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At the Rehacare fair I had the world’s lightest wheelchair on my knees, the
of the Swedish company
As light as the wheelchair, as heavy is the price for this wheeler Ferrari . 
Further information e.g. www.aktiv-rollstuhl.de
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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
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
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Since I am rolling through the world for 5 years now, I have another enemy besides disabled parking place occupiers, namely doors.
These mostly white pieces are slowly turning into a phobia.
Not so easy to pull the door shut when you are standing… eh, sitting in your own way.
Hold the handle tight, roll backwards and mind not to fall forward if possible, or to do a backflip with the wheelchair.
In hospital I already had a long ribbon with which I was always fishing for the door handles. This ribbon is still hanging on the door of my flat and is serving its purpose.
I hate my own kitchen door, it is one meter wide. I only say:
No arms, no cookies…!!!
Only the door knows why I haven’t hung such a ribbon on my beloved kitchen door during the last 4 years.
The blue-yellow nordic timber worms offer drawer handles in all designs, sizes and colours. There were no more hurdles for the
A mate has screwed such a handle on my favourite door from the inside.
Now I can eventually close the door even when I am already standing in the corridor.
Because the screws have to be very long I recommend to immediately take threaded bars (on IKEA handles mostly thread M4), and saw it off to size only at the end.
If you leave the bars a bit longer you can even mount two towel hooks at the inside on the door.
Tip, always drill the holes from outside to inside and use an air level.
Looks a bit like a towel rail, I like it. Next, the door of my flat will be refurbished.
Before spot-drilling the entrance door it can’t do any harm to integrate the landlord in selecting the handles.
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The Rehacare fair which takes place once a year in DĂĽsseldorf is a must for each wheeler.
There you can see more or less everything you can imagine relating to technical aids and medical devices.
Starting with wheelchair manufacturers, hand cycles, ski, bath equipment, car customizing, help for everyday life, travel agencies for handicapped, etc, etc, etc,…
Unfortunately I couldn’t go to the fair last year. As is known I had left my wheelchair involuntarily and broken my right leg (see older blogpost).
Currently the absolute highlight in the wheelchair area is the Genny.
Basically it is nothing different than a “Segway” in wheelchair variant.
A Segway is this 2-wheel-vehicle on which you can drive around standing as pedestrian, and which meanwhile even the police is using.
The wheelchair variant is distributed only since August 2012 from the Suisse company Gennymobility in Germany.
Due to the big tyres uneven grounds or holes are no problem anymore.
This is mobility!!!
Watch the video how you can speed with the Genny along the beach as a wheeler, this vehicle is awesome…
I was hoping that I would be able to test this special wheelchair. This was one of the main reasons for me visiting the fair this year. I was very lucky that I only had to wait for around 15 minutes.
After I was eventually sitting on the vehicle the kind lady on the picture below was telling me that we quadriplegics are not allowed to drive with the Genny due to missing stability of the upper part of the body, we might fall down!
Uh,… I especially brought my belt from home.
Then she said it was not allowed to buckle up so that one doesn’t get hurt when the Genny falls over.
No,… I wanted to get started with it,… this is not easy to understand, these Swiss people are crazy…!!!
Well, after short discussion in Italian without me at the booth they were gracious, and I was allowed to get cruising under supervision, like everyone else.
The handling is very easy, by bending forward you start, by leaning backwards the lady Genny stops or drives backwards.
The handle bar is for steering, what else. With a bit of training it is possible without problems to turn on the spot.
The driving experience reminded me a lot of skiing, what made me cry a little bit as formerly obsessed skier, amazing…
According to my opinion the wheelchair Segway, in which variant ever, will make its way as variant of an electric wheelchair due to its easy, comfortable and speedy driving manner and in spite of its size, weight and high purchase price.
The “Genny” is still a vehicle for physically fit wheelers. We will have to wait a bit longer until it will get a technical aid for us “tired warriors”, but it’s a beginning!
If they wouldn’t have let me start, I would have gone on “sit-down strike” on the vehicle
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I have already introduced my car customized with hand throttle and wheelchair loading system (see older blogpost).
With a wheelchair loading system with sliding door you always have to consider how long the wheelchair is, otherwise it doesn’t fit into the car lifted upright (see older blogpost).
My wheelchair is rather short, and there is maximum 1 cm space left at the upper door edge when pulling the wheelchair in, otherwise the Astra would have been out of question as vehicle.
Therefore many wheelchair users have a minivan, like for example a VW Caddy.
