Jorvik Tricycles Founder James Walker

Your Green Breakfast

Tuesday, 28 October 2025 - 15 minutes

This conversation is an interview between Your Green breakfast's Xan Phillips and James Walker, founder of Jorvik tricycles, a leading British and possibly European tricycle manufacturer.

Jorvik Tricycles Summary

The interview covers the origins of Jorvik, the decision to open a new showroom in Southampton, the variety of customers, and the tricycles' sustainable aspects.

The Origin Story

The business began about 11 years ago (around 2013/2014) when James Walker was trying to find a tricycle for his father, who has Parkinson's disease and had lost his balance. His father wanted to remain active and have some freedom. The scarcity, lack of choice, and high cost of tricycles at the time led to a "light bulb moment". Jorvik tricycles was born from this "unhappy accident," and it "snowballed" from there, with the company becoming a success story.

The Move to Southampton

Jorvik is a York-based company (the name "Jorvik" is an old Viking name for York). They have sold 35,000 tricycles globally over the last 10 years.

Southampton was chosen for the second showroom because market data indicated a high volume of customers in the South and specifically around the Southampton area, based on existing customers and "Home Demo" services.

Jorvik is pursuing an expansion strategy of opening more bricks and mortar showrooms to give customers the opportunity to sit on and test ride the various models. Both the York and Southampton showrooms feature an indoor test track.

Who Uses Jorvik Tricycles?

The demographics are wide and varied, and Jorvik is proud to have changed the image of both the tricycle and who rides one. It is now seen as a general form of transport.

Customers include:

People with disabilities or the elderly who can no longer use a bicycle due to illness or loss of balance (like the founder's father).
People wanting to be eco-friendly and reduce short car trips.
People who don't own a car and need transport for shopping or going to an allotment, as tricycles have a large basket area.
The 8% of adults who have never learned to ride a bicycle and want to enjoy cycling.
People who buy them just for fun.
Farmers and people working on agricultural land who buy the mountain trike range (which have big, fat, 4-inch tires).
Businesses and Councils, such as Blackpool Council (for litter picking) and Loughborough University (for staff to get around campus).
Power stations all around the world for moving employees across large sites.
The overarching benefit for many customers is the "freedom" the tricycles provide, allowing them to exercise and be less homebound.

Features and Sustainability

Jorvik tricycles are electric. They are also surprisingly easy to pedal without electric assist. The electric assist is often used as a backup or for extra speed, with five different levels for climbing steep hills.

Range: An average battery provides about 40 miles of distance, which can be doubled to 80 miles on models with two batteries.

Storage/Folding: The most popular models are the folding models, allowing customers to store them easily, stand them on their end, or take them on holiday in a car boot. The width of the smallest model is about 73cm (29 inches), and they fit the majority of doors.

Cargo: They can easily carry a week's worth of shopping in the back. Trailers are also sold for carrying larger items like surfboards, camping gear, or even an Irish Wolfhound.

The tricycles are naturally an eco-choice due to being cycling-based and reducing car trips. The core sustainable benefit is that a full charge to travel 40 miles costs only about 10 pence of electricity, which is significantly less than the equivalent cost of car fuel. The founder notes the return on investment isn't just financial, but also in terms of physical and mental health.

Discover more at www.jorviktricycles.com