Paragliding is an amazing sport, jumping off mountains and enjoying a feeling of complete freedom in the air. Its also very easy to learn and perfect for people in wheelchairs as you dont need your legs when you are flying! Read more...

Diving and swimming is a great release from sitting down all the time. The complete freedom of movement and feeling of weightlessness is unequaled. Plus you get to mess around with sharks!
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The latest thoughts and ramblings from adventures and exploits. Updated with pictures and details from ‘stuff’ every once in a while at least, maybe. Have a look and see what I’ve been up to.
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Sit-Skiing is one of the most accessible ways for someone in a wheelchair to get back amongst the mountains. The freedom and speed is a perfect way to escape the confines of concrete roads.
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The best thing about mountain biking for someone in a wheelchair is that its returns the option of being able to take advantage of a nice day and hit the trails.

It opens up terrain again that is quite literally impossible to cover in a wheelchair and gives you an amazing sense of freedom. All this without huge amounts of specialised equipment and dedicated areas, as needed for skiing, paragliding and SCUBA diving. All you need is the bike and you are good to go, mountains are optional.

I decided I needed to get a mountain bike when I was hanging around Canmore at the end of the ski season. I found myself looking out the window towards the mountains with a growing annoyance, not being able to get too far off pavement and tarmac since the snow had melted was frustrating. I needed to find a bike to let me explore the mountains.

There is a huge selection of handcycles built and designed for people in wheelchairs who want to cycle on-road, but I really wanted to go off-raod and explore things a bit more. On-road handcycles are pretty much all the same basic design, a recumbent trike with two wheels at the rear and one wheel at the front connected to the drive chain. They are great for what they are designed for but I had no faith in being able to take them anywhere that wasn't almost perfectly smooth. The upright sitting position meant the riders center of gravity would be too high, causing the bike to easily tip over on rough ground. Plus all these designs have front-wheel drive, so you loose traction and momentum as soon as you start to go up hill, especially on loose ground, which is never much fun when you are relying on arm power alone.

Then there are the four-cross downhill mountain bikes, designed especially for wheelchair users to race downhill in. These things are awesome, top-of-the-range machines that are quite obviously more fun than you can shake a big stick at. The only problem with them is that they are designed solely for going downhill, there is no crank-set or drive-chain at all. The rider pushes the rear wheels just like a normal wheelchair, not the best way to get up a mountain. These four-cross bikes are great, but they are meant to be ridden on the downhill courses that many ski resorts provide in the summer months, so that the rider uses the chair-lift to go back up the hill each time and races down. I really wanted to go exploring with my bike and even though four-cross looks amazing and I really want to play with one of those bikes, I needed something that could allow me to go uphill too.

So I eventually found the website of Mike Augsperger, an inventor an bike designer from the US who has designed and built an all terrain hand-cycle he calls The One-Off Titanium Flyer. This is the same bike that people have used to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and for me it seemed to fill all my requirements. The One-Off is different to any other hand-cycle I could find on the current market. First of all, the bike is designed as a tricycle, but with two wheels at the front and one at the rear. The riding position is closer to kneeling on all fours than sitting on a seat, and the drive from the crank-set goes to the single rear wheel instead of the front, giving lots more traction on inclines.

Traditional Handbikes

Four-Cross Downhill Wheelchairs

Mike did a great job of think this design through, and answered questions I didn't even know of or think about before. Such as how to steer the bike while you are pedaling, which normally would mean taking one hand off the pedals to control direction from the handle-bars and therefore a loss of momentum. The chest-plate not only acts as a support for you upper body whilst in the riding position, but also as a ‘steering wheel’ by allowing you to lean to one side and steer in that direction without taking your hands off the pedals. I dont use this as a primary method for steering around corners and such, but it certainly helps in just keeping the bike on a straight course without having to use just one arm for power and one for directional control. On hills and steep inclines in particular, when trying to pedal with one arm would just mean slowly grinding to a halt this feature is worth its weight in redbull.

