#also btw according to other angles that shirt he's wearing may or may not be sheer in the front

[difeisheng]

zeng shunxi woke up and chose violence today

[survivingsusac]

Link, my Alinker

ALINKER!

Well, you guys did it! You helped me fundraise enough to order my very own Alinker! If you recall, I learned about this mobility aid through Selma Blair’s transparency about her fight with her own autoimmune disease, Multiple Sclerosis. She and I like the same things about it: It provides a way to move about when your body just won’t. Do. It. On. Its. Own. The height keeps you just about your normal walking height. Trust me, I spent most of my life as a person who was of normal physical ability and then spent quite a while being pushed around in a transport chair after a disabling disease kicked in. Being the height of peoples faces (like when standing) instead of their butts (like when in a transport chair) is MUCH. APPRECIATED. Because an Alinker is directed and moved by me to where I want it to take me instead of requiring another person to move it when they are available, it gives me drastically more independence than the transport chair did. No knocks against you, transport chair, you did me a solid when I needed you. I just am moving on to Alinker. I’ve been calling him Link. So what’s it like to use Link, you ask? Well pull up a chair, grab a drink or a snack and I will tell you a story.

Alinker Assemble

So Link shows up in a box that my daughter, Abigail, immediately claimed as her new playhouse. It was a big box. I assemble him according to the instructions and complete the warranty activation forms online. Link’s looking spiffy and I’m dying to try him out so I pump up his tires and Ab and I go for a little walk. I’m juiced and I love Link right away. I adjust the saddle (that’s the seat portion that your butt is on) height because I am short, and the placement to be right for my weight.

The State Fair

My mom/rock, Ab, and I use Link at the state fair, where he draws attention and admiration from security guards, strangers, and friends we ran into. Every now and then I caught a teen saying something along the lines of ‘I wanna ride one of those things!’ or ‘Where can I rent that?’ People in wheel chairs were fascinated and one county display attendant explained how the Alinker would be helpful to her on days when her fibromyalgia renders her body useless. She wrote down the Web site. It is so helpful that the Web site is just ON the Alinker! I noticed that by the end of the day the saddle was making my bum bleed from the semi-firm cushion rubbing my flesh raw and that one of my legs was scratched on the inside from frequent contact with the frame. I made a mental note: ask the Alinker help desk how to avoid that and/or get a replacement saddle. Once home I asked the Alinker folks my question and got instructions for optimal saddle positioning. I made the adjustment and tried it out. I could feel the difference.

Disneyland

My family and I took Link with us to Disneyland so we could all survive a day at the park. Me so I could play without being exhausted. My mom so she could play without her hands and other parts of her body aching from pushing me in a transport chair around the park, and Ab just cuz Disneyland makes her happy. Period. And she wanted me to be there with her via Link. Like at the state fair, the Disneyland security team was enamored with the Alinker and wanted to know all about it and how long I had had it. They labeled it with this blue tag f officialness so that other park security people would know that it was already approved to be used in the park. I even had a couple of the original security guards see me on later days entering the park and come up to me to talk about it some more. Then we get in the park. That’s when things took a turn for the worse. Turns out the turn radius on Link is much too wide for the line cues at Disneyland. You know the zig-zaggy switch back type turns and folds the lines make? Yeah, Link doesn’t do well with those. I learned this when I took him with me through the line for the Smugglers Run at Galaxy’s Edge. There was a lot of back and forth happening to make turns. After that experience Link was parked in stroller areas and I just walked the line cues without him. And guys, look, I know it’s described as a walking bike. I got SO tired of people telling me ‘sweet bike,’ ‘I like your bike,’ ‘how much was your bike?’ ‘Did the park give that bike to you when you got here?’ It’s a mobility aid bro. Not just a bike. I need it to live with a decent quality of life. I may just make a shirt or sign that says “Alinker: Not Just A Bike” and wear it when I use Link.

Flat Tire

It was the morning of our third day at the park, which was technically Link’s fourth day out in the world because he had spent a day at the state fair. We get back from breakfast and I hop on Link and my mom says something like, ‘How pumped is the back tire supposed to be?’ Long story short, it was flat. I stop by the wheel chair station and fill the tire with air according to the instructions (which I had brought with me because I try to be a responsible adult). The back tire then goes flat within five seconds. It’s got to be the tire tube we say. The tube must be shot for it to go slat like that so quickly. Something my mom said after the cue turn radius and the flat tire had culminated, “The Alinker is not for family outings.” It was said in frustration and I feel, is not true, but I see where she was coming from at that time. I also see how to avoid that sort of frustration in the future. We fly home later that day. I contact Alinker to share what happened and ask for a copy of the warranty that I activated. I receive it and tires aren’t covered. So I pop on over to my local bike shop.

Bike Shop

Five stars for the local bike shop. They measure and order Link a replacement tube. When the tube arrives turns out it’s the wrong one because of how the inflation valve lines up with the frame. So they patch and reinstall the ruined original tube for me to use until the correct one is shipped and arrives. The guys said they caused the delay, so they won’t charge me for it. They also didn’t charge me for installing the new saddle I had ordered. Which is excellent, BTW. Nose free saddle so no flesh being rubbed raw, my hips sit wider apart than on the original one so my inner leg doesn’t get scratched by the frame any more, and it’s memory foam so it’s nice and squishy comfortable. They did this for me at no charge, too. They also ordered the right tire tube, and gave me a call today saying that it had arrived and I can get it switched out so Link will be up to 100%. For this second surgery I am going to insist on paying them.

Reflection

So circling back to when Link arrived and I assembled him, a hand pump for the tire and a replacement tire tub for a front tire came with him. I think it may be wise for Alinker to offer replacement tire tubes for sale on their site, especially considering that that smaller rear tire is an atypical size tube with a valve that needs to be at a specific angle so it doesn’t conflict with other parts of the Alinker structure. That last sentence is pretty much just me parroting what the bike guys told me about the tire tube, I honestly have no extensive personal knowledge about tires or their tubes. I give Link the Alinker a huge high five and a hug for being the mobility aid that he is, I give Alinker the company a firm, vigorous hand shake and a smile for being professional and prompt in their responses to my many queries, but also a disappointed shake of my head for providing a warranty that doesn’t seem to serve a purpose when the product arrived with what appears to have been a defective tire tube. I mean, come on Link. You walk with me for three days and on the fourth day your back foot is broken!? Puh-lease. Five stars to my local bike shop though, they are coming through big time for me. Will try to update after Links second surgery this weekend!