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A $1k Wheelchair

newmobility.com

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Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#171

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

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 am lefty and occasionally use the mouse left-sided when I have right arm injuries. What I don't do is swap the buttons. That way, nothing has to change, I can switch to the preferred side at any time, and coworkers aren't stymied when they need to drive the computer.

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#172

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

-mlv wrote: post #124
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.

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

Keyboard shortcuts aren't as convenient with the mouse on the left. The most useful ones are all biased to the left of the keyboard. Left Ctrl is also easier to hit reliably.

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#173

Post by JustSomeNobody »

bee_rider wrote: post #32
rtkwe wrote: post #26

It's odd seeing the number of dismissive comments missing that there are whole categories of wheelchairs for different purposes. It's like asking why XPSs exist when there are Chromebooks, something most people commenting here would immediately realize as a silly question because they suit different needs and functions but the idea doesn't come up because it's an unfamiliar problem.

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’s like being outraged and asking “Trek and Cannondale exist, why do we need fifty other bike makers?” When some new manufacturers pop up.

I don’t get the negativity.

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#174

Post by dghlsakjg »

xnx wrote: post #144
diebeforei485 wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Each wheelchair is custom so it's totally different than other products.

Is it totally different? Bikes are made and adjusted for a huge variety of body types. I understand there are different needs for wheel chair users, but I would think some level of adjustment would be possible to accommodate most of those.

You have to think about scale too. A run of bike frames in a particular size, even for the high end, is probably four digits for a very niche customer. The cost of jigs and prototyping is well spread out.

For a given wheelchair, the market is probably an order of magnitude smaller, if not more so. That means that factory setup and development costs that amortize to $X00 for a bike produced in the thousands, balloons to $X,000 for a wheelchair.

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#175

Post by mikepurvis »

janalsncm wrote: post #139
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.

> anti-curiosity and anti-learning You nailed it. If I could go a bit deeper, I think the drive-by cynicism comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of people. Statistically, you are probably not significantly smarter or dumber than most people you meet. In other words, someone who has spent months or years on a problem probably knows more about it than you do if you’re just now reading about it. So if someone with…

Especially if one of the people is an engineer/maker and the other has the lived experience of being a wheelchair user. It’s wild to think they might have embarked on this venture without first googling for thirty seconds to see what else might be on the market.

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#176

Post by kkfx »

sethrd_ wrote: post #18
kkfx wrote: post #12

Ehm... Seeing the product... A right price could be more 300$, and only because not made in China, than 1000... If mass produced could be more 150$...

You should do some research into wheelchairs and the differences in designs, materials, and life times to better understand why the $1000 price tag on what the company is offering is actually incredible. This is for someone who has a spinal cord injury and has to be in a chair fulltime, not those hospital style chairs you are probably thinking of.

Well, materials seems to be very common, and indeed even if they are precious alloys to be lighter it's still a very high price. Research have to be payed of course, but again you can sell a product, no more than that.

I've heard many time about "special design", "this price is really right" and so on, all the time it was wrong. Oh, that does not means it's a bad product, it's simply overpriced and the price might even be right seen their expenses and resources, but it's still too much for a market who offer other very similar product at a much little price.

An idea alone does not suffice.

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#177

Post by dghlsakjg »

changing1999 wrote: post #167
paulddraper wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First, have you purchased a bicycle? "High quality" bicycles start at $1,000. (quality dimensions = weight, comfort, durability, flexibility) Second, small scale manufacturing is expensive. Third, large-scale manufactured wheelchairs have the same problem as the rest of the medical equipment world: prices are subsidized/inflated by insurance.

I've only ever owned fairly cheap commuter bikes like Specialized. But even then, the quality and the comfort were OK. I guess in this case, small scale and configurability makes the biggest difference in wheelchairs vs bikes.

Wheelchair users spend their entire waking lives using wheelchairs, more or less.

They are justifiably VERY particular about their mobility.

If you had to spend all day, every day, riding a bike, and a failure meant that you would spend days or weeks (seriously, wheelchair repairs are SLOW), stuck in your house, how seriously would you take your bike options?

A badly fit wheelchair can send disabled people to the hospital with really serious problems.

Now imagine that bikes normally cost $5k-$20k. How stoked would you be to see someone offering an equivalent bike for $999?

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#178

Post by geerlingguy »

r0fl wrote: post #166
andybak wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My bike cost £75

A decent bike for a child costs more than that these days in North America. You either bought this bike used, stolen, in 1989 or are trolling.

Even a cheap Walmart kids bike costs more than that now. (Even the toddler bikes are reaching up there in price.)

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#179

Post by dghlsakjg »

andybak wrote: post #152
nothercastle wrote: post #122

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.

My bike cost £75

Would you be willing to spend all day every day on it?

Would you be willing to pin your entire ability to leave home on it?

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#180

Post by al_borland »

huvarda wrote: post #117
al_borland wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ordered a Beast Burger on Door Dash without having any clue it was a Mr Beast thing until it showed up and was heavily branded. I wanted a burger and figured I'd try something new. I had never really watched any Mr Beast videos at that point. For whatever reason, he is never recommended to me. The seasoning was so strong it was a bit hard to eat. I assumed it was covering up for lower quality meat or something. I h…

Mr Beast burgers werent even a real restaurant. Theyre just faceless ghost kitchens with a mrbeast sticker slapped on top.

I’ve tried various things from ghost kitchens via Door Dash. Some are better than others.

From the little I understand, someone like Beast Burger would come up with a recipe, then provide the supplies and recipes to the ghost kitchen to make it. If the ghost kitchen is really Chili’s, it’s not the Chili’s burger showing up when a Mr Beast label, it’s Chili’s Employees in the Chili’s kitchen, making the Beast Burger recipes.

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