An alternative is a wheelchair loading system on the roof, this looks a bit like a ski box.
A friend has such a box on his car, have a look yourself:
I have the yellow PLEASE-KEEP-DISTANCE-SIGN at the driver’s door as well!!!
A Jeep Commander is quite unusual on a disabled parking place, but with the wheelchair loading system it hypnotizes each pedestrian in passing.
You should see him jumping back into the car, he would easily win “Germany’s Got Talent”, wheelchair high jump unfortunately is not a Paralympics discipline
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One of the main issues for us wheelers is the question, where is the next disabled toilet.
As pedestrian it is hardly imaginable that trips into the wild have to be planned from loo to loo.
For many wheelers the question of the next toilet is rather the biggest handicap, and many don’t dare to leave home for this reason!!!
Ingenious…!!! Finally it is available, the
There you can display worldwide with Google the nearest disabled toilet on the street map.
I know my hometown Frankfurt very well, but I would never have thought that there are so many disabled toilets in the city center.
This is awesome… Post, post, post…
Because this app or website is interactive as well you can also comment on the disabled toilets, if e.g. there is a narrow door, or add not known disabled toilets.
The option to display disabled parking places exists, but there have to be added some 1000 existing parking places.
or my blogpost:
Thanks in advance!!
I have found a similar website from a manufacturer of Australian public designer toilets for Australia and New Zealand:
www.exeloo.com
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Addendum to blogpost from 01. November 2011 about a self-constructed
From a fellow wheeler I have got the tip that she is using a window opener of the company
for years and is very happy with it.
Source: w-invention.de
I had a closer look at this part in the internet and agree with her.
For buckled fingers like me with limited finger function the handle would have to be modified a little.
I consider the price as fair, which is probably because this window opener unfortunately doesn’t have a medical device number.
If someone should manage to convince his health insurance to cover the costs for this useful technical aid please send me a short message.
Again thanks for this tip to Bärbel from Berlin.
If you have more tricks on your mind, as usual e-mail to: rollinator@eigude.de
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If you are like me not bigger than 1,38 m sitting in the wheelchair and additionally are not able to grip acceptably any more the supposed most easy things become challenges.
Before my accident I was a real friend of plastic money. Insert card, add number, and yet the bucks were gone, if you are not just standing in front of an ATM.
As wheeler you feel a little uncomfortable with the debit card when each pedestrian looks over your shoulder when you are typing the PIN on the do-it-yourself store counter.
Additionally my wallet fell down regularly.
I decided rather quickly in favour of the a bit antiquated, but in Germany still widely used cash, whereas the little hitch was that I can only grip coins very poorly with my fingers and the coins fall down to the floor often. Additionally, who likes it when the casher is digging in your wallet, or who would give to the kind filling station attendant the PIN of the debit card to settle your bill.
Every quadriplegic has his mishap with zippers when the motor function of the fingers is limited. Alternatively to the well-known key rings which are usually fixed to the zippers I as former electronic technician am largely fixated on tie wraps.
On rucksack, jacket (see older blogpost), camera bag and even on the pants,… tie wraps, tie wraps, tie wraps… Thumbs in… open close, open close…!
The idea to fix the wallet with a spiral rope on the key ring at the front bag of my cushion was obvious. A wheeler friend of mine got his wallet stolen from his rucksack on the back of his wheelchair 4 weeks ago. If someone would try this with me the person would have to bend down so low that an uppercut would be recommendable.
From the technical side I don’t have difficulties with paying any more; now only the regular refilling of the wallet at the bank has to be ensured.
Quiz question: There are two tie wraps on the wallet, a white one and a black one, which one opens the pocket with the cash??? *
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If you are like me not bigger than 1,38 m sitting in the wheelchair and additionally are not able to grip acceptably any more the supposed most easy things become challenges.
Before my accident I was a real friend of plastic money. Insert card, add number, and yet the bucks were gone, if you are not just standing in front of an ATM.
As wheeler you feel a little uncomfortable with the debit card when each pedestrian looks over your shoulder when you are typing the PIN on the do-it-yourself store counter.
Additionally my wallet fell down regularly.
I decided rather quickly in favour of the a bit antiquated, but in Germany still widely used cash, whereas the little hitch was that I can only grip coins very poorly with my fingers and the coins fall down to the floor often. Additionally, who likes it when the casher is digging in your wallet, or who would give to the kind filling station attendant the PIN of the debit card to settle your bill.
