pushingthelimits.com

Getting in the mud, snow or rough terrain is normally where the best fun is to be had, unfortunately most wheelchairs just cant cope with much more than a couple of mole hills. That sucks because we like moles and dont think they should be blamed for making huge parts of the world inaccessible to wheelchair users seeking adventure, and more importantly, we love mud, snow and rough terrain.

So what are the options for get down and dirty in a wheelchair, and still being able to move around as opposed to spinning wheels in an ever deepening hole. Well there are a few cool wheelchair design out there that can cope with slightly more “enhanced” terrain, but they still rely on how strong your arms are. Then there are the dedicated off-road handcycles that are great for tackling most ground, but are far too big and cumbersome to navigate indoors (or in the bar after your adventure).

The Renegade All-Terrain Wheelchair from Alpha-One is a great alternative for people looking to explore off the beaten path while still being in an orthodox chair design that lets them go back indoors. It means you can travel abroad without a huge excess luggage charge for taking an additional off-road machine with you for those expeditions, and without a team of sherpas to carry it for you when you are in your everyday chair.

Fitted with a push bar system for propulsion, rather than pushing on the rims, makes it a far more economical means of dragging yourself up that hill. Being able to shift between any of 7 gears makes things much easier when navigating steep or loose terrain too.

You can even use it like a regular chair by removing the push bars when they aren’t needed, so there is very possibility that this can be your everyday chair. Your everyday badass chair.

The design team obviously know that the biggest obstacle to pushing a chair through the snow is that the front wheels dig in and cause all the problems, and have taken that into account when designing the Renegade. Among some of the possibly modifications to the chair are the option of replacing the front wheels with mini ski’s for use on snow. Awesome.

No details of the width, weight or cost of this thing on the Alpha-One website so we aren’t going to get rid of our current chair straight away, but we’re seriously tempted.

Renegade Wheelchair