BORN OUT OF LOVE: The story of Jorvik Tricycles

James Walker, founder of Jorvik Tricycles, shares the story behind the company, and how he sat out to reinvent the tricycle to give his dad Stuart, who suffers with Parkinson’s, a sense of freedom.

“My father suffers from Parkinson’s disease,” James said on The Everything EV Podcast. “With Parkinson’s disease, it can affect your stability and he has trouble walking. He can’t do long distances. With my father, he can be walking down the street and he’ll have an attack and he will literally freeze solid and he’s unable to move.

process again. It was on the second time of getting the tricycle that we thought, why can you not buy trikes? Why are there not more readily available? Surely there’s a market for them?

“We got him another one, but in the back of my head I was thinking, is there a business here? Is there something we can do to help people like my dad?”

And so, Jorvik Tricycles with born. Since then, the company has grown and grown, and is delivering around 4000 electric trikes every year. But what has been the secret to Jorvik’s success?

James said: “The difference with us was, from the beginning when we designed them, we tried to make them look like bicycles. We noticed the tricycles that were on the market at the time were almost disabled products, so they don’t need any design. They don’t need to look cool. It was almost something that had been left on the shelf, so we brought in bright colours and made them look like Dutch bicycles and put wicker baskets on them, and instantly it was a success.”

The company plans to open a new facility later this year, where prospective customers can come and try the tricycles on an indoor track and use them on a variety of surfaces. Although James describes the story of Jorvik as “bittersweet” considering his dad’s condition, he is glad he is able to help people in a similar position.

“On a daily basis, we get emails, phone calls, and messages about how it’s changed people’s lives and it’s giving people freedom back; it’s a really, really rewarding job. In the early days, I delivered a tricycle to a guy in his 80’s; he didn’t really get out, he didn’t have many friends or family close by. I delivered him the tricycle and then a week or two later, he dropped us a lovely phone call, and he said that just being able to get out into the park at the back of his house for 20 minutes a day has totally changed his life. He wouldn’t have been able to do that if it hadn’t been for the tricycle and I if it hadn’t been electric.

“We were trying to find something that would give him his freedom. He lost his driving licence and, as I say, he couldn’t walk very far, so we were thinking of a bike with stabilisers, but that didn’t work. We stumbled across tricycles and when we looked at getting my dad one, we realised there wasn’t a lot to choose from. I went to a few bicycle shops and none of them stocked tricycles. We bought him a second hand one to suit his budget, and he loved it. Unfortunately, that got stolen within a week from his care home, so we had to go through that whole

“We have a slogan that says everybody’s Everest is different. For somebody suffering with MS, for them getting to the local shop may have been the biggest task in the world, but an electric tricycle now has enabled them to do that. It’s bittersweet, because we wouldn’t be in the place we’re in and wouldn’t had have the success we’ve had if it wasn’t for my father’s Parkinson’s, but he’s super proud of us and that’s the main thing.”

The full episode of The Everything EV Podcast with James is available on all streaming platforms. Scan this QR code to listen to the full episode and be sure to subscribe!