Thursday, 19 January 2017

03 - T5... the search for Trikke

In mid-January 2013 I had to broaden my search to find suitable T5 wheels. I located “Trikke Australia” but after emailing them and having no response after 3 weeks (not realizing that the link on Trikke Tech's International Distributor list was out of date and the Australian distributor website was stale and contact details were not active). 

I had to continue the search and managed to make contact with Trikke Tech USA.... I was able to communicate directly with Ana D'Arace. At this early stage of my Trikke knowledge I had no idea that Ana was actually Gildo Beleski's wife. Ana kindly fulfilled my order for a full set of 5-inch Poly wheels and within a week they arrived with a bonus of 3 little plastic Trikke mini toys in Green, Orange and Yellow. Cool.

Trikke mini toys

Installed the new Poly wheels and a decent smooth ride was now possible. 

Our T5 with new Poly Wheels

Over January and February (height of our NZ summer) I took Sophie to a nearby asphalt tennis/netball court where she could have plenty of room to try and work out how to ride this 3-wheeled Trikke... I had to demonstrate technique to Sophie by having to ride the T5 myself numerous times. I didn't really know how to get this shiny chrome machine “self propelling” but on occasion I fluked the “sweet spot” and could see the benefits of regular practice to get the Trikke T5 working the way it was designed to be used.

A few sessions later I had learned where the sweet spot was for me to carve around the tennis court area without having to push with my feet.... now I had that sorted I could show Sophie how it was done... another couple of practice sessions later and boom, Sophie had found the correct technique and sweet spot. She was so happy to finally have discovered the secret to body-powered Trikking. I was very proud that she stuck with it to finally be able to ride it correctly.


At Sophie's Primary School they were having “scooter Fridays” where the kids could bring their rip-sticks/wiggleboards/scooters to play on during breaks/lunch hour. Sophie was keen to take her T5 to school to ride and see what the other students thought of it. Sophie was proud of how nobody else could get it to self-propel.... and how she was able to carve around the courtyard of the school without having to push with her feet like the scooter riders were having to do to retain momentum. Nobody else had ever seen this machine called a “Trikke”.

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