One of the main reasons I wanted a trike was rather practical and mundane: to do my weekly shop.

Although l was entirely comfortable with my routine of buying groceries for one or two meals at a time and bringing them home on public transport, this certainly had its limitations.

Post-trike, the idea of waiting around for a bus to get my shopping home seems unthinkable. Instead, I get a rockstar park right outside the supermarket, a door-to-door journey with all the shopping I could want, and a healthy dose of sightseeing along the way!

Researching the purchase of my trike also involved a lot of shopping, Early on in my quest, I visited many specialty bike shops across Sydney. The task of finding a bike I could try proved surprisingly difficult.

While there was certainly no shortage of trikes available online, I had no way of actually knowing whether I would be able to successfully ride them without testing them out.

Many of the places I contacted would tell me, “Oh yeah, we could order that in for you, no problem,” but they didn’t actually have anything in stock, making ‘try before you buy’ impossible. In fact, the rather staunch bike bros who staffed a number of the places I tried had very little time for my enquiries: “Why on earth would you want to ride a trike?” was the general reaction I got on more than one occasion.

It seemed that adults riding trikes was a bridge too far. Most places I contacted didn’t have a single trike on display in their showroom, let alone a range of options I could try. I did eventually find one in a shop in western Sydney. Unfortunately it didn’t do the trick, but I did get some useful pointers.

Due to my limited range of motion because of spasticity in my legs, the cranks that the pedals attach to were too long for me to do a full rotation The 24 inch wheels – fairly standard for most adult bikes – also added to the size of the pedal’s turning circle.

The refreshingly helpful staff in the Penrith shop suggested that if I could find a trike with 20 inch wheels and install shorter, kid-sized cranks that might solve my problem.

They were right. As a bonus, I have since learnt that smaller wheels also provide a much more nimble turning circle, making me super agile when navigating sharp turns and small spaces I’ve impressed many fellow cyclists on the road with my turning prowess. Who says adult trike riders aren’t cool?

20-inch wheels and short cranks were part of the magic formula enabling me to ride, with bonus turning prowess.

It was a good friend with expertise in transport for people with mobility challenges who first put me onto e-bike specialists, Glow Worm in Marrickville.

Glow Worm is a wonderfully friendly place completely free of posturing bike bro culture but even they had trouble initially with my request. “We had one trike but we sold it,” they told me apologetically. “We hope to get one in again … but we don’t know when.”

Some months later they called me back telling me they had the mythical unicorn in stock: an adult e-trike with 20 inch wheels.

When I went to try it out, the attentive Glow Worm staff spent a lot of time with me, tinkering with the seat height and crank position until we found the sweet spot. I was able to sit comfortably, reach the handlebars and turn the pedals. So we were off!

After being assisted a short way down the footpath I was released into the wilds of Marrickville to ride free on my own. The next 30 minutes were a revelation. My short tour of Marrickville’s back streets was like nothing I’d ever experienced. The feeling of being able to go that fast – and in any direction: to speed effortlessly up hills with the throttle and use the force of gravity to hurtle back down was pure joy.

In my first post, I mentioned that I had one particularly good friend that encouraged me to ride. I sent him a video postcard from this first trip which shows just how ridiculously happy I was.

At the end of my sojourn I reluctantly returned the trike to the shop. Unfortunately at around $3,000 I just couldn’t afford to buy it on the spot. I was soon also embarking on another new frontier: getting married to my husband -to-be after 25 years.

Planning a wedding is complex and expensive it felt like the time was not right to be forking out for this luxurious piece of kit. The trike got resold to somebody else soon after and the quest to ride slipped off my radar for quite a while.

Sometime later, a well known Sydney cycling advocate who was a key instigator in my cycling journey gave me a call.“Glow Worm is having a ten year anniversary sale. I really think that you should go and check it out.”

So I went to back to see them and they had my trike, an Ezy Carro, back in stock. I told them I needed to actually take it home to see if I could practically use it.

Glow Worm being the accommodating folk that they are said: “Sure, just take it home for a few days. See how you go!” Not only did I manage to ride it home without incident, I used the trike constantly for the next week and saw firsthand how much it impacted my life.

One of the first things I did was buy groceries. It sounds like such a little thing, but honestly. the ability to just pick up and go and grab as much as I needed was pretty liberating. I recall going back to the supermarket multiple times in a day. Because I could.

That ability to shop – anywhere – is still so satisfying and fun. And not just in supermarkets. These days I’m able visit various produce markets and do a big shop every week buying lots of fresh organic veggies and fruit. During COVID, learning to ride was great because not only were the footpaths and roads pretty empty, the markets were too.

I particularly like Carriageworks in Redfern because the footprint of the market is not too huge so I can walk around there quickly and get everything I need without a huge amount of schlepping.

I’ve made friends with a lot of the farmers, who give me the goss on what’s good, or in season, or chuck in a freebie, or give me a good recipe tip.

Just this week, for example, I got some really unusual finds, including pine mushrooms. These pink conical fungi are quite the delicacy I was informed, as they’re only in season for a short time and are delicious cooked up with garlic and butter (they were). Other treasures I bought included crab apples, sorrel and jujubes – all bright and tangy, nutritious finds.

At a Screenability session at Sydney film festival a couple of years ago I saw a film that made a lasting impression. Presque tells the story of a 40-year-old philosopher with CP who rides a trike around his village in Southern France delivering groceries. I’m no philosopher, nor am I French, but I saw this chap and felt totally seen.

If you’re someone like me who doesn’t drive, the ability to shop is a really excellent reason to give cycling a go. You may not unlock all the secrets of the universe, but happiness and a bike full of fresh veggies can be yours – anytime you like!