The Alinker is a non-motorized walking trike that is specially designed for everyone who wants to maintain an active lifestyle. The trike is designed to be suitable for everyone regardless of their movement abilities or disabilities. As long as you are able to walk to some degree and briefly bear your weight on one leg, the Alinker could be a useful commuting tool for you.
The inspiration
The Alinker was designed and developed in the Netherlands by Barabara Alink. The revolutionary walking trike was inspired by her mom’s insistence that she would never use a walker even as her health status deteriorated. Her mum loathed the idea of using a walker because of the stigma that is attached to people using such devices. Barbara then set herself on a mission to design a walking aid that would be cool on the eye and useful for everyone. The result is the uber-functional and attractive Alinker.
Design and features
The Alinker sports two wheels at the front and one at the rear. The elevated seat means the users can look straight ahead while walking, unlike traditional walking aids that often have them looking down. When sitting on this curvy vessel, the weight is shifted off the lower limbs. This reduces the strain on the legs while still allowing the users to move under their own steam. There are about three trike sizes available. Even with the varied sizes, the seats remain adjustable such that users can set it to a comfortable height. The Alinker weighs a little over 26 lbs.
The Alinker is designed to work with standard bicycle accessories. You do not need to search frantically before getting a replacement for damaged parts. Assembly takes about 5 minutes or less and most of the essential parts of the vehicle can be detached just as fast. This becomes pretty useful when you want to fit the Alinker into your trunk. The trike can fit into the trunk of SUVs, hatchbacks, Minivans, and most cars. However, you should try to test the trike with your vehicle if you plan to move it around a lot.
Riding experience
Perhaps the most enjoyable thing about riding the Alinker is that it allows you to maintain eye contact with everyone. While riding, you’ll notice that the focus is not on you but the cool trike you’re commuting with. People stare and point at your trike and for once, they would not care about your inability to walk well. This brings a much-needed relief to people suffering from disabilities – especially those who find the stigma or sympathy uncomfortable. The fact that healthy people can also ride on the Alinker makes it the most inclusive walking aid around.
Pricing info
You can place your order on the official Alinker website. The trike costs $1,977. If you need an Alinker but cannot afford one, you can start a mini crowdfunding campaign on the website.
Startup
A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend to become registered, startups refer to new businesses that intend to grow large beyond the solo founder. At the beginning, startups face high uncertainty and have high rates of failure, but a minority of them do go on to be successful and influential. Some startups become unicorns; that is privately held startup companies valued at over US$1 billion.
Actions
Startups typically begin by a founder (solo-founder) or co-founders who have a way to solve a problem. The founder of a startup will begin market validation by problem interview, solution interview, and building a minimum viable product (MVP), i.e. a prototype, to develop and validate their business models. The startup process can take a long period of time (by some estimates, three years or longer), and hence sustaining effort is required. Over the long term, sustaining effort is especially challenging because of the high failure rates and uncertain outcomes. Having a business plan in place outlines what to do and how to plan and achieve an idea in the future. Typically, these plans outline the first 3 to 5 years of your business strategy.
Design principles
Models behind startups presenting as ventures are usually associated with design science. Design science uses design principles considered to be a coherent set of normative ideas and propositions to design and construct the company's backbone. For example, one of the initial design principles is "affordable loss".
- Log in to post comments