"Why don't you get a motor on it?"

is a question I have been asked more than once about my tricycle. I am then told "It would be so much easier to use."

This genuinely puzzles me. It would actually be much more difficult to use.

My little "vehicle" is my only form of transport. I need it if I want to go far at all.  I need to keep it as simple as possible in order to make sure I can maintain it or that other people can do the necessary maintenance as quickly and easily as possible.

But there is more to it than that. I need the exercise. Bike riding is good exercise I am told. All those comments about "you must be fit" are nonsense of course. You need to do far more than I do in order to be "fit" but at least I am getting some exercise...more than some people I know anyway.

And there is yet another thing. I can still, albeit with difficulty, get my little vehicle onto the train. I can actually take it on the train. That means I can go further afield than I otherwise would. If I had a motor on it two things would happen. I could not get it on the train unaided because it would be heavier and, even if I could, I would not be allowed to put it there. It would become a different sort of vehicle. Yes, there are electric bikes on the train I am sure - but mine apparently becomes some sort of "motor bike". 

All these things matter but none of them matter as much as yet another consideration. There would be a "lithium-ion" battery to power it. Apparently these are considered to be "a critical pillar in a fossil-fuel free future" but there are increasing reports of fires caused by them. The numbers may be low (but apparently higher than those caused in sixty-eight years of nuclear accidents) but they still suggest there is a problem that needs to be resolved. 

I think I will stick to pedal power as long as I can. I need the exercise. I don't need to put out a fire.