Handcycling - A new way to get around
People probably thought that cycling couldn’t get any more evolved than it already is. Bicycle engineering and technology is pretty high at the moment and new slight technological innovations are made all the time but nothing major. I came across a news article recently about a disabled soldier who competed in the New York Marathon on a handcycle (Guardian Online: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/video/2009/nov/02/injured-soldiers-new-york-marathon). This video article instantly caught my attention and got me wondering what exactly a handcycle was. The name seemed pretty obvious meaning a bicycle that is powered by the hands and not the feet but I wondered if these handcycles were used competitively as well as for recreational purposes.
Wikipedia gives us the following explanation of what exactly a handcycle is, “A handcycle is a type of human powered land vehicle powered by the arms rather than the legs, as on a bicycle. Most handcycles are tricycle in form, with two coasting rear wheels and one steerable powered front wheel,” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handcycle). This innovation in cycling seems to have come about because of a need and a desire to cycle by people with disabilities. There was probably also a push from lazy people who didn’t want to use their legs but instead felt like giving their hands a workout. It probably wasn’t a very spirited push from the lazy side on account of them being true to their lazy natures. The most notable aspect of these types of cycles is that it shows that a disability should never keep a good athlete down and the desire and need to compete is great in all athletes.
How did these types of cycles come about though? The first prototype was probably just a regular bike that was converted to have the pedals at the handlebar level instead of at the middle of the bicycle. A few falls and broken bones must have then brought about the tricycle reclined design that most of these handcycles have. Because it is very difficult to pedal and steer with the hands at the same time on only two wheels, the tricycle form of the bikes leads to greater stability and manoeuvrability for the rider. There is another type of handcycle which does not have a steering mechanism in the front wheel but instead is turned by leaning in the direction of the turn. This is a much harder way to turn for the riders but can be a lot more fun and exciting.
Now everyone reading this has probably seen a bicycle race before but I’m betting not too many have seen a handcycle race. Just imagine how exciting a handcycle race would be where there were no steering mechanisms on any bike but they all had only the leaning in method used. Now that would be cool to watch. Imagine the riders at the starting line at the ready with their hands clenched about to start pedalling furiously. Once off the line there is jostling and bumping for position and then one of them emerges as the race leader and is weaving out from the pack. This rider then makes it into the first corner by leaning heavily and hugging the corner tightly and then emerging out of the turn with an even greater lead over the rest. The lead rider goes on to win the race by a clear margin.
It seems that because it is such a cool sport handcycling should become more popular and more people than now should watch it and support it by getting behind those that ride handcycles professionally. The more people that get behind the sport the more sponsors will come forward and the sport will grow from the fledgling industry, it has potential at the moment to become something really large and profitable. This will in turn lead to more people getting interested in the sport and it will continue to grow and the cycle, if you excuse the pun, will continue.
I don’t know about anyone else out there but I would love to try to ride one of these things and see what it is like. Being an avid cycling fan, but only for recreational purposes, I would love to see what a ride on a handcycle would be like. I think it would be a novel and very interesting method of pedalling with my hands. So now all I need to figure out is where exactly would I go about if I wanted to get one?
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