Cycling Without Age Trishaw (Triobike Taxi)

Are you familiar with the global phenomenon that is Cycling Without Age (CWA)? This charity which started in Denmark aims to make the outdoors accessible to elderly and less able people through the use of Trishaws. The trishaw is an innovative three-wheeled electric bike from the Danish company Triobike.

Since the CWA charity began in 2012 it has grown to over 3,050 locations in 25+ countries and there are around 50K of these trishaws in use worldwide.

This project aims to bring together three successful Danish exports - CWA, Triobike and LEGO!

I am a volunteer pilot with my local CWA chapter in Aberdeen, UK which is part of Cycling Without Age Scotland. We take out elderly passengers from care homes in our local area to experience 'the wind in their hair' and with an aim of generating 'miles of smiles' on our trishaw rides.

As a keen fan of LEGO, I thought it would be fun to try to make a model trishaw from the bricks that I had in my collection. I did have to acquire a few extra parts like the large wheels and the chain. The colours of bricks I had in various sets matched the colours of the actual trishaw very well, particularly the wooden passenger 'tub' and the red seats.

I think it is a reasonably accurate representation of the trishaw, although I am sure it could be improved by the expertise of LEGO's designers with access to a greater inventory of bricks. I am most pleased with the working chain and pedals to drive the back wheel, the removable footplate and the under seat storage compartment which are found on the real vehicle.

This started off as a project for myself but having shown it to some other people in the CWAS organisation I was encouraged to put it forward as a LEGO idea. I think this could be released as a limited edition as a fundraiser for the CWA charity. It may be of interest to the (grand)children of some of the elders that we take out on our rides.

The photos I have attached show various aspects of the model that I have made. There is also a photo of our own Trishaw without passengers or rider.

I hope you like my idea enough to consider taking it further.