lmw07016

My first post here. I'm hoping this forum is the best one for this "out of left field" query.

My 28 year old son has "high functioning autism". He will never drive a car. He can ride a 2 wheeler, but not safely: too much of his attention is devoted to staying upright and theres not enough left to be aware of road and traffic situations. My wife and I both feel he has a good chance of safely gaining much more independence with and adult trike.He is very enthusiastic about getting one. I need some advice on picking one for him.

I've looked at buyer reviews on a lot of the internet sales sites and at adulttricyclereview.com. It seems many adult tricycle brands have serious design and fabrication quality issues. Based on a long day cruising the internet it looks like I'm down to the True Bicycle Co "Fold and Go" 3 speed, the True "Low Step" 3 speed and the Pashely Tri-1.

Here are some questions about trikes:

I've seen a few comments about large wheel (26") being less stable but the other side of the coin is I'm wondering if 20" bikes might be less visible in traffic. Are either of these issues really valid, or are these fine distinctions that can be more or less ignored under most circumstances?? Note the "Fold and Go" and the Tri-1 are both 20" and the Low Step is 24".

Does anyone here on the forum have any of these bikes? If so I'd love to hear your impressions!

From the web site, Pashley seems like a highly engineered well made bike, but there are few bike shops that sell this brand (and none that I've been able to find on the internet in the northeast that have a trike to sell). The True Bicycle Co bikes come with free shipping, but its harder to tell what the quality is without going and looking at one. I know of no shops that carry them around here in central NJ.

Also, should I be copying this query to other sub-forums ?

Any good advice is very welcome!

Thanks in advance for any help.

--Lenny Wintfeld