so mph pace can be enjoyable and safe. 20 or higher mph could be a nightmare for most.

 

[epath13]

I think car is the easiest thing to drive. My dad used to tell me that a car is the easiest thing to drive, then it's motorcycle, then bicycle. I didn't drive at the time, so it was hard for me to believe. Now I drive, and I do think it's true (for some people I guess). I've never managed to learn how to ride a motorcycle, so I don't know about that. But I've always had problems with bicycle, I loved riding it, but somehow, I always bumped into something, whether they were people or trees I would LOVE to have one of those adult tricycles, but they are so damn expensive!

 

[AsheSkyler]

My granddad says a tractor is the hardest thing to learn to drive. Mostly because he only had a few inches' worth margin of error on either side when planting a garden, and a car has a good foot or so on either side when driving on a road and the steering wheel is easier to turn.

 

[On the Inside]

I blame this thread for the dream I had last night. I was riding my dad's old Honda three wheeled ATV, desperately needing to get somewhere, and I kept crashing it, then it wouldn't start.

To get back to the OP. A good trike that is lower to the ground, like the one I linked, would be an excellent choice if you have a bike trail to ride on. If you can, go to a bike shop and try out anything they have.

Sun Bicycles EZ-3 SX Trike - Sun Cycle Centers - Tavares & Inverness, FL

 

[abby normal]

I had a sun classic EZ3 trike, and it wrecked my lumbar vertebrae and SI joints due to the punishing ride over typical country roads, a large part of which was the ever-present lateral hobby-horsing of each rear wheel over road bumps which wrenched my lumbar region back and forth. but I chose the sun trike because it was lower to the ground than a typical trike which for this 6'3" person was way too tipsy/top-heavy for safety. I've since switched to a used bikee AT recumbent with a cushy 3" thick gel seat/backrest, and an absorbent rear suspension, features the sun trike desperately needs. anyways, I cannot ride a conventional upright 2-wheeler anymore due to balance issues brought on by blood loss when some damned deer caused me to be thrown over the handlebars of my old giant suede dx bike, landing hard and abradingly on the coarse pavement.

 

[On the Inside]

Abby, that is good information. I only rode the Sun EZ3 for about a month and a half or two, then I was able to get back on my own bike. Not enough time to develop any aches, pains, or injuries.

 

[abby normal]

granted, the sun is a GREAT bike as long as one is pedaling it on typically glass-smooth urban roads in good major cities. just NOT on country roads. I am sure some smart tinkerer could [and should] cobble together a suspended seat for the thing which would address the aforementioned issues with the harsh ride.