So about a year ago I welded two electric bikes together as an off-road wheelchair of
sorts to surprise my then girlfriend, Cambry.
-And almost immediately after that we put our brains together to figure out ways to
improve it.
-We’ve come a long way. Now my wife and I have a surprise for you guys. Our whole
goal was to make an affordable and capable off-road wheelchair and mass produce them.
-We’d like to introduce Not A Wheelchair.
-We call it The Rig.
-Let’s get started.
[Intro]
[Music]
-So we’ve been through several different versions of this Rig over the past year. Now
we finally have something we’re really excited about. It’s hard to define exactly what
this is. You know, what do you call a chair with four wheels, off-road capabilities, it’s
totally silent, super fast, and a great long range? I’m not really sure either, but it’s
definitely Not A Wheelchair.
So let me tell you a little bit about The Rig. It’s got the four tires. It’s got
the single motor with a solid rear axle in the back so there’s traction between both
of those tires. And it’s actually designed to have weight in the back. We have six different
mounting points so that you can put a rack for a wheelchair, or coolers for camping…
all kinds of stuff back here.
The Rig is mostly built from bike parts, from the rotors, calipers, hydraulic brake system,
the e-bike motor, and the e-bike batteries. The version Cambry’s riding right now has
two batteries on the back. The batteries on the back determine how far The Rig can go.
One battery can go anywhere from ten-twenty miles depending on how much weight The Rig
is carrying. With the front bumper off, The Rig is exactly 5 feet long and 32 inches wide,
meaning that The Rig can fit in the back of short bed pickups with the tail gate up. And
also jeeps and even Subaru Outbacks. It’s a fairly portable system. And being 32 inches
wide means it can fit through most doorways. Plus the bike has the ability to go forward
and reverse, which is fairly beneficial.
[Loud motor noise]
[Person on side by side] That is cool.
[Zack] Thank you, I appreciate it!
Wait for it. So there are some off-road vehicles that are very loud. Ours is not one of those.
Since it’s totally electric, there is literally no sound coming from the motor, which makes
for a more realistic nature experience.
-It’s a more peaceful environment when your off-road device isn’t making loud noises.
Personally, I love my light blue Rig. We’ve put over a thousand miles on it, and it’s
taken me places I never in a million years thought I could go. Like on a hike to a waterfall
in Hawaii. Or up the canyon on packed snow. Which are all places I wouldn’t be able
to go in my normal wheelchair.
-We’ve taken The Rig in quite a few different places…up the canyon, paved roads, dirt
roads, gravel roads, and it does handle pretty well. But it does struggle a bit with loose
sand, loose snow…you know, kind of just like any bike would. Remember, this is definitely
Not A Wheelchair and doesn’t have the fine tuning or precision that you would normally
find in a medical device. It’s definitely a bike with all the quirks and maintenance
that comes with all bikes. It’s not beach ready and has no IP water resistance rating
yet, but maybe at some point in the future. We have to leave some things to look forward
to with version 2 whenever that comes out.
We teamed up with the largest trike manufacturer in the United States, Utah Trikes, to build
this contraption. And since we use bike parts for most of the construction, replacement
parts and tools are easy to find and can be purchased all over the Internet or from local
bike shops.
So Cambry did want this thing to be super fast, but for her safety I’ve limited it
to 12 miles an hour.
-You may be curious where you can take this Rig, and according to the American Disability
Act, or the ADA, other power driven mobility devices are allowed to go on all areas where
members of the public are allowed to go, which is basically everywhere. So if you are driving
The Rig, and have a medically recognized physical impairment, you can basically go anywhere
as long as it’s safe. If you want to buy one of these and you don’t have a physical
impairment, you can still ride it of course, but there may be more restrictions as to where
you can go.
-So you might be asking yourself, ‘Hey Jerry, how does Cambry get in and out of the chair?’
And it’s actually pretty easy. Down here at the bottom there’s a little latch that
I can unclip, and the handle tilts totally backwards. Cambry can grab her chair, undo
her feet from the little Velcro things…
-Lift them over the wheel, and viola! I’m in the chair!
-Remember, this is not a medical device. It’s a modified electric bike that just happens
to be more accessible. The throttle’s taken from an electric bike, the motor’s taken
from an electric bike. Even the batteries are taken from an electric bike. You might
be thinking as well that off-road wheelchairs are super expensive and you’re right. Normal
off-road wheelchairs can cost anywhere from $10,000-20,000. This Not A Wheelchair only
costs $4,750, which is half the price and twice the specs of a normal off-road wheelchair.
-We do have a totally stock version that’s $1,000 cheaper, but it doesn’t have the
drop down handles, suspension, and it just comes in black.
-We are ready to start manufacturing these right now. I will leave a link for these in
the video description. There’s no Kickstarter or anything. Or you can just go to NotAWheelchair.com
and we’ll start shipping in September 2020.
Alright Cambry, I think that’s it. Anything else we should mention?
-Yeah. If you want to help out with this project, you can go to our website where there’s
a donation page and you can donate any amount you want to help us get these to more people
that can use them.
-And come hang out with us on Instagram at Not A Wheelchair. We’ll be sharing our own
adventures as well as adventures of other people who have these contraptions. You know,
the most important thing is to be safe, use the buddy system, wear a helmet, but have
fun. Thanks a ton for watching. We’ll see you around.
[Music]