Posts Tagged ‘FreeWheel’

Rock im Park 2015

Tuesday, June 16th, 2015

Sorry, this entry is only available in Deutsch.

Addendum Technical Aids Tips and Tricks IXL

Monday, October 6th, 2014

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I have nominated the FreeWheel 2012 as technical aid of the year.

I don’t want to repeat the whole blogpost here, so please see yourself the Blogpost 2012 FreeWheel.

It is a spoked wheel in the size of a children’s bicycle which you can clamp to the footrest in front of your wheelchair. This thing is ingenious and in permanent use for me.

Uneven paths, curbs, cobble stone, sand, gravel, grass and of course snow are no barrier anymore with the FreeWheel.

In the past the FreeWheel was only available for rigid frame wheelchairs. I bought from the inventor Patrick Dougherty his sample wheel for the trade fair and clamped it by magic on my foldable wheelchair with end-to-end footrest.

I sent him the pictures of my variant of wheelchair adaption, and he gave some thought about an adaptor.

After 2 years of development there is officially a FreeWheel Adaptor for foldable wheelchairs available since spring 2014.

Unfortunately only for wheelchairs with split footrest, as far as I understood.

FreeWheel adaptor for foldable wheelchairs

For questions as usual please contact: rollinator@eigude.de

Translator BL

Crazy Flash XXIV

Wednesday, May 28th, 2014

Sorry, this entry is only available in 中文 and Deutsch.

Wheelchair Tuning Part XXXIV

Monday, May 13th, 2013

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I have already pointed out several times that you are hardly seen by the car drivers as wheelchair user in the dark, and that the upgrade with reflectors on the wheelchair can actually prolong one’s life (see older blogpost).

For the 18-year-old kids who think their highly tuned 65 hp small car would need apart from the blue-red blinking footwell area illumination an absolute highlight on the outside there are luminescent valve caps.

When the wheels are turning the battery-driven lamps in different colours are starting to glow or blink.
It’s quite impressive and immediately attracts the attention of the police… wasn’t there something about road traffic regulations… ;-)

For us wheelchair users these little lamps are great. You are turning the wheel a little bit, it is blink-blinking, and you are well noticed in traffic and also at street fairs by pedestrians.

You can buy them for just a few Euros in Ebay, partially even directly from Hongkong. So far all shipments from China have arrived undamaged at my home.

These lamps are working for months without changing the batteries.

I am using them on my beloved FreeWheel (see blogpost), a single spoke wheel which is clamped to the footrest of the wheelchair.

I have given a set of these lights to my wheeler friend, and he screwed them directly onto his wheelchair.

He was really stopped by the police when he was just coming out of the pharmacy, and he should have paid a ticket because of the illegal illumination of his wheelchair.
For each running wheel 5 Euro fine because of blue instead of orange illumination, and because the valve caps didn’t have an off-switch another 2 x 5 Euros on top.

What a nonsense… these are the regulations for a bicycle…

20 Euro fine because the police can’t distinguish a wheelchair from a bicycle…!!!

My friend asked the officers to send him the ticket with the corresponding paragraphs home and announced the probable publication of the incident on the EIGUDE internet blog.

Unfortunately we are still waiting for the ticket to be sent since a couple of months now ;-)

Translator BL

Technical Aids Tips and Tricks IXL

Thursday, November 15th, 2012

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Technical Aid of the year!

FreeWheel

 

Uneven paths, curbs, cobble stone, sand, gravel, grass and of course snow are not really friends of a wheeler.

With a little oomph you reach an artistic score of 5.8 for your flight out of the wheelchair. This can end up annoying, see older blogpost Broken Leg.

The solution is rather simple, you “just” need a longer wheelchair. But if I had a longer wheelchair I wouldn’t get it into the wheelchair loading system of my car.

My Minitrac and handcycle are great, but I always need a volunteer to get one of it out of the cellar.

A super alternative is a single wheel in the size of half a children’s bicycle which you clamp to the front of your wheelchair, and when the front wheels are lifted it gets perfect. The wheelchair then looks a bit like a jogging stroller. There are various producers of such a system.

On the Rehacare fair in DĂĽsseldorf I have met Patrick Dougherty, the American inventor of the

www.goFreeWheel.com

I knew this attached wheel from many videos from the internet, but it is not easily available in Germany. It is so small that you can store it at the back of a rigid frame wheelchair. I take it on my knees when I descend with my platform lifter because I have a foldable wheelchair. Just input “FreeWheel” in Youtube and see for yourself what is suddenly accessible, e.g.:

I could buy a new “fair wheel” from him which was still lying in the hotel. On the last day of the fair he deposited it at the booth of Runa Reisen, a travel agency for handicapped. I know their staff very well because I always book my holidays there. They have sent the FreeWheel to my home then. Thanks again from this side.

With the FreeWheel it is even possible, ideally with additional Mountainbike tyres, to ride safely in the snow. Now the next winter can start, or maybe even a little bit of desert…

The FreeWheel is clamped tetra-easily to the footrest of a rigid-framed wheelchair. (But I have a foldable wheelchair…???)

If you ride forwards afterwards the front tyres of the wheelchair are lifted, and the fun can begin.

Because of the big tyres even “shocks” due to rough grounds are almost not noticed any more.

A rack with maximum load of 12 kg is available as well.

It has been upgraded with missing spoke reflectors incl. blinking valve caps (see picture above).

Of course Patrick wanted to know in detail how I get the FreeWheel clamped to my actually non-suitable foldable wheelchair by magic with Michael’s help. ;-)

New 2014 FreeWheel for folder-wheelchairs

For enquiries contact as usual: rollinator@eigude.de

Translator BL

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