Mission: To promote driving less so all may live more.
[Adrienne, from England, has ties to Holland, where her father lives. Adapted from an email of hers and a link she sent, this short post introduces some of us to the duo bike. These devices, being stabilized with 3 wheels, seem particularly useful for those who want to ride a bike but shouldn’t. They also lend themselves to conversation, in a way that tandem bikes do not. ā Louis]
[as an aside, a true one]: Holland could teach everyone a lot re cycling and not even in a boring, ‘kikkerlandish’ way … š[1]
Have you seen any of these duo bikes over your way?
Well, this is one.
My father is on the left and a volunteer is on the right. He comes once a week to the Nursing home to take any willing participants on this bike that the home owns.
Dad after his hip operation still can only walk with a walking frame [i.e. “walker”] and only for about 5 mins. He can move his legs around in cycle fashion and has some strength but not much.
The main cyclist and the battery help to build up speed. I cycled behind them and the ride lead us through paddocks and along the canals and river – for 45 minutes.
This bike is a great addition to the home where Dad is at. The volunteer really was good fun. There was an exchange of stories – both funny ones and some more thoughtful ones – between them. I’ll include a link that explains the bike a bit more. It means a lot more elderly and those with disabilities can still get out on the bike!
Just one other thing about cycling in Holland. The e-bikes are becoming a lot more popular and especially in the over 65 age group. So there is a much older age group enjoying getting on a bike and cycling though with less effort. A few more accidents are happening but that’s to be expected with more cycles on the road and the bikes are heavier so maybe more difficult to get on and off.
[ending with the link Adrienne furnished; I enjoyed the page precisely because it mirrored Adrienne’s account so closely, suggesting she was telling the truth š ]
____Footnotes____
[1] Kikkerlandish: kikker (frog) + land (land) + ish (adjectival suffix)… hence, the land of frogs, Holland-like. As far as “boring” goes, wiktionary.org defines “kikkerland” in the following way: “(humorous) an unimportant and rather boring country, virtually exclusively said of the Netherlands.”