Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A $1k Wheelchair

newmobility.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 456 posts

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#191

Post by qwertycrackers »

-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.

I would have been left handed when an early childhood injury caused me to switch to right. A few years ago I thought about that and tried re-learning some skills and tasks with the left hand.

It's specific to each task but I can normally get the left handed version as good or better than the right. I am willing to bet most people could do this, you just have to spend a bit of time awkwardly re-learning.

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#192

Post by rtkwe »

hinkley wrote: post #154
rtkwe wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They've done a lot of work it looks like to put in user level adjustments everywhere they can but to tweak the parameters on the frame page I don't see a great way to replace that. The curve it's tweaking is setting the angle between the legs and the seat already.

Yeah I went through the build your own UI after your last reply and it looks like a pretty complex bracket there for adjusting the angle of the seat back. From the look of things it's an adjustment versus another bracket. It looks expensive, but I suspect that not being able to change your mind after you order is awful. Anything from muscle gain to tweaking your back probably makes you want to adjust your seat a bit.…

The seat back and center of gravity position both look fairly adjustable. The main fixed quantities seem like they're all on the frame page; seat heigh front and back, frame depth (back of seat to knees), front angle, and frame taper. The rest of the options seem pretty adjustable looking at the frame there's a lot of mounting holes to change all the other measurements.

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#193

Post by sterlind »

codedokode wrote: post #164

As I understand, it doesn't even have a motor? Why cannot we have an electric wheelchair for everyone today? How do you climb uphill (or from an underground passage) without a motor? Also, I don't know anything bout wheelchairs but googling shows that there are Chinese electric wheelchairs below $1000 (don't know anything about their quality).

Traditional power chairs are much bigger and heavier than lightweight manual chairs. They're a nightmare to transport unless you have a custom van with an elevator. They also can't handle curbs.

Ultralight manual chairs are often foldable, and light enough that you can transfer out of your chair into the driver's seat of a car, take the chair apart and put the pieces in the passenger's seat of a normal sedan. That level of independence is huge. Also, you can pop wheelies over curbs and other obstacles.

Finally, pushing yourself keeps you in shape, since you miss out on the baseline exercise from walking. Otherwise you decondition and get weak and fragile. Power chairs are for those who can't push themselves sustainably.

As many others have commented, every user's disability and body is unique. You're spending 16 hours a day in the chair. If it doesn't fit you, you'll get pressure sores or strain injuries. The cheap ones are for people who don't need to use them that much.

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#194

Post by stevage »

I'm surprised there isn't some cheap option from China. There must be millions of wheelchair users around the world, it's a small market but it's not tiny.

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#195

Post by sethrd_ »

kkfx wrote: post #176
sethrd_ wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ev…

I've mentioned in other comments the difference between "hospital" style wheelchairs and full time use wheelchairs used by people with spinal cord injuries or other mobility issues. Full time wheelchairs are 1/3 or more lighter than the hospital style, more rigid which makes pushing more efficient, more comfortable, and easier to maneuver.

You cannot compare these wheelchairs to what you might sit in at the emergency room, as they are for different use cases and fill different needs. These wheelchairs aren't for "oh I broke my leg and have to use a wheelcahir for a few months". These are for "I will be spending 14+ hours a day in this chair."

Please do some research about rigid frame wheelchairs before saying you don't see how this is a big deal. Companies like TiLite and Quickie START at almost double this price point for similar products.

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#196

Post by inferiorhuman »

hug wrote: post #187
r0fl wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This thread is bonkers. I'm not even American and it took me all of two minutes to find a bike for $118 USD (or about 90 GBP) available from Walmart. Here it is: https://www.walmart.com/ip/1121295 It looks like a perfectly serviceable bike, if not the most amazing experience. I bet you with proper maintenance it could last you decades and thousands of miles. People in this thread who are claiming a new bike is nearly…

https://www.vice.com/en/article/mechanics-ask-walmart-major-...

https://old.reddit.com/r/MTB/comments/z2d5h5/walmart_bike_un...

So for $118 you get a really poor quality bike that you probably can't repair. Or perhaps you'll end up with one that's just unsafe. $400–500 is probably a reasonable price point, but that'll get you something that's adequate at best. Heavy, clunky, and unpleasant to ride.

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#197

Post by diebeforei485 »

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.

Here is what a wheelchair order form looks like: https://www.adaptivespecialties.com/PDF/TiLite_AeroZ_series2...

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#198

Post by ProllyInfamous »

metadat wrote: post #190
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.

https://bikesdirect.com/ Lots of good bikes in the $300-500 range. I've had one for more than 12 years and thousands of miles without issue or drama. I paid $300 for a single speed road bike from BD in 2012, it looks fancier than it is with a carbon fiber fork. Added some Gatorskin tires and it's worked ever since, I only clean and lube the chain every 5 years so far. Made in Canadia.

To second this: I've owned three "Motobecanes" [Bikes Direct] and one of them is still going strong, since 2014.

The purchases from 2009 was stolen, and the 2011 bike didn't survive a gnarly crash — to no fault of BikesDirect.com

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#199

Post by jccalhoun »

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

Agreed. I understand he has to pay the bills but there were one or two episodes of the bunker series that really felt like fluff to put in between ads.

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#200

Post by lostlogin »

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.

> someone unknowingly spends a ton of money on reinventing something that already exists.

I think it’s worse than than. Amongst the people doing the work, someone usually knows that there is a product out there that already does the job, but the higher ups think they know better.

Post reply on HN