Slumped in my grandfather’s lounge chair, listening to a chap on TikTok instructing how to speak Québecois français, my attention was interrupted this afternoon by an unexpected telephone call from Derand West Tricycles.  The caller (Jordan Childs, Store Manager) enquired whether Sean might deliver my new trike today.  I unhesitatingly replied, “Yes!”

It surprised me to get delivery so quickly.  I had only bought the trike less than a week ago; and it first had to be collected from the distributor in Montréal then assembled. Plus – of more proximate detail – the Ottawa region was just recovering from another overnight springtime snowstorm.  The weather was dreary and snowbound. I had not even considered venturing out in my automobile.

But the weather was clearly improving.

After I completed my chat with Mr. Childs, my partner and I went to the lobby and waited for the arrival of the van with its cargo.  The large van arrived precisely when expected (about 45 minutes from Carlingwood Mall in Ottawa). Once parked outside the subterranean garage ramp, the tricycle was removed from the back of the van then wheeled into the garage.

Sean, my partner and I then proceeded to conduct an examination of the trike.  Sean – who proved himself an excellent instructor – patiently addressed initiation of the electric charge, locking and removing the battery, parking the trike, operating the propulsion, etc.  He also lowered the seat a smidgen to ensure that my feet touched the ground (with a minor lift of the heels). We together discussed the esoteric plateaux of air pressure in the front and back tires (which amusingly Sean advised could cope with snow on the ground).

When at last I collated the mechanical intelligence and pushed off (or, rather, jolted off), my instant impression (aside from the electrifying feature) was the unsurpassed comfort of the conveyance. The overall reaction apart from repose was that the front wheel was exceedingly manageable. When I stopped the electric function, the regular cycling (though somewhat heavier than normal because of the battery’s weight) afforded me the usual sense of endurance and athletic achievement. The electric function I intend to use primarily for flights along the Ottawa Valley Trail – specifically to and from the Village of Blakeney.  Otherwise I am anxious to preserve the athletic use of the trike in order to fulfill my routine ambition to get my butt off my study chair.

The unquestionable attraction of the trike is that I despise walking.  Even when my spine hadn’t begun to disintegrate, walking was never for me something I enjoyed doing (other than going in and out of retail stores of course).  My partner by contrast was walking 14Km each day on Hilton Head Island.  He had routinely gone further than I did on my mechanical Atlas tricycle (on average 4Km/diem but sometimes as much as 10Km). But the other notable feature I like about the electric tricycle is that it enables me to “get out and about”. At table this evening I disclosed to my partner that the electric trike is for me my new-found form of travel, one which is convenient, accessible, improving and fun. Hopefully with a bit of weight loss and proper daily application of the trike, I’ll discover a model I hadn’t imagined years ago. I’m not quite ready to throw in the proverbial!