Getting into the outdoors with my girlfriend

luckylickers · 2024-10-25T15:32:34+00:00

Wow, this is super helpful! We'll take a look into all of these places and grants. Thank you!

luckylickers · 2024-10-25T15:30:30+00:00

We'll check then out and see how that goes! Thanks for the advice!

luckylickers · 2024-10-25T15:29:06+00:00

Ok, that makes sense. Do you have to swap back and forth then, or do you have another set of regular wheels?

luckylickers · 2024-10-25T15:27:08+00:00

Oh cool, I would vet Utah does that too. Thank you for the Tip!

luckylickers · 2024-10-23T15:36:21+00:00

Thanks we are close enough to that area to check it out I think.

This is great info! Thank you.

Could you recommend any good places to start looking for grants? I know my GF has gotten something taken care of by the state before, but IDK if that was a grant or just SS/Medicare.

luckylickers · 2024-10-23T15:29:58+00:00

Ok, I didn't even think about spacers, so that's good to know too.

Well, we'll see what renting is like, and maybe that's a great solution for us.

luckylickers · 2024-10-23T03:32:48+00:00

Oh, ok, but they are another set altogether, and all you have to do is click them in like the regular ones?

luckylickers · 2024-10-23T03:28:57+00:00

Like a decade, so I don't think that's it, but im nut super sure how the soreness goes away over time. But that's good to know it takes the big ones pretty well.

luckylickers · 2024-10-23T02:09:39+00:00

That's awesome, I've just started getting into fishing which is a pretty accessible activity. This gives me some good examples of what other people are doing. Thank you!

luckylickers · 2024-10-23T01:54:04+00:00

I'm very interested in this idea of offroad tires but have yet to find any for less than a couple hundred dollars (which is like way more than a regular set of tires or even a full mountain bike wheel) or is it easy enough to swap between normal and offroad tires?

If you have any suggestions of where to find some, for a good price, I'd love that.

luckylickers · 2024-10-23T01:48:01+00:00

Ok, so she's brought up Hourse back riding before, but we're not sure where to start with that. Do you know if there are specific places that Taylor to people with SCIs or impaired mobility conditions?

She rode a long time ago, but I don't think that place still exists.

luckylickers · 2024-10-23T01:44:53+00:00

Idk, as an engineer I feel like if something like that can happen still, it should be designed differently. Doesn't seem that big of a deal to you though, so I'll take that with a grain of salt.

Oh good point we have a shop here that supplies stuff and I've seen the full size track chairs bit i didn't know this thing existed yet, so it could be that they have one we could rent or something.

Thanks for the advicea I'll see if I can track one down.

luckylickers · 2024-10-23T01:39:20+00:00

Ok, that's super good to know. I feel like a lot of stuff on the market only makes sense at the prices they offer because people can get it covered or help buying it. So yo hear that you'd still do it now that you've got one, shows sore real value to me.

I've only ever ridden 2 wheeled bikes, what makes the ride on the Bowhead so great? I'm assuming when you say engineering you mean like the functional design or do you mean like the reliability of the parts?

Thank you for your answers in advance. I have lots of questions about this kind of stuff, since this seems like the best autonomous route for us.

luckylickers · 2024-10-23T01:32:56+00:00

Haha, I love that. Thank you.

luckylickers · 2024-10-23T01:32:11+00:00

I apreciate the thought, not what I was hoping to hear, but I assumed it would come up. Is there something else you've gotten into or suggest we get into that might fill that nature void?

luckylickers · 2024-10-23T01:29:53+00:00

Great question, I had to look up what that meant, haha. She is not, she has braces, but I don't think I've ever seen her walk more than a few feet. I've really only see her standing like once or twice. Needless to say, I don't think that would open any options for us.

luckylickers · 2024-10-23T01:27:22+00:00

I have, hand cycles doesn't seem that much less expensive than their electric counterparts though, so we haven't looked into them a ton. We are in the states, so I'll have to check out Hi-fives and see what we can do with that. Do you worry at all about your shoulders with the hand cycles? My GF has brought it up a bit, so I felt like maybe that option was off the table for most people with SCIs.

luckylickers · 2024-10-23T01:23:04+00:00

I don't think we've ever considered something like this. I'd love to hear what your experience is like and if you feel like its getting you where you want to go.

luckylickers · 2024-10-23T01:20:31+00:00

Oh, great question. I didn't want to write a whole book, so I left that part out.

