Saturday, July 21, 2007

Trailer for Adult Handicapped Rider

I've been following the Tour de France since the Prologue on July 7th. To my surprise, my first life partner Lisa Brewer, who has shown only a passing interest in cycling previously, is suddenly interested enough to have picked a personal favorite in the Tour de France overall classification: Alexandre Vinokourov ;)

Anyway, Lisa seems to have caught some cycling fever. She's actually shown some interest in riding with me lately. I checked into it and there's no way I can afford to get her a hand cycle (those things run in the thousands), but I should be able to afford to get a trailer for her. ;) The thing is, though, I need to find a suitable trailer fast because I'd like to have it in time to get it as an anniversary gift, and our anniversary is August 17th. ;)

Does anyone know where I can get a bicycle trailer suitable for an adult handicapped person? I'm specifically looking for the following features ("essential" features I must have... "optional" features would be ideal, but not essential).

ESSENTIAL:
  • minimum 115 lb weight capacity
  • harness (five point if possible)
  • push bar (so it can double as a wheelchair at a destination)
  • quick release wheels (ease of flat repair)
  • standard wheel size*
OPTIONAL:
  • forward sitting position
  • canopy
  • suspension
  • foldability for storage
  • incontinence resistant covers
That last one in the "essential" list is an important consideration. Lisa's wheelchair has 22" wheels which, I have discovered, are not a standard bicycle wheel size. It's extremely difficult to find tires for this thing and totally impossible to find high end tires for it. Low end tires are fine for a wheelchair that'll be traveling no faster than 7 km/h on average, but for a trailer being pulled at 25+ km/h, good tires are essential.

Standard wheel sizes for which a wide variety of tires are available are 20", 24", 26" and 700c.

I need to find information on this ASAP so I want to spread the word as far as I can as fast as I can. If anyone knows anything that might help me here, it would be greatly appreciated! :)

You can submit any information at a comment here or E-mail me privately.

Thanks!

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