The One-Off

I dont think it is perfect, but as an answer to my needs and problems it comes pretty close. I ordered one and four weeks later I was unpacking the bike and getting ready for my first ride. The bike comes with a special coupling system that means the frame can be broken down into two pieces for traveling. This is a good idea for those who need to cram the bike into a small or medium sized car, but for air travel I just leave the bike fully connected and ready to ride and have had no problems so far. Straight out of the box it took no more than half an hour for me to put it together by myself, which only consisted of screwing the frame together and then fitting the brake levers to the handlebars (the brake lines and everything else come already connected) before trying to work out how to get in the thing.

I’m a low level complete para and it still isn't completely simple to get in and out of the bike, I’ve got a good system worked out but complacency and tiredness after a long ride means that every once in a while its harder than it should be. I do know of quads who ride the One-Off without problems, but if you have dodgy sitting balance then it might be a bit difficult to get in and out of alone.

That being said, once you are in the bike then it is comfortable, the riding position with your chest on the chestplate/steering wheel (which is adjustable to your height preference) feels natural. The pedals are well placed and allow you to easily put weight down on them when it comes to inclines and the brake levers are easy to quickly grab when needed.

The One-Off is made for going up hills, not for going down them. In fact going downhill can be a pretty uncomfortable experience in a One-Off, due to the lack of suspension and a pretty minimalistic seat. Hitting bumps at even a low speed with the back wheel results in a kick up the ass from the barely padded seat each time. Obviously the lack of suspension actually makes going uphill easier as no energy is lost through the suspension system, so its acts as both a pro and a con, depends on whether you are going up or down at the time.

Let’s Go Up, Not Down.

If you miss getting off-road, exploring amongst the hills and want to go places people in wheelchairs are really not supposed to go then the One-Off Titanium is perfect. It’s great for on-road riding too and so it’s a great way to keep an exercise regime going, with the option of getting into the mud and as much trouble as you can handle whenever you want. It’s simple to maintain and the parts used are all standard mountain bike accessories so getting replacement parts will never be a problem.

Talking of going up hill, thats kinda hard with just your arms to propel yourself and 30Kg of bike, even with the mechanical advantage of a crank-set. The One-Off really comes into it’s own in this area. Rather than having just one chain and crank-set, like a normal mountain bike, Mike has built the One-Off with a standard set of gears and then an additional Mountain Drive. The mountain drive is (very) basically an addition to the chain and gear system that allows the rider to dramatically lower the gear ratio, which means that going uphill can be a lot easier. In effect it doubles the amount of available gears. Check out the technical details to the left.

The Mountain Drive is what makes it possible for people to take a One-Off and get up Kilimanjaro, and it certainly helps in less remote areas too.

The only problem I have with the bike at all is the seating, the padding may as well be non-existent for all it is worth and the seat itself is a little too weak. Especially in hot weather (Alabama type hot, +40˚C/100˚F) it can begin to buckle and bend under weight, after just 4 months of riding my seat is in need of replacement. For a para or a quad who needs a decent seating solution to avoid pressure related problems, the seat is terrible and spending too much time in it can be asking for trouble. I intend to make myself a new seat with much better padding and protection from the bumps and pressure of riding off-road. However, this is just how I feel and I haven't encountered problems yet, it just feels very hard and uncomfortable over uneven ground.

The Traditional Handcycle Design

Get out and explore again: Mountain biking in the rockies

The One-Off Titanium All Terrain Handcycle: Off The Beaten Path

The Four-Cross Downhill Racer

A view from the drivers seat

To Boldly Go Where No Wheelchair Has Gone Before

The only possible drawback is the lack of suspension, but as long as you aren’t thinking about downhill racing then it shouldn't really be a problem at all. Given the fact that there simply is nothing similar on the market the One-Off is a dream come true.

Check out more info about the One-Off on my BLOG and in the Gallery or on The Official One-Off Titanium Website