Every quadriplegic has his mishap with zippers when the motor function of the fingers is limited. Alternatively to the well-known key rings which are usually fixed to the zippers I as former electronic technician am largely fixated on tie wraps.
On rucksack, jacket (see older blogpost), camera bag and even on the pants,… tie wraps, tie wraps, tie wraps… Thumbs in… open close, open close…!
The idea to fix the wallet with a spiral rope on the key ring at the front bag of my cushion was obvious. A wheeler friend of mine got his wallet stolen from his rucksack on the back of his wheelchair 4 weeks ago. If someone would try this with me the person would have to bend down so low that an uppercut would be recommendable.
From the technical side I don’t have difficulties with paying any more; now only the regular refilling of the wallet at the bank has to be ensured.
Quiz question: There are two tie wraps on the wallet, a white one and a black one, which one opens the pocket with the cash??? *
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In Palma Nova there is a very long promenade which is dragging on over three beaches.
Good floor plates, the wheelchair is rolling and rolling and rolling…
On two of these three beaches there is a special roofed
There is a
on each in which you get transferred from your own wheelchair by two nice helpers from the Spanish Red Cross and pulled across the beach into the water.
I knew these special wheelchairs already from Tenerife see older blogpost, but with a water temperature of 15°C I deferred a test series of these models for an indefinite time.
If you are only allowed to use this beach area as wheelchair user when you have got a baby with you???
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I have already reported on 01.04.2010 about a
It is nothing new that a wheeler is wearing a couple of key chains every now and then.
Slowly this technique gets a little annoying and a bit out of hand…!!!
(picture is not faked!!!)
If the chains are collectively lying around, for no apparent reason a Gordian knot is formed again and again. I explain this by the momentum.
Therefore I have meanwhile established a key chain
Maybe I should sort the key chains by spectral colours.
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As offered on my front page, you can ask me all kinds of questions relating to technical aids, para- or quadriplegia etc. using rollinator@eigude.de.
I always try to answer these questions independently and free of charge.
Depending on the handicap the usually easiest activities become small and big challenges.
There are no problems, there are just challenges and a big challenge is a project.
Recently I received a most interesting enquiry, original text:
Because I am hemiplegic on the right side, you might know how I can stir the contents of a cooking pot on the stove without the pot stirring as well.
Maybe you have FINALLY an answer to that question!
I discussed with highly qualified colleagues to find a possible solution.
After several weeks of intensive research we came up with two solutions.
Option 1:
For e.g. sauce Bolognese you don’t only buy 500g of minced meat, but at least 2 kg, so that due to the gravitational force of the earth and the law of mass inertia according to Newton, at simultaneous roasting of the 2 kg meat with non-excessive stirring, the pot on the stove will not stir as well.
Option 2:
Currently you can buy these again at the big coffee roaster (2 pieces for 4,95€).
You can not only use them as pot holders.
According to manufacturer instructions the pot holders can also be used as trivet.
They would be temperature-resistant until 230 degrees Celsius.
These are referred to in our specially developed
Glass ceramic stove top one arm pot stirring method
Before cooking, one of the silicon pot holders is placed next to the glass ceramic stove top.
If you feel the need to protect the hopefully later delicious food from the roasty flavour and stir the contents of the pot, you just pull the pot on one handle with one arm half or a little more on the silicon pot holder.
If the pot is pulled completely on the pot holder there will be difficulties with pulling it back to the stove later.
Now you can stir, stir, stir,… with one arm to your heart’s content without the pot stirring as well.
Then you pull the pot again back to the stove.
Sounds easy, and it is
Best try it before with the stove switched off.
These silicon pot holders are also perfectly suitable as non-slip mat and allegedly as jar opener as well.
Best technical aid in my opinion to open jars and bottles, see older blogpost.
Security advice:
I strongly advise against placing especially cast-iron and other pans and pressure cookers on the silicon pot holders because they may exceed the maximum temperature of 230° C.
Never place the pot holders on the stovetop!!!
Application of the tip on your own risk, I assume no liability.
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When I was discharged from the hospital in 2008 I got the same wheelchair type which I used already in the hospital, but I had to realize that I could move significantly worse.
I have to mention that even today each 3-year-old leaves me easily behind with his wooden training bike (see older blogpost).
During the last years I have engaged myself intensively with the optimization of my wheelchair and have noticed in doing so that the exact calibration of the steering fork of the front tyres is extremely important. The axes must not be distorted either. This saves a lot of power of which I don’t have much anyway.
