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Old 09-04-10, 06:58 PM
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November
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Dahon Boardwalk and Parkinson's

My father-in-law was diagnosed with Parkinson's a couple of years back and has steadily lost motor control since then even with daily trips to the gym for Pilates and physically taking care of himself. Last year I started taking him on rides down the MUP with him riding a spare beach cruiser. That was fine until he started falling off the trail. He has lost his sense of balance and really misses riding a bike, so I let him test ride my Raleigh Twenty to see if that's any better. We went to a parking lot and he had no problems at all. I think the problems arise when he has to stay on a specific path (sidewalk, MUP, etc). Anyway, today I was able to score him a new Dahon Boardwalk S1 at Performance for $179 which is a darn good price on these. I brought it home to him and suggested we ride in the street which has very light traffic. Instead he heads for the sidewalk where he travelled 20 yards, stopped and fell over. No balance. I could tell he was embarrassed so I thought it was a good opportunity to go over the folding procedure for the bike. I am very impressed with how this bike folds. We'll try riding again on Monday.

Conclusions:

1) For the price the Dahon is a fantastic bike for pootling along (not for getting out of the saddle and hammering). Build quality is very good and the fold is easy and fairly small.

2) Parkinson's is a real b**ch, but he's doing everything he can to remain active and positive.


Here is a shot of our folding family:

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