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A $1k Wheelchair

newmobility.com

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Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#121

Post by steve_adams_86 »

123pie123 wrote: post #38
TrainedMonkey wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is a side project that appears to be grown out of frustration of disabled wife & seeing the shitshow that wheelchair market is While it is absolutely true that he cares, I think you are selling his long term plans short. The primary growth factor for the channel was reviewing phones with the repairability / endurance focus, but somewhat recently he expanded to topics such as plugging abandoned oil wells which…

i think he's a better than average presenter for a youtube channel. I did like his huge bunker videos my biggest annoyance is his plugging or advertising stuff too obviously

I'll take his transparent advertising over "native" ads any day.

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#122

Post by nothercastle »

The BOM for this wheel chair is probably 200-300 of just wheels and bearings maybe more. People who say this can be bought for 200$ are completely out of touch. You can’t even buy a decent bike for much under a grad new and bikes have much better scale.

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#123

Post by syntaxfree »

Resale value is important for wheelchairs. My dad had an electric one for about 8 months before he passed on, and the TCO was well under the price of all these alt concepts.

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#124

Post by -mlv »

vasco wrote: post #68
m463 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sort of think of left-handed people. I am right handed, but overused it and switched to a left-handed mouse. There are basically infinity right-handed mice, but basically zero left-handed mice, most of which are hedged ambidextrous mice. so looking at office chairs and standing desks and all kinds of ergonomics oriented towards healthy sitting, it seems amazing that there isn't more competition for people who sit m…

Most left handed people I know (me included), use the mouse with the right hand. Might be a bubble though, but I never thought to get a left handed mouse, or left handed scissors or most left handed things. There's a few things that really don't work (I play my drumkit with hands reversed), but most things are fine.

A lot of left-handed people are actually cross-dominant or selectively ambidextrous.

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#125

Post by tomcam »

fotta wrote: post #16

Custom fit lightweight wheelchairs are expensive. My Ti-Lite (one of the most popular lightweight chair brands) Aero Z starts at $3k and goes up quickly with wheels and backrest and casters and various other options that I need for sitting 16 hours a day without creating more problems. Insurance covers this for me every 5 years, but of course that's not a luxury every one has. Most plans don't cover DME 100%. What Za…

Hey, would you get started on power wheelchair costs? Inquiring minds would like to learn more.

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#126

Post by hinkley »

rtkwe wrote: post #104
hinkley wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I toured the Trek factory when they still made them in the US. They'd already drunk from the font of Goldratt wrt to Just in Time, but they would set up each day pretty much to make one model of bicycle for the whole day. Parts, tooling, paint booth, everything. The only thing that changed was sizes, and a model of bike tends to have the same geometries across all sizes. 78º angle here, 99º angle there. That may not…

The bend angle of the tube that forms the seat support down to the legs seems like one of their major adjustment points for comfort and efficiency so I don't think you could have a similar setup. These are essentially semi-custom not a simple size based product like a bike. The extra adjustments are important because the users are in them many more hours a day so small problems can cause long term issues. Their confi…

On a bike you have a little bit of flexibility due to the way the seat post works. Both in how the seat attaches and adding curves to the post, particularly for triathletes who like to favor their hamstrings over their quads, and sit considerably farther forward than any 'normal' cyclist would.

I know I've seen wheelchairs where the back was a tube that went into a tube. If you put the curve in the replaceable part you get more adjustment but less support. Generally the tolerances on bikes are very tight and medical equipment seems to be all over the place.

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#127

Post by plorkyeran »

Suppafly wrote: post #94
bee_rider wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sort of “I googled for 30 seconds, and found a cheaper option, why does this project exist” type response is anti-curiosity and anti-learning. It is possible that the YouTuber guy is a total idiot and decided to make a $1000 wheelchair instead of buying a $200 one, but that shouldn’t be a default assumption, haha.

>It is possible that the YouTuber guy is a total idiot and decided to make a $1000 wheelchair instead of buying a $200 one, but that shouldn’t be a default assumption, haha. Seems insane to assume that but we see it in tech all the time where someone unknowingly spends a ton of money on reinventing something that already exists.

If you have some actual knowledge about a thing and can explain why it's pointless and already existed then that's a great thing to post. That's very different from just assuming that something you have no knowledge about is pointless, though. We certainly see lots of pointless reinventing in tech, but if something appears to be a pointless reinvention of something you could find in 30 seconds with no prior knowledge, it nearly always isn't a pointless reinvention of that and you just don't know enough to understand what's different.

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#128

Post by volkl48 »

dfxm12 wrote: post #118
vasco wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most left handed people I know (me included), use the mouse with the right hand. Might be a bubble though, but I never thought to get a left handed mouse, or left handed scissors or most left handed things. There's a few things that really don't work (I play my drumkit with hands reversed), but most things are fine.

I tried using a mouse in my left hand in left handed mode back in the day. Eventually, I got tired of changing the settings on shared computers at home/school, and I realized it wasn't any more or less hard to use the mouse with my right hand. Today, I use a right handed vertical mouse. Interestingly, I play guitar right handed, despite being inspired to play by Kurt Cobain. My girlfriend got me left handed scissors…

I do what your sister used to do. (Left hand mouse use, buttons left at default).

Even game that way. Started using it that way as a kid, by the time I learned it was possible to switch the buttons that seemed less natural than leaving it as default.

Also made it much easier to use shared computers in school labs and the like.

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#130

Post by plorkyeran »

tredre3 wrote: post #60
skylurk wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you buy an under-$200 bike off of Amazon? Especially one you spent all day on?

I don't know about Amazon, but $200 is the price of a reasonable entry-level bike in any large surface store so yes? I know this is HN and people will likely look down on anyone riding a <$2000 bike, but come on.

$200 is a reasonable price for a bicycle-shaped garage decoration which gets ridden for 30 minutes per month, which is indeed all that many people want out of a bicycle. Something practical for a 15 minute one-way commute that you ride every day is more like $500 new. Something which you could spend all day every day on would be a lot more.
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