Cambry has only been to the pavement in her adult life. She’s paralyzed and she uses a wheelchair to go around. Her then-boyfriend Zack Nelson spliced together two electric bikes with a seat in the center in order to help her go more places. Cambry is experiencing a whole new level of freedom with it now. She overcomes and overdrives the obstacles that seemed impossible before, she could do miles without her shoulders getting sore.
Cambry and Zack are married fast forward a year. They’re starting to mass-produce the vehicle they call ‘Not-a-Wheelchair’. They built upon the original design, making it a reliable off-roader throughout that time.
Here’s their video introduction of the off-roader
The couple said that people have a few options when choosing an adaptive off-roader. But basically, they either cost as much as a car or are super slow. So they want to try and build something that’s quick and light with a super long range. But it’s not an easy task.
Zack told Bored Panda, “The toughest challenge when developing ‘Not-A-Wheelchair’ is the price. We wanted to create something that is affordable for everyone. Finding quality components, and a simple enough design at the cheapest price possible took quite a bit of time. But I think we have something now that everyone will be able to enjoy, at a fraction of the cost of other ‘off-road wheelchairs’ currently on the market.”
‘Not-a-Wheelchair’ is definitely not an indoor machine. Cambry uses her normal wheelchair for inside their home but any time she and Zack go to the park, or on a hike, she jumps in The Rig. Her husband explained, “Its silent, which means that we can all still talk and chat while she rides next to the group.”
‘Not-a-Wheelchair’ really showed what it’s capable of during these trips. “We have taken The Rig to Hawaii twice for testing. The bike has to be shipped with a freight company before we go, but we ship The Rig about a week before we fly out ourselves, and it’s waiting there for us when we arrive. All this travel was before COVID was a thing. Luckily, we also live near mountains and snow with long wide flat trails to try the bike out on.”
There are currently about 2.7 million wheelchair users in the United States. The special needs vehicles should become only more and more important as the powered and manual mobility market globally is projected to grow exponentially due to aging baby boomers and increasing longevity. Zack said that ‘Not-a-Wheelchair’ is just a bike, with all the normal maintenance and issues that come with a bike. “It’s not a fine-tuned, polished, medical device.” The couple is very happy with it and wants other people will also enjoy it as much as they have.
‘Not-a-Wheelchair’ is fully electric and super quiet
The accessible bike can go 12mph
It has a range of 10-20 miles with one battery, and 25-35 miles with two batteries (depending on terrain, the weight of the rider, and weight of the cargo)
“Our whole goal is to provide something that is capable and affordable”
It has a rear rack mounting system to hold wheelchairs, coolers, camping gear, or a picnic basket
‘Not-a-Wheelchair’ was constructed using bike parts, so maintenance and repairs are really easy
It has an aluminum frame, detachable bumper, and four-inch off-road bike tires
With the bumper off, ‘Not-a-Wheelchair’ is 5 feet long and 32 inches wide
Which makes it fit in shortbed pickups with the tailgate up and also Jeeps and Subaru Outbacks
And can get through most doorways
Even though it handles most places pretty well
But it can struggle with loose sand or loose snow, as a bike would
The recommended weight limit is 225lb
And the base model with no suspension and one battery costs $3,750
Here’s what people said about the couple and ‘Not-a-Wheelchair’
credit – boredpanda.com
