cudak888 

https://miami.craigslist.org/brw/bik/936968774.html

...as if there was ever a "problem" with balancing.

-Kurt

CB HI

It is a BUI attachment. Very practicable for drunks.

urban_assault

Well, the seller is in Florida. Maybe his target market is older retirees.

Severian

I've installed these on bicycles for people who have anything from MS to Autism or other developmental disabilities who have trouble balancing a bicycle.

How do you feel about your snark now?

cudak888 

It is excellent for anyone who needs it, such as those who you mention, older individuals, etc. Nothing much different from a tricycle.

Otherwise, its absolutely ridiculous to market them as a solution to balancing for able-bodied people. Ridiculous.

-Kurt

uke

It isn't ridiculous; it's just too removed from your abilities for you to perceive a need for it in others.

dobber

I'd so rock a fixed gear with these. Imagine the skid stops, bar spins and other tarck tricks one could pull.

steveknight

for people without a disability and even kids training wheels slow down the learning process. far better to lower the seat so the person can put both feet flat on the ground. that works better and will teach a person balance far faster. removing the pedals too may help till they get used to things.

cudak888 

On the contrary. I knew that it would please A&S to complain about it.

-Kurt

JoeyBike

I showed the photos to my wife. She said it would be too embarrassing. She would prefer to just fall down now and then.

xenologer

Well I thought it was stupid
but mostly because, a Trike does the same job better.
That thing would cause plenty of issues turning and going over uneven ground.

mike

"Adult Stabalizers"?

Nice try at spinning a new name for training wheels.

I am sure that there is a need for them. I would just hope there is some more dignified solution. A trike would be one solution, I suppose.

I wonder if you couldn't make an in-line three-wheeler with off-set wheels for better stability - something designed cool enough to avoid the kiddie-stigma of training wheels and tricycles.

cudak888 

Precisely. The device itself has a number of useful (and noble) applications in itself, and if its price was a bit more reasonable, it would make sense as a cost-effective conversion for individuals seeking a tricycle, but already own a bicycle. I have no problem with that.

What ticks me off is the method of marketing - it insinuates that perfectly capable Americans lack the ability or desire to balance a bicycle correctly. Typical American mentality of attempting to solve a problem through a lack of desire to learn or perform the proper method.

If it were not for the fact that a half-century of conditioning the general public into perceiving the wheelchair as being a un-chic method if invalid transport, someone would have long ago invented a motorized wheelchair and marketed it to healthy adults as an alternative to "stressful" walking. Come to think of it, they did - they made the rider stand up and called it a Segway.

-Kurt

randya

Oh, I get it now, you must be good friends with BarracksSi and dobber...

randya

All in your own head only

FlatMaster

Something like this view from above?

----- _____ -----

I don't think so. For a right turn you would be leaning on one tire!!

tatfiend 

The British did make a 3 wheeler with 2 wheels in one track and a third, much larger, drive wheel in the other track in the 1880s. Designed as a safer alternative to the high wheeler, it is pictured in a number of books on the history of cycling.

I have also seen a number of photos of european racing trikes from a lot more recent times. A well engineered one can be made reasonably light. The cornering method requires severe rider lean towards the inside of a turn to prevent falling over.