Back quite a while ago, I did some research on bikes etc, and I think some of 
the info may be helpful to others, so I'm passing it along.  I also have links 
to the pages of these on my autism links page under category "Other Supportive
Equipment".  The page is located at http://web.syr.edu/~rjkopp/autismlink.html

I've seen some of these in person and some I've just seen from web pages.
I'll try to identify what I've found.

Buddy Bike:
This is a very neat bike.  It's a tandem, with the front seat lower than
the rear and the handlebars extended to the person riding in back.  It allows
the child to ride up front and the adult to ride in back yet still control
the bike.  IT also is nice in how there is an option for fold down pedals
for kids who can't reach the pedals or can't pedal.  

This is a very good looking bike and I could imagine it could fill alot of
needs.  Plus being conventional in most of it's design, you can probably buy
different things for it like you would for a regular bike.  You probably
could even find a way of finding a bigger seat if you wanted.  



The tag-a-long: 
This is a bike that someone from this list told me about about 1 or 2 years
ago.  It is like a 3rd wheel with a seat that attaches to an adult bike
at the seat post via a special designed universal coupler.  

There actually are two manufacturers of this style of bike.  The one on my
page is one that I looked into. The other one, who I haven't found 
manufacturer information on, but have actually seen one was more readily 
available when I was looking into this last year.  

The Adams Trail A Bike, the one I have the page reference on, had some problems
last year with ownership or manufacturing facilities.  They had tried to 
change something and it caused them to stop manufacturing for a while. I
believe however that the problems have been resolved and they are available
again.  

Now for the technical aspects for this bike.  The device and one of the dealers
told me it's rated for about 60 lbs.  The frame and all the equipment in it
may be able to carry more weight than that, but from what I understand and
was told by one of them, if the child has trouble with balance as they get older
it's more possible that the added weight may make balance harder for both
riders and therefore make the setup unsafe for both riders.  

After seeing one, my impression was that it did seem small. I felt that 
it may seem too small for Shawna who is 5'1" about right now and about 112 lbs.

Other Options:
link 8 "Specialty Bikes/Trikes and Quad Cycles" has a nice assortment of bikes.
They classify them into about 4 categories.  All of them have some nice 
options I thought.  The bikes shown and page is actually the brand Trailmate.  

The "Classic Bicycle Series" category shows a tandem which is kind of nice and 
I would think you could adapt if you needed to, it's actually what we're 
hoping to do only probably with a used one if I can find one. (scarce).  
This is a nice bike as it's both female (no bar) front and back.  The options
and adaptations I thought of are: a messenger seat, which has a larger surface 
area, possibly taking the pedals off and creating foot rests, since she hasn't
got pedalling down yet and I think we have to start with her just riding and
getting used to the balance issues.  I'd like to have the possibility of a
seat belt in case she decides to get off midway.  She used to do stuff like
that with other things (try to get down as close to the ground, such as getting
on the floor of a boat, when she didn't like the vibrations of the motor) but
that was quite a while ago and I'm not sure she'd still try it, so we'll
probably start off going straight and slow with my wife riding close by to tell
me if it looks like she's going to try to get off, I'd be the regular front
rider as my wife would probably be too nervous and sometimes can have problems
with balance etc herself.  I've riden a tandem once or twice so I suppose that's
also a little more experience than her.  

The "Joyrider Series" category is 3 wheel varieties.  They have a regular 
Joyrider which I also got a chance to see in person.  They sell I think for
about $500 to $600.  I saw one that someone had in for repair. They looked 
like they added home made adapter pedals and that was about it.  It was about 
a 1976 model I think the guy said and it looked quite used and beat up, paint 
scratched up bad and quite a few nicks on it, but he said that they will be 
able to fix it up and it will be fine, a very sturdy dependable bike.  
They aren't much like the adult trikes. They are more similar to recumbant 
bikes, with you sitting on a seat like a kitchen chair seat with the pedals 
out in front of you quite a ways with your legs also extended in front of you.  

