Hello to all,
My name is Carol, and I am the very proud owner of a Tomcat Electric Flame trike. Sounds posh huh! Well, yes, it is.
If I may, I’d like to share with you my journey towards being a Tomcat owner, and a re-born-again cyclist. My husband and I have always cycled during our recreational downtime from the rigors of work and family commitments. Our dream was to retire with the motorhome, bikes onboard and off we go! Then as time progressed the knees started to first grumble at the long walks and steep hills, then scream at the short strolls and gentle slopes.
Time for a new knee, only one at a time, of course, and oh, apparently, I’m too young, “come back when your old and totally immobile”. Perhaps that’s not what they said, but when your life suddenly becomes reduced to a few dozen steps, that’s what you hear. By the time I was lucky enough to go through surgery for a full left knee replacement, my right knee had also given up with the strain of compensating for the left. Ok. Back to the drawing board, plan for the future, and back on the waiting list whilst the bikes and motorhome sit mothballed, waiting for my recovery. Left knee a resounding success, hurrah! Right knee……not quite so! All set to return to the road and cycling on the recumbent style bikes in physio manageable, so, we dusted off the bikes with excitement and prepared for the off. To my utter disappointment I managed, perhaps, 20 feet before having to be rescued half on, and half off my trusty steed. My right knee, although a vast improvement to the arthritic alternative would just not bend enough to ride a bike safely. This was it, grounded, what now? How could I ride the bikes in physio and not my own? Frustrated we trawled google for the answer, and the consensus of the ‘not so scientific’ replies was that regular bikes have the wrong geometry for dodgy knees. Lovely, I said, we’ll find a recumbent bike, make it electric, and still fit it on the regular bike rack for holidays. Go on……you try! But then again, if you’re reading this you to have found the answer, Tomcat!
From start to finish our experience with the team was first class, nothing was too much trouble, no question to trivial. Our purchase of ‘Trixie’ was not on a whim, no impulse buys here, we’re all on a budget and all that, but the alternative of short walks and shrinking my horizon was unthinkable to me.
Money well spent, I say, and years up the road and trails with all the new memories banked I will raise a toast to the team that helped me smile again. And puff and pant up the hills, but that’s just part of the fun!
P.S. Don’t less abled, be enabled.
My thanks to you all, Carol Pinder.
