On the dike of Saint-Malo (Ille-et-Vilaine), cyclists push themselves on this sunny day. Pascal Lemée’s car stands out from the crowd. A tricycle for this 58-year-old man? Yes, a very practical bike with its large basket on the back, for those who want to collect their groceries, as they are about to do. But above all, a perfect vehicle to restore mobility to those who have lost it, due to lack of stability, following a stroke or for example due to Parkinson’s disease.
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Pascal loved cycling and motorcycling when with the latter, 12 years ago, his path crossed that of a car: A gust of wind on the right pushed me off the road and I hit the car with my leg.
He came out of this accident with his left leg amputated and, for several years, he traveled by car and on foot, equipped with his prosthesis, but it immediately tired him. I wanted to go back to cycling but it was complicated. If I take my leg off the left bike and have to put it down, it doesn’t have time to open up and stabilize, so it’s a headache.
“When you ride a tricycle, you have to forget everything you do on a bicycle”
After spotting a tricycle for the first time in a drugstore shop, he found a second-hand one for around 1,000 euros. In addition to its stability, the tricycle has the advantage of having a very low frame, about ten centimeters from the ground, which makes it easy to ride.
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With its low frame, a few centimeters off the ground, the tricycle facilitates the stride before sitting down. Pascal Lemée also added wedges to the pedals to hold the foot. © Western France
The purchase ends quickly but it is not obvious: When you ride a tricycle, you have to forget everything you do on a bicycle. I fought. Also, when I first tried it, I told myself that I would never be able to.
By dint of training in the courtyard below the house, Pascal learns to grab the handlebar, to push it back and forth in the desired direction and to slow down well in the curves so as not to overturn.
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The peculiarity of the tricycle is that it cannot lean when cornering, so you have to get used to handling the handlebars to turn it correctly. © Western France
However, a lot remains depending on the infrastructure set up for bicyclesbut not necessarily meant for large models like yours: The worst for me are the sausages on the street. With bicycles you can avoid them, but with a tricycle you can’t.
So agile now, he escapes all kinds of obstacles that can destabilize and even enjoys learning driving on two wheels, like a sand yacht!
A tailor-made tricycle
Very practical, this former maintenance technician in elevators and then in IT, has completely remodeled the tricycle to meet his needs: I moved all the controls to the right because my left hand no longer works.
Indicates this particular handle that comes from a quad, to join the front and rear brake cables. At the level of the feet, he installed wedges, useful to help him lift the pedal and to keep his prosthesis on it.
On the calendar: almost 3,200 km already covered. Equipped with electric assistance, his tricycle has a 250W battery that can last 80km autonomously on the flat. What to drive around town, like go on long hikes : It allowed me to go to places where I could no longer go.
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