The steering forks are adjustable so that one can individually choose the size of the front tyres.
Although this makes sense it has the negative effect though that they could be shifted involuntarily. This happens e.g. when the taxi service fixes the hooks of the tie-down restraints at the forks of the front tyres instead of the wheelchair frame.
Sometimes even a curb is enough, or “qualified“ personnel at the airport to shift the forks.
No matter why, no wheelchair moves straight with crooked steering forks!!!
It can be referred to in each operating manual of the respective wheelchair how to adjust the steering forks.
Have a look at it, extremely interesting…
Such adjustments may only be executed due to insurance reasons by qualified personnel from the medical supply store.
You may have a look, only screw with your eyes…!!!
I have worked out a method, I call it Lucky Wheel, with which anybody can check the steering forks easily with an even wooden board and a stop angle, or a set square from school times. I cannot recommend a supposed even floor.
You put the wheelchair on the wooden board and twist a front tyre in a 90° angle to the wheelchair frame to the outside.
Now you hold the stop angle or the set square right and left to the tyre respectively the board.
If there is between tyre and angle, like my supervisor in my apprenticeship kindly used to say:
There is more light coming through than through a window…, a slot (see below in the picture), the steering fork is shifted, or something else is defective.
This slot could now be closed by rotating the steering fork which has an eccentric on my wheelchair model.
Of course we leave such adjustment tasks to the qualified personnel of the medical supply store…
When this is done after a couple of days you turn the tyre again by 90° for check-up, this time to the inside of the wheelchair, and hold your angle again to it.
In this case the aluminium has caved in, two big washers can work miracles (see pictures above).
I would like to point out again that I assume no liability for these check-up possibilities of the steering forks and all related consequences!!!
For any questions please contact: rollinator@eigude.de
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I have found a great technical aid to open canned staple food, with fish, instant noodles, goulash soup, wieners, Coke, Bed Rull, beer and cider.
The Canpull opener was awarded with a design prize, the unofficial Oscar for household items of all kind.
One reason more for an extensive Rollinator test as I always had ambivalent feelings towards designer parts. From experience, unfortunately modern appearance and functionality rarely fit together.
This is not the case with the
With one side
can be opened tetra easily.
A small plastic nose clicks into the ring-pull of the can so that the Canpuller doesn’t slip off when it is bent for opening. This is working without problems.
Unfortunately the Canpuller doesn’t help against the burning lips if three chilli peppers are displayed on the “devil’s goulash” can. I am currently a little handicapped.
The other side of the award winner is suitable to open beverage cans in record time.
Thus you can pass an opened can of Prosecco to your colleague even after the eight successful test series with hop blossom ice tea cans of which the content was professionally disposed into the gorge.
This can opener is a well-thought-out and functional technical aid.
Source of Supply: http://www.desicare.de
I give to the Canpuller 4,5 out of 5 possible Golden Steering Forks.
Half a steering fork had to be deducted because manual hands-on is still necessary.
Another type of can opener, (see older blogpost).
An ingenious bottle opener, (see older blogpost).
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In my blogpost of 14.04.12 I expressed the suspicion (see older blogpost), that I am possibly a God of wrong deliveries, because I NEVER receive the ordered medication and medical devices.
Yesterday the time had come again, yet again the wrong compresses!!
My e-mail was rather short, but with
From the medical supply store I received a reply immediately:
…what should I say, I think the previous e-mail is self-explanatory!!!
The picture is going to be my new background )
I even had your case in our department meeting, your name should ring a bell… I don’t know what else I can do… I am really sorry!
Shortly afterwards I received the following e-mail in copy:
Hello altogether, AND ESPECIALLY DEAR COLLEAGUES FROM OUR WAREHOUSE!!!!!!
It is not even a month ago that our customer Mr Rollinator took unbelievable 3 attempts to receive his compresses in the usual way!
NAMELY VYLENE COMPRESSES FROM MAIMED STERILE!!!!!!!!!
I don’t know why this is such a problem, but it simply can’t be true that the customer has received the wrong compresses yet AGAIN, especially because I have extra pointed out to you that you should look into the following already packed deliveries!!
I am glad that Mr Rollinator is simply an unbelievable patient person, but I would be FRANTIC!!!! And I seriously mean it!!
I don’t think it is funny, because unfortunately I don’t have any apologies left!
Please RETURN THE GOODS AND SEND THE CORRECT ONES AND CHANGE IT DIRECTLY FOR NEXT TIME!!!!!!
(Original colour of the e-mail, name changed)
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