Let's invent a better wheelchair.

In the morning I see a young lad really struggling to get his wheelchair up a steep slope.
Obviously I give him a push if I’m there.
Would this work?
Outboard of the wheel hub you would have a free hub.which would engage the wheel as per bike wheel.
You would them have a sort of ring spanner about 2 feet long that you would slot on when facing a hill.
I’m assuming the length of the ‘spanner’ would lower the gearing and mean that the user could operate each wheel individually ,like pedalling rather than propelling both wheels together. This would mean the danger of going backwards would be reduced. I guess there would be a bit of zig zagging.
Of course it shouldn’t be too difficult to invent some anti roll back device.
Looking at a wheel chair I’m sure there is a world of cycling technology that could cross over.
I guess the fact that no one appears to have radically improved the wheel chair must mean it’s not as straight forward as it seems to the casual bystander.
Your thoughts please.

I already invented pretty much that actually, in my head at least. I’m just rubbish at doing anything about things like that.

I can’t see why you wouldn’t use ratchet levers most of the time really. You could perhaps even have brakes on the levers.

Edit – oh 😐

Then there’s also the Mountain Trike[/url] – Amazing what they can get up and over.

That trike is excellent.
Glad that my musings were sound ! The standard wheelchair is in dire need of some serious technology.

I cant really understand why these haven’t taken off more, however unfortunately there seems to be something of a case whereby a segway costs about six grand, but for some unknown reason a wheelchair based on a segway costs about sixteen grand.

This sounds like a job for Lance Greathouse, wheelchair mentalist

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYsrU0elIs12hwZT-kmso4Q

Solutions clearly exist, no reason you can’t make a wheel chair with ebike technology, with full assistance or pedal assist (arm assist in the case of a traditional wheel chair design) makes you wonder why current solutions are so expensive.. Actually I can guess, taking advantage of a niche market.

One issue is as wheelchairs get more complex the also get heavier and don’t fold as well making them much more difficult to get into cars and so on

I often wonder about using a two speed drive like the unicycle mountain drive thing to give you some gearing

A giant Segway with a seat, as per ninfan video.

The problem with lever operated wheels is wheelies.
Wheelchair users need to wheelie all the time, up/down steps, down slopes, over rough ground. You cannot hold a wheelie unless your hands are in contact with the rims.
The best help is an add on motor like the Smart Drive. Think e-bike. There’s no joystick, it simply clips onto the rear and has a remote on/off control and responds to the user pushing his/her rims and holds the chosen speed on hills but stil allows wheelies when needed.

Portability and weight is an issue.

However, if you take a light weight foldable wheel chair, have an ebike type battery in a pouch behind the back rest, you’d just need to plug it into an electronic motor, built onto one of the wheels, I suppose that would make it unbalanced, and then you’d need some kind of axle for even 2wd.

But it’s not like they need loads of power, a light weight aluminium axle to distribute power would be easy, but would make folding the chair difficult?

Or even, scrap the axle idea, and just have two smaller batteries, one for each wheel. And a smaller motor on each wheel rather than a single motor.

The charging circuitry could be made to charge both at once and they could be in the same battery pack. It’s just a question of clever wiring.

You could even offer it in 26, 27.5 and 29er versions to start a whole new debate.

The differences in requirement from one user to the next are wide ranging. Light weight and simplicity tend to be so critical for many that I guess the add-ons sometimes lose you more than they gain. Also wheelchairs don’t offer a big market so innovations like those from ebike technology would take time to move across.

There are some amazing ideas and products out there though (eg in off-road) but they’re very low volume so they can be eye-wateringly expensive. I’ve seen a lever/ratchet arrangement on an off-road chair/bike that looked good.

I see some proper mtb tech on some the wheelchairs being sent off through the airport, so it is crossing over already.

.

Why isn’t every wheelchair like the one in the video?
It’s so simple and would make so many people’s lives so much easier.
The person I see really struggles on the slope and it must knock his confidence.
At the end of the day he’s a young lad and all young lads like speed and a challenge.
Those levers would let him go up most hills and give him SPEED.
Once he can propel himself quicker than his classmates on foot that’s got to cheer him up a bit.

🙂
Good thread.

Speed is fine if you have the skills and ability to control it.
Agility is excellent, but if you can’t assess risk properly, stability is much more important.

We’ve got some cracking chairs at our place:
Four wheel suspension, plus outrigger wheels front and rear.
Independently adjustable seat, to compensate for climbing kerbs and slopes.
Can be driven safely by a six foot four bloke with balance and risk impairment issues.
Weighs a ton, but fit the needs of a specific individual perfectly.

You’d need an infinite variety of super chair, but the one thing everyone bangs on about is comfort and fit, which we all know about as cyclists.