1. Bought me a Trikke yesterday. After 30 minutes, every muscle was sore, but it's fun. Arches, ankles, knees, hip and shoulder muscles all sore. Didn't stop sweating for 20 minutes afterwards. A real workout. Truth be told though, most of my effort was wasted. In fact, this thing requires far, far less effort than a beginner like me thinks. You get on the thing, and you think you know what to do, but nope. The skiing motion must be ALWAYS in harmony with steering, but first instincts don't play that homey, so there's a learning curve. You think you can "cheat" the physics of the deal, but you soon find that the deal is a lock, and you'd better be good at the skiing motion at every speed, and my first instinct was to "forget" that.

I can get it going to about 8 MPH, but to get higher than that you have to have really flat ground or really be top-notch in shape and skill, but even at slow speeds it is a lot of fun, and when you really get it going, it is like being on an animal, because it has its "own mind" about the laws of physics, so when you've got yourself going good, you have to cooperate with the "beast" or your speed goes down immediately, but if you "go with the flow" then only minimal energy is required to keep going, and this energy must be put into the "system" only when the beast allows it. If you're doing something wrong, it pushes back at you...it feels alive. When everything works, you feel like you are one with the laws of nature. Bottom line: as you mess around, you figure out how to harmonize with the thing.

I am certain that most of my soreness today is from straining so hard with my bad instincts. I found myself again and again straining very hard to make something happen, and it was THE EXACT OPPOSITE of what muscles I was supposed to use. It's a rock and roll motion that must have its way. I expect this soreness to be gone shortly and my skill level should go up fast.

The thing is not as safe as I thought, but I have yet to fall off of it, but I can see how it can be done easily if you try to do something that is "too soon" for your skill level. Still, it is far safer than a bike and certainly safer than roller blades and skateboards.

It's a really nice piece of engineering, very, very tough, and feels rock solid.

2. It's awkward until you "get it;" then it's poetry in motion....that's the most fun, but going through the learning curve is fun too. Another thing is that EVERYONE....I mean EVERYONE looks at you as you go by. It's a new thingy for everyone, and they all can't help themselves staring at you....and about 10% of them ask you questions. Take this to a nice flat sidewalk with lots of people nearby and you'll have ten phone numbers of new women within an hour.

3. Still Trikking, and still learning. Flat cement is where it's at. Asphalt parking lots are slower than concrete. Also, "flat" becomes a Holy Grail....very hard to find because there's a need for a slope in parking lots etc. to let rain water run off to a sewer. Right now, my best spots are sidewalks outside of large stores like Target, tennis courts, and then gently sloped city streets. Got going way too fast on a sloping street this morning....too fast....I hit the brakes. Learning Trikke is a long learning curve because the faster you go the more refined your motion has to be....make a tiny mistake at high speed and you know it instantly, but the same mistake a slow speed doesn't get you the "feed back" of the Trikke balking "against" you.....it's there but harder to pick up on. So it turns out that that as you hit higher speeds you must be in far better shape, and far better mind body coordination. At slow speeds, you "have time" to make a move that harmonizes with the machine, but at higher speeds this "window" closes to a crack since your moves must be precisely in harmony with the needs of the system. It trains you, but your instinctive body motions, coming from old patterns of being on other things like bikes, skateboards or maybe just walking, get you in trouble.

On flat cement, even a beginner can get going pretty good, but on asphalt, you're going to be challenged by even slight slopes, but on cement, you get far more forward roll preserved when you carve.

It's very interesting. Haven't fallen off yet, but could have easily today on that downhill slope at 20MPH....or faster even. No helmet either....sheesh. You can fall of it just standing still if you shift your weight backwards or sideways in certain ways, but I think they're right when they say it's safer than a bike to learn. Bikes are more dangerous just because speeds are higher, and the learning is much more dangerous since you must learn to balance. The Trikke TELLS YOU what balance means, and it is nothing like a bike's needs. Balance on a Trikke means achieving a constant movement with your whole body to be in harmony with the swaying of the beast, but a bike you can just pedal and forget so much, but the Trikke demands constant moment by moment precision or you immediately feel you've "lost you groove." Cool beans!