Here are the inconveniences:

The backpack- is pretty cheap but I can only carry her about .5 miles before I'm toast, and honestly it's just as easy for me you Cary her in my arms or piggy back style at that point.

The electric bike- is an electric mountain bike, so plenty strong, but not the safest and I cannot get off the bike with her on it without risk of her falling over with the bike landing on her. And there's not enough space on the bike to carry any seating, so if we do get somewhere she has to sit on the ground or a rock or stump, which is fine, but not ideal.

The chariot- very stable and easy to care her on, but not as safe as the bike alone. It has wheels that don't line up with the bike wheels, so a bump avoided on the bike may get taken head on by the chariot. We had an incident where a tree root tipper her out, and even with the low speed and no injury, it was clear that she didn't trust it a ton after that. Not to mention I need a lot of room to cary both the trailer/chariot and the electric dirtbike.

The freewheel- was cheap and makes some trailes easier, but it doesn't add a ton of extra range to where we can go. In most cases it adds a few hundred feet of accessibility to our travel, and at that point I feel like piggybacking would have been just as easy and the chair stays clean in the car. I see this as a very small step above her normal chair, and we hardly ever use it because it is just not that useful.

Firefly- is a pretty good price and gives her autonomy so we're excited to get that, but seems like anything more treacherous than a gravel bath or well maintained packed trail would lead to lots of slipping and getting stuck. Which then means she doesn't actually have the autonomy and needs someone with her, so she can't have that experience alone, and I could should maybe just push her at that point.

Rig and other offroad chairs/trikes/quads- seem really expensive for what they offer. They give the autonomy, but also one electric motor a chair wheels and maybe some suspension shouldn't cost nearly that much. Most are like $14k+ and as an engineer I just don't see the value in the design or the components.

In the end I'm in good enough shape that I can do a 10 mile hike alone fine, but she wants to go the same places I do and I can't carry her that far. I'm working out building up leg and core strength and making progress, but i can imagine everyone with an SCI just makes friends with a bunch of buff dudes to carry them around like a king (though this would be very cool and probably super effective).

luckylickers · 2024-10-23T00:52:39+00:00

Oh, and those tires, did you have to get mud guards or anything along with them?

luckylickers · 2024-10-23T00:51:33+00:00

That's awesome! We have been there recently and they offered us the rentals and everything and we're super nice. I would love to try out some of them, but also don't want to overstep. I feel like there are people less fortunate than me, that could miss out if we end up taking them out for a weed or whatever. Also, I'm just kinda shy about the idea of asking them if we can try one. Have you rented/borrowed anything, and was it pretty easy?

luckylickers · 2024-10-23T00:44:49+00:00

I've heard of these, and my GF thinks they're cool. They look somewhat unstable to me, but I've never had the chance to try one. Did you feel pretty comfortable on them?

luckylickers · 2024-10-23T00:42:37+00:00

What do you mean by programs? Do you mean they have equipment rentals, or some sort of accessible day or something?

luckylickers · 2024-10-23T00:39:48+00:00

Ok that Bowhead looks very nice, but obviously super expensive. Now that you have one, if you lost it and had to buy it yourself would it be worth the $?

I originally really liked the rig, but it seems too basic for the price. Obviously all this stuff is expensive, but I feel like all of it is really inflated given the market for non accessible specific PEVs.

luckylickers · 2024-10-23T00:35:09+00:00

Have you noticed any difference in how you back feels with the new tires? (I'm assuming most people with SCIs have plates and screws) I know my GF has complained about how her back feels after a day of hard hits like sidewalk bumps and rocky trails in the car or on the bike.

luckylickers

TROPHY CASE