Life on Wheels by Karp Gary

Author:Karp, Gary [Karp, Gary]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Springer Publishing
Published: 2008-08-26T12:00:00+00:00

A manual wheelchair is more agile with smaller caster wheels. They also allow the footrests to come in closer—your heels have to be more forward to allow for larger wheels and the space they need to rotate around the vertical axle. Having your feet closer in means your overall length is reduced, so you can turn around in a tighter space.

But small caster wheels mean you can feel every little bump as you wheel, meaning cracks in the sidewalk, joints between paving tiles, or the cracks between floorboards. You can imagine that there are many surfaces you would wheel on that are anything but perfectly smooth. And if you’re a wheelchair athlete, you get banged around enough, so anything to absorb some impact is welcomed.

It was after seeing wheelchair rugby that Mark Chelgren decided to design a shock-absorbing caster fork for manual chairs, and Frog Legs were born (Figure 4-11). Integrating shock absorption into the caster fork makes it possible to use smaller, harder caster wheels and still have a soft ride. For some users, that has meant freedom from inflatable caster tires, which are always going soft and, sometimes, flat. Frog Legs are available for manual chairs and in a heavy-duty version for power chairs. They have been so popular that the major manufacturers have begun to offer them as options when ordering a new chair. Some have designed caster shock-absorption forks of their own, mostly for power chairs.

Figure 4-11 Frog Legs shock-absorbing caster forks.

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