My soreness is going away too as I learn not to fight the beast.

It's alive I tell you!

4. As for my Trikke injuries....yeah, you're right on. I've lived in front of a computer since they were first invented, and suddenly I get the bright notion that my body can take this very strenuous learning curve on a very physical piece of equipment. Probably would have been better off getting a job as a ditch digger to sort of work my way up to being prepared for the Trikke.

Problem with the Trikke is that you lean onto the handle bars when you're just starting out the learning process. You grip the bars too strongly, your muscles burn trying to "go the other way" when the machine tells you, "no way sucker," and you just strain way too much. I took a day off from it, and it didn't do the trick...might have to stay off until all symptoms are gone. Get up in the morning, and various muscles groups report in....and they're crabby without their morning coffee.

Got on the Trikke for about 15 minutes last night in a supermarket parking lot (take my Trikke with me for just such visits here and there,) and my wrists started aching again. RATS! Damned thing is addictive, and I can't go a whole day without really wanting to jump on the thing. I only got it two weeks ago today, so probably it's the case that I made my muscles and sinews sore from the get go, and I have never really recovered from it yet since I irritate it anew every day. But but but.....It's like a free ride once you get a decent piece of flat ground, and you feel like you're dancing..... I say "dancing," because I've never skiied in my life. Skiers would say it's like skiing. Inline skaters would see similarities too, but this Trikke beast is a whole notch different from anything else. It's poetry.....dancing.

But, YIKES, I just looked at the palms of my hands, and they looked normal, but when I arched them "backwards" two bright red regions appear in exactly where my palms are sore. It is obvious that deep tissue damage is being worked on. Yep, lots of healing needed there. Damn. No Trikke today fer shur. Gotta get passed this now or risk permanently injuring my arms and never, horrors, getting to ride my Trikke again. ARRRGH!

5. Well another day, and my hands and arms are just a titch better, but as I see how much time is being needed to get my body back to normal, I am getting clarity about just how much I had pushed beyond my limits. It's like hitting myself with a hammer, but I use a Trikke instead, and instead of hitting myself with the Trikke, I hit the Trikke instead -- using that ooomph-push of the hands onto the handlebars to increase the stress even harder than my body's resting on the bar is stressing of my tissues.

6. My Trikked out body is still sore....man at my age you just don't heal over night....been off that sucker for the most part for a week....only rode it a bit yesterday "just to see if I was still sore, " and yep, I'm still sore. Apparently I stressed out all my tendons and ligaments and muscles....and this Trikke is called a low impact exercise.....Sheeesh.....well, I'm here to tell ya that it's so much fun that you just over-do it when you're first learning it.....pushing too hard for no reason onto the handle bars and foot pads. So now my fingers, hands, wrists, forearms and ankles all hurt when I gently move them in certain ways. Sheesh! That Trikke is like sex....you just want it no matter what the cost.

7. I'm taking a week off from the Trikke to let my sore feet, ankles, calves, forearms, wrists and hands heal. At my age, sigh, it may take more than a week. I pushed it so hard because the damned thing is so much fun that the pain, as it mounted from my abusing myself by insisting on pushing much harder onto the Trikke's handlebars and footpads than was necessary, was so slowly mounting that I was in denial for way too long and by the time I admitted that I was in obvious pain it was too late to merely "get a good night's sleep and be healed." A person your age can recuperate so quickly.....me, it takes a paper cut six weeks to heal. Sigh....

I know now that I can do the Trikke without harming myself much, but the healing parts of me can't take even a little of this kind of abuse now, so I'm off the Trikke temporarily. The Trikke is what I have been looking for all my life: a physical activity that is really a powerful exercise with almost whole-body involvement that is low impact and tons of fun. Nothing I have ever done in my life has "clicked" for me like this Trikke is doing. You get this thing going 5 miles per hour and you feel like a daredevil. Cruise along with just the faintest whisper of effort being used to keep up your speed, just leaning here leaning there, and it really is like surfing or skiing....effortless whizzing.....funzies. Hopefully in a week, I'll be able to rest my hand on my mouse pad....but right now, I have to have a pillow under my forearm to prevent my palm from having much weight on it....the palms of the hands are really sore. Sigh...

