Getting Amongst It

 
 

So I’ve been impatient and bored since the snow disappeared from the Canadian Rockies, wanting to get out and enjoy the mountains and valleys in spring.
Canmore is a big destination for mountain bikers and without any of my paragliding gear here to satisfy my thirst, I decided that if I couldn't beat them then I might as well join them.

Just over a month ago I ordered a wheelchair mountain bike from One-Off Titanium and have been going crazy waiting for it to arrive.

Finally I got the call from UPS to say that it had arrived in Calgary and was ready for me to pick up, w00t!

Olivia was up with me for a week so we headed through to the UPS depot to pick the bike and clear it through canadian customs. I was pretty excited and decided the fact that I was going to pick up the bike warranted me wearing my new bike helmet in the car, Olivia politely pointed out that I looked stupid so I begrudgingly took it off and the rest of the drive was fairly uneventful, despite the best efforts of my insubordinate SatNav.

The One-Off Titanium Mountain Bike is a pretty amazing piece of equipment, built and designed in massachusetts by Mike Augspurger, its an all-terrain handcycle that has been used to reach the summit of Mount kilimanjaro and sports some unique features for a handcycle. Most handcycles are orthodox trikes, two wheels at the rear with one wheel at the front, with the chain driving the front wheel and the rider sitting in a fairly upright normal sitting position. The One-Off bike is set up with two wheels at the front and the third wheel to the rear, with the chain driving the rear wheel. This means that there is more traction on the rear wheel as you go up hills and allows you to tackle much steeper ground than in any other handcycle.

The seating position is totally different than any other bike too, more of a kneeling position for the rider, giving a lower center of gravity which helps combat the problem of tipping the bike over when cornering. There are plenty of handcycles built for use on roads and pavements, but they just wouldnt be able to cope with the type of terrain I want to take a bike. There are also some great downhill wheelchair mountain bikes, but they are designed to just go downhill and dont have chains, gears or any way to go uphill other than simply pushing on the wheels like a normal wheelchair, or riding on a chair lift up a bike resort. The One-Off marries the two types of bikes together, giving a handcycle with a chain-set and gears that can eat up rough, all mountain terrain.

Basically I couldnt wait to get it out of the box, put together and out on some trails.

The bike itself is pretty big, and for ease of transport I had it made with a special coupling that allows me to break it apart into two pieces when I’m traveling. The coupling is impressively strong and definitely doesn't create a weak point on the frame.

So after putting the two parts together all that was needed was to fit the brake and gear levers to the handle bars (all the cables were already connected), fit the chain and the chest plate which acts as a secondary steering mechanism. All in all it only took me about 20 minutes to put the bike together and have it ready to ride.

The chest plate is a great idea, not only does it provide support and take weight of your arms as you ride the bike, but it also helps steer. Leaning to either side tilts the chest plate and steers the front wheels in that direction, meaning you dont have to loose momentum by moving your hands to the handle bars to steer.

So with the bike put together and a couple hours of daylight left there was no way I wasn't going to take it out for a ride to see how it all felt on the trails around canmore. I had to fight Olivia to get her off the bike so I could give it a try, its definitely a lot of fun! After a couple laps of the car park outside my apartment to get used to the steering and gear shifting, we headed out for a couple miles along the Bow River.

It’s definitely hard work on the arms, and for the next couple of weeks I’ll just be sticking to fairly low level tracks, getting used to the bike and building up to harder, more severe terrain. I’m taking the bike down to the No Barriers Festival in California at the end of the month and looking forward to getting further afield as time goes by. The aim is to be able to head of into the hills for a week or so, camping out and using the bike to get into the wilderness again. It’s impossible to cover the same kind of distance in a time relative to an able bodied person biking, but it definitely gives access to terrain that would otherwise be totally inaccessible.

I’m really excited about the possibilities, taking the bike out each day, and each day the mountain tops are getting a little closer. I’ll keep you updated.