Bicycle alternatives

[capner2112]

My mother-in-law has gone through extensive surgery on her wrists and is now being told by her doctor to not ride; from what she's told me a crash would toast her now more fragile wrists. Naturally, it's not a happy choice to abandon cycling for good. She wants to explore options to keep her on two wheels.

Her first idea was "adult training wheels" on her Trek hybrid. She does use some gravel/woodchip packed trails that I don't think would be appropriate for that sort of setup and they are expensive.
I thought of building a setup with two rear wheels without altering the frame making a sorta narrow trike. She doesn't want to buy a full trike because of cost and storage as she lives in an apartment.

I'm open to other ideas that may be helpful.

[xerxes]

Could she not use some sort of brace or support that would protect her wrists in the event of a fall?

http://www.healthandcare.co.uk/wrist-supports.html?gclid=COmWqPrVg7ACFUxlfAodQnx_nw

Obviously she would need to consult her doctor/surgeon as you wouldn't want to risk doing more harm than good.

I don't have any personal experience of trikes, but from what I know they are quite different to ride than bicycles and will involve some re-learning, which could be more risky than sticking to two wheels. I would think a narrow trike would be even more risky.

However, a recumbant trike, the type with two wheels at the front, which should be more stable, might work. There's also no weight on the wrists with a recumbant. However, I have no personal experience of recumbants either. They're definately not cheap though.

http://www.bicycleman.com/recumbents/trikes/recumbent-trikes.htm

[xerxes]

As an additional, you can get good tricycle conversion kits for standards bicycles:

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/trykit/Galleries/Conversion%20Axles/index.htm

http://www.trykit.com/

http://www.roman-road.co.uk/index.htm

More info on tricycles: http://www.ctc.org.uk/desktopdefault.aspx?tabid=3507 - note the paragraphs about the difficulties of riding tricycles, especially the traditional upright ones with two wheels at the rear.

There's even an association: http://www.tricycleassociation.org.uk/