8. Still not comfortable on it since I know from its feedback that I am still a rank amateur on it even though I can get it going pretty fast and can do turns and stay on a narrow sidewalk. A long learning curve, but still fun. I've semi-fallen off of it a couple times....would have been a lot more times if I wasn't so scared and taking it easy as I learn it. When my ego shows up with some sort of proud feeling, I can be pretty sure a near fall is about to happen. But when you get it going, it's heaven to just carve down a sidewalk.

9. Still Trikking, and I see ever more clearly that it is a significant learning curve to do almost anything on it....very nice because it keeps the thing fresh for me. I can get it going fast, but I see that every speed is a coordination lesson unto itself as you learn the timing of your skiing motions. The faster you go the more precise must be the timing of your carving. Also, all the possible stunts that can be done on the Trikke are impossible unless you have that precision down pat for the speed that the Trikke is going when you do the trick.....with just about zero room for error. You can be going 3 - 4 miles per hour and just come to a full stop in under a second by over carving or by missing your timing. Like I said, this sort of bio-feedback trains you. This beast won't let you make a mistake with out a forward momentum penalty that's immediately felt. Neat! I take it everywhere...always looking for a quick ten minute playground on a tennis court or whatever is near where I'm at. It folds down in 5 seconds and pops into the backseat. 20 pounds weight makes it easy to deal with.

10. Well, I'm on top of my injuries now. Some soreness after Trikking this morning, but I have learned to keep from putting too much weight on the handle bars, and now I'm not getting sore palms. Also, YAY!, I now can go around my parking lot, which is pretty crappy asphalt, with almost no flat spots, and I never have to kick to keep going. I've developed a look-ahead skill so that when I know I'm approaching an up hill slope, I get my speed up, and then "tack like a sailboat" along the slope….not going directly up it, but taking the "hypotenuse" so to speak. This allows me to keep up with the effects of gravity by lessening the angle of attack. It turns out that if you "see" a parking lot truly, then it becomes a zero-sum adventure - for every up-slope there's a down-slope, and if you work it right, you can get to a point where the only effort you're doing is to overcome friction (and wind,) and the sloping takes care of itself as you learn to expertly conserve your speed gained on down slopes to pretty much get you up the up-slope with little effort if you tack just right. I LOVE THIS BEAST!

This machine is such a trip. You go four miles per hour and you feel like you're one of the Z-boys in Dog Town. I carve around all the parked cars, zipping between them even when there's only six inches to spare, jumping speed bumps, always scanning, scanning, scanning, making decisions about where your next carve is going to be - this keeps you right smack in the NOW…..no wander mind like on a bike. You feel much more connected to your environment because you can feel the texture of the surface - gritty, smooth, sticky, bumpy etc. You have to really have clarity about the texture of the surface, because even a two inch wide dent in the surface can be a disaster waiting to happen if you carve just exactly so….and sudden you skip across that depression and you're skidding instead of carving. I'm doing all my "serious carving" at slow speeds. No way am I going down some big hill and making out like a slaloming ski expert at high speeds - ahem, that means anything over 10MPH. Higher than, say, 7MPH, I'm just not there yet to handle all the possibilities that might require split second control. So for now….flat areas or well known irregular areas are my playgrounds. When I'm at a new place, I go slowly, but on familiar ground, I can experiment with speeds over KNOWN areas.

And I'm not griping! This is just total fun all the time; it just INVOLVES YOU so much with the moment by moment need to attend to the immediate future, that all other problems cannot find "psychic purchase" in my mind. I am in bliss when I Trikke….no problems can bother me….I'M TOO BUSY HAVING FUN!