Specially adapted cycles

cinzano

I have just been to my daughters school (special needs) to view a variety of cycles suited to children of various abilities. These cycles start at £1500 but it was mentioned to me that most parents purchase these through a charity ie Wizzkids. As anyone any experience of this and how did you go about it.
The school is going to try my daughter on some of the bikes tomorrow and I will have some idea of the style best for her.

GlasweJen

Hi cinzano, occupational therapist should be able to tell you if the bikes are available through the councils service and if not write a supporting statement for you to send to the charity to get the bike made up.

sogs

Hi we got our son a trike for about £500 from a local bike shop the trike is designed for special needs and made to suit height and weight the are great value and very well made.

It may well be worth asking a your local bike shop.

allydowd

Info provided here:

http://www.whizz-kidz.org.uk/

longhotbath

Hi Cinzano, our ot's wont provide trikes, nor help with assessments for one, but will give a list of charities that will help.

Our physio helped with our trike choice - tomcat tiger. We found one on ebay, bought it ourself, and had it checked and set up for him. There is a good choice on ebay, also try the disability equipment register or specialkidsintheuk - they have 2 forums dedicated to equipment.

Wizzkids has quite a long waiting list, but is great for trikes, they will come out and do their own assessments.

To get an idea of trikes avaliable, there are many on demo at Naidex, Kids down south and Kids up north, and Kids in the middle (may be a z rather than a s in kids!).

Which one does the school favour?

(My son loves riding his tiger, and the imp at school)

cinzano

Thanks for that info longhotbath, my daughter is trying out the bikes they have taken into school today, so I will have a better idea once I have spoken to her teacher. It seems a long drawn out system to get funding for these bikes but it is something that I need to follow through as I would not like to deprive her of the freedom or the chance to ride a bike that she might otherwise never have. Its just a case of knowing where to start.

longhotbath

Please let us know how how she gets on....

rac456

Hi, I've just bought my daughter a trike from theraplay which is based in scotland, they were really good. The quote for my dd bike was £622, but we got an ex display for £500. They had various reconditioned trikes from £199. Much more reasonably priced than some of the other companies we tried. HTH