This year saw the racing events expanded, with the addition of a true downhill event, featuring the Adaptive Sports' Center's 4-wheel "gravity machines" which are wheel chairs dedicated to downhill racing. Also new this year, was the opportunity for all disability groups to race off-road, which is an expansion of the main event: The hill climb and cross country handcycle races at CBMR, which was contested on the amazing One-Off Handcycle, designed for serious off-road work by Mike Augspurger, who is also a co-organizer of the event and sponsor.
Challenge Alaska, organisers of the famed Sadler's Alaska Challenge are getting set to make an announcement about the 2009 extra special 25th Anniversary race known for being the world's hardest wheelchair and handcycle race.
Darol Kubacz is back on Kilimanjaro with his Freedom For Life team having launched another attempt to become the first paraplegic to make it to the summit of Africa's highest mountain. 2 years ago, during his first summit bid, Darol was forced to turn back with 'just' 3,000ft to go when he developed pulmanory edema (altitude sickness) and came close to death, he's spent these last two years training and preparing for another attempt and started out from the base on 7th August.
Made almost completely from spare bike parts, and even some old pieces of wood, the wheelchair is designed to try and conquer the two main hurdles for mobility in Africa and other developing nations; rough terrain and cost.
Argo Medical Technologies is an Israeli company who have developed a working exoskeleton for wheelchair users. The suit (which is actually designed by a quadriplegic, we didn't know Tony Stark had been injured) uses the normal array of onboard computers, motors and batteries to allow a wheelchair user to walk. Movement is controlled by upper body movement and the user still has to rely on crutches for support and extra balance, but it seems to be a pretty impressive set-up.
Using a standard electric drill as a motor and means of propulsion they built a transfer unit that easily bolts onto any manual wheelchair and lets you get your freak on without the added noise of a petrol engine. With speeds of between 3 and 12 mph from using that drill you got 3 years ago but have never taken out of the box.
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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 [...]
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Willgo is a UK based wheelchair company making manual wheelchair with geared transmissions powered by hand-cranks rather than traditional wheel pushing. We've talked about hand-crank powered wheelchair before with the Renegade, but the Willgo manages to integrate the gearing and mechanics without the extra bulk of a chain.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
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