The Recumbent Racing Wheelchair has one large wheel that will, in placement, be between the racers legs. The seat will be laid back sitting the racer facing more skyward than the typical ground parallel seat postion.
The back two wheels will be smaller wheels and attached to a steering system controlled by seat lean. If the seat leans to the right, the right rear wheel shall be steered into a position slightly leading the left rear wheel. The larger front wheel will tilt with the seat lean.
The front wheel will be powered by hand cranks and gearing with a chain. The hand cranks, which would seem to act like foot pedals on a bicycle, have additional features. A bar like hand grip is encirculated by the thrust crank which attaches to the cycling shaft with a universal joint. (I hope I used the correct term) This allows the racer to transform the circular motion of propulsion cranking into a more elliptical motion by altering the rotation of his/her wrists. A left handed thumb shifter and a right handed thumb brake are also additional features of the thrust cranks.
The New RR wheelchairs, though not expected to be practical for anything other than racing, are anticipated to set speed records throughout the sport due several facts.
a) Recumbent racers' hands never need leave the propulsion generating surface. b) The muscles used in powering a Recumbent racer are typically more powerful & more easily developed than the muscles used in traditional racing chairs. c) Gearing allows for faster starts & better use of force at sustained speeds. d) The recumbent position is more aerodynamic than the standard racing position.
If I am making some assumptions here that may be incorrect, I appologize in that event.-- Zimmy, Aug 20 2006 You're aware of these things, right? http://www.varnahan...rna%20I%20Handcycle [DrCurry, Aug 20 2006] I think it may be universal (u) joint, but I'm not sure. Nice, though.-- jellydoughnut, Aug 20 2006 See link.-- DrCurry, Aug 20 2006 ...ok, that link may *look* incriminating, but...-- jellydoughnut, Aug 20 2006 It sounds good, and it may already have been done. Some handcycles can be found at the International Human Powered Vehicle Association web site. They spell it "recumbent", by the way.
I like the race format, and the bike design.-- baconbrain, Aug 20 2006 seems pretty durn baked to me.-- jhomrighaus, Aug 20 2006 It's amazing how acurately [Zimmy] described the pictures in the doctor's link. Well done, this is exactly what I imagined. Even though this turned out to be baked, I'm not retracting my positive vote for it.-- jellydoughnut, Aug 20 2006 As I have said elsewhere, bicycles are a very old technology, and very popular with garage builders. It's hard to come up with something new.-- baconbrain, Aug 21 2006 thanks for the spelling help & clarifying for me universal joint (not bolt as I had before). I searched for something like this and found hand cranks fitted on to the standard wheel chair, but I couldn't find what [DrC] did.
//anticipated to set speed records throughout the sport // It seems that part might have been correct, but I'm just a bit late for it to be an original idea. I didn't see the exact wheel sizing like I imagined, but the ones in the link probably work just as well, or more likely better than what I thought of.
bummer for me - inventing stuff that already exists happens to me all too frequently.
(I tried to water ski today. One of my 6 year old sons was able to get up & ski where I couldn't manage it. - another bummer in a way. I was happy for him, though.)-- Zimmy, Aug 21 2006 Having seen the things (people ride all sorts of contraptions around Central Park), I knew what I was looking for. And, yeah, ditto on the water skiing thing.-- DrCurry, Aug 21 2006 random, halfbakery