What our customers Think

The Orchestra Conductor

Thu, 9 Jul 2009 13:23:16 -0700

I broke my Trikke...but happily Andy at SouthBay Trikke Fixed it!
I was trikking here in Costa Mesa on Tuesday and felt the right footpad was bending inwards, uh oh. The handlebar column was mushy too. I got off and looked at the Trikke and it looked like the right pedal was bent outwards. When I got back on, the welded joint up at the front cracked. Ugh! I walked it back to my hotel and made a few calls...fortunately finding Andy at SouthbayTrikke. I took it over to him yesterday morning and he put a new part on...it's silver so it sort of looks bionic now, I like it! A battle scar!

He was great, adjusted my brakes, managed to fish out a plug that had come loose in the steering column, got a broken bolt out of the bottle cage hole (thank you bad installation at a local b*ke shop, grr), fixed my Trikke so the front wheel will stay in alignment and....put on one of his groovy cargo nets. So now I'm all fixed up, better than ever, with a new bionic part, cool.

Big thanks to Andy for all the help yesterday, he was great! Now I can enjoy my Trikke in this wonderful California weather.

Silverlake Trikker

Thu, 9 Jul 2009 10:29:47 -0700

Hey Andy,
I just wanted to drop you a line and let you know how things were going. I didn't know how to post a blog on your site, hopefully this will help you out.

Why go to Andy and the good folks @ South Bay Trikkes?
In a word, KNOWLEDGE! These guys know what they're doing! Like most people, I saw a commercial, got interested, then saw one at Sports Chalet and made the purchase.
Not knowing the difference, I filled the tires with air (80 psi.) and I was off on my journey. Or so I thought! After two months of carving, I needed new rubber all around. I started my search with Trikke.com. They referred me to southbaytrikke.com. Within minutes, they contacted me with answers to my questions. That same day, I was able to arrange a meeting time to get the tires I needed installed!
Upon meeting Andy, One look at my T8 and he already knew. . . the assembly of my Trikke was all wrong! Brakes were installed loosely and rattled (we all know what that's like), The front wheel hub was installed but was off centered and loose as well. Then there was the Handle bars! Andy explained the how and why they were mounted wrong and where they should be mounted. I left his shop with a brand new Trikke! Well, that's what it felt like.
It's nice that Sports Chalet and Dick's Sporting Goods is displaying and stocking the Trikke at their stores. It's great exposure! But if you or anyone you know is interested in purchasing one of these bad boys, Call Andy and his team! They'll set you up right the first time and have you rockin' and rollin' before you know it!
Thanks Andy! Since my tune up and tire change, I now ride at least two hours a day (or night), have lost about 20 lbs. and feel great! Folks around the Silverlake reservoir have been asking "what is that?" and besides talking it! I've also been giving them your card or directing them to your website. If they get half the customer service I received, I'm sure they'll leave not only with a trikke under their feet but a smile on their face!
Thanks Andy
Keep on carving!
Wilson
The Silverlake Trikker

The other Andy

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 10:38:50 -0700

The Andy

I’d been threatening to get a Trikke with a battery for a long time, despite the disapproval of a couple of people in the DFW Trikke group (those pesky purists). I wasn’t discouraged by the shunning that I imagined they’d give me when I joined them one Sunday morning with my new battery-operated Trikke.

At last one day, assured that I could live with the disdain of my fellow Trikkers, I set out to finally buy a Pon-e. My local dealer had no Pon-es , so I had to go elsewhere, crossing state lines and going to unfamiliar territory.

That’s when I found Andy Pliska of South Bay Trikke. South Bay. Bay. Sounded San Francisco-ish, but after just having seen “Milk”, I thought I throw some biz up there. Oh, not the Bay Area? Southern California? The land that no self-respecting Texan would do business with? All those Hollywood folks and fat-lipped women and beach bums. It helped at a time like this not to be a self-respecting Texan. Or even a real Texan, for that matter.

Now the OTHER Andy may be operating out of some lean-to against a palm tree in Torrance, CA for all I know, with a long extension cord illegally hooked up to a city public lavatory, but he responded to my emails, question after question, about the Pon-e. Not just responded, though. Responded immediately. I liked that. We swapped approximately 7 emails before I finally took the plunge and threw caution to the wind and made the expenditure. Might as well enjoy the summer since business is slow for me.

