Off the Beaten Path: Doing Tough Terrain on Wheels
By Corradin, Dominic; Active Living Magazine, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 49-54Publication Date: Spring/Summer 2007
Review of wheelchairs and wheelchair accessories for riding in various terrains. One-off Handcycles offer custom four-wheeled, knobby-tired, suspension-equipped rigs for the sport known as Four-Wheel Mountain Biking. Lasher Sport makes “The Beast,” a custom off-road non-suspension chair with rear, independent ADI disc brakes and knobby tires for off-road conditions like mud, sand, grass and snow. “Tremor” from Colours ‘N Motion is a lightweight chair set on their custom “Fatso” tires for travel through snow and beach sand. The company also offers “Boing,” a 4-wheel suspension chair. Off-road power chairs reviewed include Innovation in Motion’s X4-Extreme and X5-Frontier, Teftec Mobility Corporation’s OmegaTrac and BetaTrac, and the curb-climbing iBot Mobility System. The off-road ParaScout and ParaGolfer from Parabasetec/Otto Bock have the ability to move users from a seated to an upright position. Chairs for travel on beach sand reviewed are Landeez from Natural Access featuring pneumatic tires, the De-Bug from Deming Designs with large front tires and stainless frame, and the Hippocampe from Vipamat with push bar, armrests, headrest and harness. Adaptive wheelchair accessories reviewed are Kenda and Schwalbe Tires with special tread designs and the MAGICWHEELS 2-gear wheelchair drive with easy-shifting handrim, which is compatible with most manual wheelchairs.
Assistive Products Discussed: IBOT MOBILITY SYSTEM
X4 EXTREME WHEELCHAIR
TREMOR
OMEGATRAC
LANDEEZ ALL-TERRAIN WHEELCHAIR
DE-BUG FOUR WHEEL RECLINING BEACH WHEELCHAIR
DE-BUG THREE WHEEL FIXED FRAME AND FOUR WHEEL FIXED FRAME BEACH WHEELCHAIRS
FRONTIER MWD ALL TERRAIN WHEELCHAIR
BEACH HIPPOCAMPE
BETATRAC
BOING!
PARAGOLFER
ONE-OFF HANDCYCLE
MAGICWHEELS
Published by: DT Publishing (Website:http://www.activelivingmagazine.com)
