Wheelchair Power Attachments – Wheels on Fire Review

I love where I live, and used to enjoy walking around the local area, however, as I’m now a wheelchair user the terrain is much less friendly.

The area is very hilly, and at the moment even a trip to the local Spar isn’t possible unless I get the car out, which is ridiculous for what used to be a 10 minute walk. I can just about get to one of my local pubs (phew!), but even getting to visit my parents is difficult.

I had been looking for a power attachment since before I came home from hospital but nearly 4 months down the line I still don’t have one.

My test drive was the rather steep slope that I have to negotiate to get to the pub:

Rear Power Attachments

I was originally very keen on these, as they’re far less obtrusive than the trike style attachments. I looked at both:

• Smart Drive – http://www.permobil.com/en-GB/English/Smartdrive-MX2/Smartdrive-MX21/Smartdrive-MX2/
  I liked the look of this and tested on some roughish ground and it was fine.
• Smoov One – https://www.invacare.co.uk/news/new-smoov-addition-invacare’s-power-add-range
  This was new to market and in my opinion looked to be an improvement on the Smart drive with better controls and design.

I was planning to get one of these, and then realised whilst they’d help me get up a hill, I wanted some braking assistance for the way back down.

Front Attachments – Trikes

This then led me to look into trike style attachments that go on the front of the chair, this is the order I tried them in.

Batac – https://batec-mobility.com/en/

The Batac is a powerful bike style attachment, their owners seem to rave about them, but the downside for me was the weight. These start at around 14kg plus battery, there is no way I can lift that into the car, I know you can buy a car hoist, but that is then more expense when you swap your car, plus you are stuck if you have a hire car.

The wheels on them are also huge, I felt that they were too big to take into a shop or restaurant. They’re also very expensive.

I tried this at a local company before I left the hospital and not on my test slope.

Mini Power Add Ons.

The UNA Wheel https://www.gerald-simonds.co.uk/shop/unawheel/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIjcaVtI_b5gIVhbTtCh3jNAk1EAAYASAAEgJiIvD_BwE is small, compact, easy to lift into the car, but it couldn’t go up my test slope.

I was gutted as I really liked this one. Da Vinci Mobility also have a similar device which I had to discount as it was a similar spec so I doubted it would get up the slope too.

They both also have an electronic brake as oppose to a disk brake, which I felt wasn’t quite powerful enough to cope with the hills in my village (as its more of a slow down than an actual brake that will hold you on a slope).

Firefly https://riomobility.com

I also had high hopes for the Firefly it was more powerful than the mini add ons, relatively straightforward to attach, and I could lift this, but sadly it failed my test slope.

It is also one of the most reasonably priced power add ons too.

TriRide https://www.triride.uk

I next tried the folding TriRide, this did do the test slope (yeah!) but I thought the attaching was fiddly, and I struggled to lift it.

Street Jet Power – http://www.oracing.es/en/HANDBIKE-ATTACHMENT-WHEELCHAIR-STREETJET-ORACING

I only looked at this one, as I was wanting to see the Klaxon Klick and asked if they could bring this too.

This was straight forward to attach, did the slopes but was over 13kg so to heavy for me, but I think this might be some competition for the Batec.

Klaxon Klick Electric – https://en.klaxon-klick.com

I liked the way this one attached, it was a lot less fiddly than the Tri Ride, it also did my test slope (yeah!), however the minus for this one is that my chair would have to go away for 3 days while a special bar is fitted to the underside (the did offer to lend me a temporary chair).

But! the bar weighs 1.2kgs, and given I’d recently ordered a chair with the intention of getting something a little lighter (still struggle to get the chair in the car) this effectively put me back to square one with the chair weight.

What other options are there?

Power Wheels

I like the idea of the power wheels, these where again unobtrusive when compared to the trikes, and I had been told that there was braking capability/hill assist which sounded good.

I’d originally discounted these as they’re very heavy – approx 11kg per wheel, but there are some lighter ones out there.

• Twion https://www.invacare.co.uk/alber-twion-m24-power-wheels-ma-45m24en
  These are about 7kg per wheel.
  I was looking forward to trying them, but when we got to my test slope, they slid all over the place when I was trying to go down the slope.
  Am not really too sure why, given I can go down the slope without issues in my normal chair? I did wonder if it was because the chair they brought for me to try was designed for someone with much shorter legs and my centre of gravity was off, or perhaps the tred on the tires wasn’t as good it could be.
• Benoit https://benoitsystemes.com/en/pousseur2.php
  This was a combination of power wheels and a joystick to effectively make the manual chair operate as an electric.
  I didn’t actually try this myself, but the gentleman from one of the companies who offer demonstrations came out with me and tried it on my test slope, it unfortunately didn’t make the slope.

So what next?

I have to admit, I’m amazed at prices of these devices, the cheaper mini devices start at £2000 and the more expensive are over £6000, which all seems to be obscenely priced compared to a small car!

Given that the rear assist devices are controlled by bluetooth, surely a small (and light!) frame of a wheel with hand controls for stop/start at the front wouldn’t be difficult to achieve and give the best of both worlds?

They each seem to come with their own combination of plus/minus points, I need to decide what I’m going to compromise on as the perfect device (for me) doesn’t seem to exist, although I will keep looking and thinking…

The Outcome

In the end I went for a TriRide – it managed the test slope, and seemed less unobtrusive than the Batec. Although, Batec have since brought out a new Batec Mini that might have been tempting if it wasn’t for the weight it added to my chair.

I went for a more powerful TriRide than the one I’d demo’d it was the Special Light All Road version, which I was advised was more suitable for my local area.

I wasn’t blown away with it at first, having issues with it loosing traction on slopes, but I’m getting used to which speed setting and if I need the “turbo” button on.

It does mean that I can now venture to the local post box – and it is good fun, I’ve had 15mph out of it so far.

It doesn’t seem happy on grass or gravel which is disappointing – although that was on a slope it may be ok on a level surface.

TriRide Update August 2021

I’ve not used this as much as I thought I would, mainly because to get up some of the hills you need to have decent speed, and I feel a bit vulnerable on the main roads (I don’t live in a very busy area so they aren’t anything like a road in a city).

It did take me a bit of time to work out which speeds where needed for what slopes, but, I’ve had great fun along the tow path and getting around the village.