They also have double one, side by side.  You would need a trailer to haul
it anywhere, it's kind of large (I did not see the double version of it, but
I can figure this from how durable and heavy seeming the single one I did 
see was).  If I had a trailer and $1000 I'd almost think of getting this one.  
This would be good for just you and your child riding together.  The only
problem is I wonder about the width on some bike trails, I would imagine it
would be quite wide, but it seems like a nice bike.

I thought of towing her on the single with a tow bar, with my own bike, but 
this bike would be quite heavy to pull with another bike.  They also have the
junior which is not much cheaper than the regular Joyrider.  It also has some 
weight limit and sturdiness issues.  I didn't see that one, although I must 
say if the frame is comparable to the larger one, it may be quite sturdy.
The store manager told me that it's for quite small kids.  The seat on it
looks like a child carrier seat rather than a regular seat or the kitchen
chair variety as the full size joyrider.

The next category on this site is the 3 wheel recumbants (layback) bikes.  
They are quite neat also, I didn't see any of these.  One of them is called
the banana peel, but I would be concerned with stearing the banana peel as it
is steared by two levers on either side of the seat, rather than handle bars
or stearing wheel.  For many kids with some physical challenges, it seems like
it could be confusing or tough. 

Another variety on the recumbants was the "low rider".  The low rider is nice 
and runs around the same as the Joy rider in price I think.  In many ways it
looks like a sport version of the "Joy Rider".

Finally the last category is the "Adult Trike Series".  These are nice
bikes and in fact I've seen a smaller version one, which I didn't even
know existed and it was quite nice.  Prices for most of these start around
$500 and go up (and up, and up...) 

Going back to my page, choose link 9 "Low rider bikes".  These seem like 
something out of the inner-city and their catalog (which they readily sent
to me) have a destictive flashy, hispanic touch to them.  Basically this
company sells many things you can add on to a regular bike, usually the
low 20" two wheelers.  First is a Trike kit that you pull your rear wheel
off and replace it with one of the conversion kits and voila you have a 
three wheeler.  The Conversion kit can run from $199 to $299 and more.

In fact I notice the site has just added prices.  And they even have a kit 
without wheels.  I'm not too sure about that as they may require special 
wheels, I'd check that before I bought one, in fact I have a 20".  I
emailed them and ask them to ask them if it uses standard wheels or not.  
(Some 3 wheelers use a rear wheel that looks alot like a front wheel for
a bike [no gearing] but they have a larger hub and therefore need a special
wheel.  Since this company seems to specialize in conversion equipment I'm
wondering if it might just use standard front wheels with standard size 
hubs.  For those that might wonder, the gears are on a hub that sits under
the seat and rides on a small secondary axle that is connected to the axle
that the wheels are mounted on by a second short chain.  This was true on
a couple of other 3 wheelers I've seen also, although I'm not sure if it's
always true.  I also know that some have coaster brakes and some have only
hand brakes.  Some also have the type of hub that when you pedal frontwards
the pedals always turn with the wheels, others have it like a regular full
size 2 wheel bike that when you pedal forward it pushes the bike, but if 
you don't pedal the bike will coast until you pedal backwards (for coaster
brakes) or use your hand brakes.  

The conversion kit without wheels was a chrome kit at $120!  This site has
alot of conversion stuff and their catalogue shows some pretty far out
bikes.  Amazing what they have done to create a show bike!  Yet also one
that probably some of our kids would really like.  They have different
seats also and some can come with either back rests or sissy bars (the 
bars that attach to the back of a "banana seat" long narrow seat, that 
go above the seat and provide a back rest).  They also have kits that come
in gold and twist chrome.  Prices can go pretty high on the different styles.
Interesting though!

Another option:  I just got a contact from a company called CycleTote. They
make trailers to pull behind your bike.  You can view their selection etc
(including prices and accessories) at http://www.cycletote.com.  They are
capable of carrying  up to 100lbs for the standard bike trailer.  The 
Special needs trailer can carry up to 200 lbs.  From their page they seem 
like a nice alternative and I believe that their is an option to make it 
convertable to a running stroller.

Hope this helps some people with them.


Thanks,
Ray Kopp
Syracuse, New York
email mailto:rjkopp@mailbox.syr.edu
Home Page: http://web.syr.edu/~rjkopp