Amazingly, once I wrote off the price of the Pon-e, I felt good about it. Andy seemed competent and conscientious and dedicated to providing good service. I liked that he wasn’t THE Andy, not that I have anything against THE Andy (I swear this is so, THE Andy). I liked the idea of contributing to THE OTHER Andy’s bottom line since I’d never heard of this Andy until recently. There’s enough room for two Andys in the Trikke world, I’m sure of it.

I received the Pon-e less than a week after ordering it. It came intact, and it came mostly put together. As usual, I spent an inordinate amount of time assembling the darned thing, but it was due to my characteristic ineptness at following written directions despite having spent my career doing just that thing. I got the wheel and handlebar on, the wire thingys attached, and my new bell attached just right.

Do not be intimidated by the simple directions for assembling the Pon-e. And remember, unless it’s past 7:00 PM Central time, you can count on the OTHER Andy to help.

Something else. You have to be of the writing persuasion to appreciate this. Though no strict grammarian myself, I still remember most lessons of grades 4 through 8 of parochial school, when I last studied grammar by diagramming sentences . After several emails back and forth, and after giving up my credit card number, I had to tell the OTHER Andy something that had been bothering me. Hey, I just spent a chunk of money and he did have my credit card numbers.

I took the liberty of informing the OTHER Andy that he’s not good with plural nouns and apostrophes. And his spelling is none too impressive, either. His website needed some serious editing. The OTHER Andy pleasantly surprised me by stating that it was his desire to look as professional as possible, and that included fixing up his web site. He said he appreciated my (unsolicited) help. This kind of sentiment tugs at the heartstrings of a wordsmith. I sent him a couple of emails pointing out some errors on his web site. He fixed them immediately.

This OTHER Andy is serious about selling Trikkes, providing good customer service, and correcting his sentences. Give him a shot if you want to order a new Trikke.

For now, ignore his spelling and grammar. He’s a work in progress.

Donna's Pon-e in Plano Tx

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 10:22:07 -0700

Why buy a Pon-e?

Why in the world would someone who likes to Trikke and get exercise buy a Trikke with a battery on it?

I managed to come up with some very good reasons.

First, I want to say that until I bought my Trikke, I never realized how many hills there were in Texas. I’m talking hills that will stop you dead in your tracks. I never noticed them before. As a matter of fact, after I bought my Trikke, I think the area experienced some sort of secret earthquake that changed the land. Suddenly in my own cul-de-sac, we had a hill.

Of course, unless everything is downhill, a Trikke beginner perceives every gentle slope as a hill. Those things stop you dead in your tracks. And then you learn to move the darned Trikke and Texas becomes flat again. Now, long, gentle inclines that I would once have dreaded on my bicycle are nothing on a Trikke.

I learned something else about Texas since buying a Trikke. The wind blows here. My neighbor told me that the local weatherman stated that we get more wind in the Dallas area than they do in Chicago. I used to play a lot of tennis. I jogged. I skated. I never noticed the wind that much.

Until I purchased a Trikke.

I have found three reasons to buy a battery-operated Trikke. 1) to combat the wind when it’s blowing steadily at 25 mph, with gusts higher than that; 2) to deal with hills when the wind is blowing against me; 3) to deal with hills that frankly, I still can’t get up. Walking is exercise, too, but carving with a little power-assist feels like an accomplishment. And it’s still exercise.

I’d considered a Tribred first and almost bought one. A set of circumstances made me re-think the purchase, and then I decided that if I were going to spend money on a battery for a Trikke, I’d go the route that I’d probably least regret in the future: the lithium battery. It’s integrated into the Trikke and doesn’t quite have the add-on look of the acid lead battery pack of the Tribred. It goes farther on a charge than a Trikke and the battery life is longer.

There were more considerations, like rolling down the street to pick up groceries and not have to start up the car for a three-quarter-mile trip. True, I could walk. The thing is, Texas can be very hot, I sweat, and the air conditioning is cranked up in the supermarket. Uncomfortable, and not a pretty sight. I will also now Trikke different routes because huge hills between good paths are no longer a stumbling block. I don’t have to drive my car to where I want to Trikke.

So that’s why in the world I have a Trikke with a battery on it. When I’m feeling virtuous, I can still carve like crazy. When I’ve given up on pride, I can scoot along and not suffer the shame of walking my Trikke up a hill. When I’m just feel the need for speed and want to be outside, I can cruise like nobody’s business.

All that said, I have no intention of abandoning my regular Trikke 08.