A bike for Duncan

Duncan needs a very special bike

Duncan is the wonderful 9 year old kid who calls me mom. He has a big heart, loves to play outside, and for a long time I thought he didn't like bikes. We gave him a balance bike, a bike with training wheels, and a big kid bike with the pedals removed, but he never took to them. He loved his three wheeled scooter and I thought that maybe he just didn't *want* to ride a bike. But then, this summer he saw a kid his age riding an adult sized trike. He got excited and said, "I want that!" So, we started a quest to get a trike.

Our family bikes a LOT. Duncan's dad can't see well enough to drive a car so he uses a bike as his main transportation, and the two of them often bike on errands. And we all bike together for fun. Duncan also has vertigo, and a fainting disorder that can cause dizziness that make riding a two wheeled bicycle scary for him, so he has always been in a trailer or on the long back seat of our cargo bike (where he can hug me if he gets dizzy). He is quickly outgrowing our current bike gear though and we need an option that feels stable for him, can be towed by a parent's bike, and is fun to ride.

Recently Duncan got to try a specialized trike through Outdoors for All's Adaptive Cycling Center and he fell in love with a bike that fits his needs. It's a kid-sized recumbent trike, that adjusts for riders from 3'3" to 5'3" - hopefully into his High School years. He can ride solo and zoom around on the park trails, but even better this bike has an optional attachment that converts it into a trail-a-bike that can be towed by a standard bike. The trike is well engineered to prevent tip-overs, and it has a frame that makes it easy for kids to get on and off the bike. He loved it so much that he got emotional when it was time to leave.

Unfortunately the fully customized bike will cost far more than we can afford. Duncan's condition is also not considered a disability so we cannot get help through his insurance or any charities we have contacted. We have not been able to find a comparable used trike that will fit Duncan, and this well engineered bike from Germany is not cheap. We are asking our community to help with part of the expense so that Duncan can keep pedaling and our family can keep biking to get to essential .

I work for a food bank, and Duncan's dad Josh is a pizza cook who was out of work for most of the pandemic. We don't have the resources to make this purchase on our own.

Full price of the bike, the attachments to allow the bike to be towed, and shipping from Germany:

$7063

Our family has saved for a year and is ready to pay:

$3563

Community ask:

$3500

Thank you for any amount you are able to give! -- Tara