A $1k Wheelchair • Hacker News Board

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#381

Post by Damogran6 » Wed, Oct 02, 2024, 2:20 PM UTC

tim333 wrote: post #317

bradley13 wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A manual wheelchair is less complex than a bicycle, and I can get a decent bicycle for a few hundred bucks. The fact that basic wheelchairs are crazy expensive has little to do with the chairs and a lot to do with insane bureaucracy.

If you look on ebay there are loads of wheelchairs for sale from about $100-$200 (£80-150 if british). They are mostly made in China and I think work ok - I bought one for £80 to use with my dad and it was fine. But that was for occasional use. I guess if you were to use it all the time you might want something fancier.

That raises a whole host of other issues. They're $200, because they don't have to pay their employees or provide a safe environment, the Government is subsidizing the manufacture or other unsavoury reasons. You can make things really cheap if you don't care about your staff.

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#382

Post by ChrisMarshallNY » Wed, Oct 02, 2024, 2:20 PM UTC

spaceman_2020 wrote: post #307

bradley13 wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A manual wheelchair is less complex than a bicycle, and I can get a decent bicycle for a few hundred bucks. The fact that basic wheelchairs are crazy expensive has little to do with the chairs and a lot to do with insane bureaucracy.

I don’t think most bicycles are designed for 16 hours of daily use…

In nations where bicycles are the norm, I would not be surprised if many of them get used 12+ per day.

NYC is awash in bicycle couriers, and they probably ride all the time.

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#383

Post by ChrisMarshallNY » Wed, Oct 02, 2024, 2:22 PM UTC

I find the story of the company inspiring.

As someone that Serves a small, rather shunned demographic, I applaud them.

One difference, though, is that I am not competing with moneyed interests. They can play dirty.

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#384

Post by bityard » Wed, Oct 02, 2024, 2:25 PM UTC

DrammBA wrote: post #380

eru wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, only 1 billion bicycles? I would have expected more than that. In most of the places I lived (Europe, Asia) there seems to be more than one beater bike per person lying around somewhere (and some nice bikes, too, but much fewer).

I'm actually surprised it's 1 billion, when you remove children, elderly, people simply out of shape for a bike, people unable to afford a bike no matter how cheap, people with disabilities incompatible with bikes, that billion is like 75%+ coverage of TAM.

Is that 1 billion adult bikes in particular? Because in the US, anywhere outside of big cities or college towns, children are ALMOST the only people who ride bikes regularly.

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#385

Post by watwut » Wed, Oct 02, 2024, 2:28 PM UTC

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…

I used to buy cheapest I can get away of everything and I have to tell you, there is real difference between cheapest bikes you reference, bikes that cost few hundred $ and $1000 bike.

The difference is in speed, effectivity (how tired you get per km), comfort, how much it hurts when terrain is bad and pretty much any other factor you can think off. Those cheap bikes are fine if you go to work and back, 15min drive each way. Or for kids to play around town.

But if you bike a lot, then you really want better bike.

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#386

Post by eru » Wed, Oct 02, 2024, 2:56 PM UTC

DrammBA wrote: post #380

eru wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, only 1 billion bicycles? I would have expected more than that. In most of the places I lived (Europe, Asia) there seems to be more than one beater bike per person lying around somewhere (and some nice bikes, too, but much fewer).

I'm actually surprised it's 1 billion, when you remove children, elderly, people simply out of shape for a bike, people unable to afford a bike no matter how cheap, people with disabilities incompatible with bikes, that billion is like 75%+ coverage of TAM.

Some good points.

Many (most?) children have bikes, and lots of elderly people have some bikes somewhere in a shed back from when they used to be able to ride.

Almost everyone can afford a beater bike. That's why they are so common in the third world.

I'm not sure how out of shape you need to be not to be able to ride a bike? In any case, I wasn't wondering about how many people actively ride bikes. I was wondering how many bikes there are.

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#387

Post by rs999gti » Wed, Oct 02, 2024, 3:01 PM UTC

averageRoyalty wrote: post #333

ninalanyon wrote: post #303

In the UK you can buy a simple wheelchair for 132 GBP: https://www.uk-wheelchairs.co.uk/ugo-essential-self-propelle... And what look like slightly fancier ones for between 300 and 500 GBP: https://www.millercare.co.uk/collections/self-propel-wheelch... A magnesium alloy framed one is only 450 GBP: https://www.mobilitysmart.co.uk/magnelite-self-propelled-whe... So what am I missing?

My first kagi result also shows many options below AUD $1000 (USD $700 or so): https://www.buywheelchair.com.au/ I suspect it's like anything in the US - despite much of the global research being done there at taxpayer expense, Americans seem to get screwed over on anything health or medicine related. And they continue to argue that their health system is a good one, for some weird Stockholm Syndrome-esque reason I s…

> Americans seem to get screwed over on anything health or medicine related. And they continue to argue that their health system is a good one, for some weird Stockholm Syndrome-esque reason I suppose.

"U.S. allies ride free on American defense spending. Health care, indeed, is a kind of second NATO."

https://archive.is/sI50E

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#388

Post by johnisgood » Wed, Oct 02, 2024, 3:15 PM UTC

bradley13 wrote: post #278

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…

A manual wheelchair is less complex than a bicycle, and I can get a decent bicycle for a few hundred bucks. The fact that basic wheelchairs are crazy expensive has little to do with the chairs and a lot to do with insane bureaucracy.

Yeah, but can you climb chairs with a bicycle? There are wheelchairs that can do that.

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#389

Post by delfinom » Wed, Oct 02, 2024, 3:16 PM UTC

astura wrote: post #372

hug wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, it’s one banana, Michael. What could it cost, ten dollars? This thread is now full of people who, with real lived experience, will tell you that $200 bike served them perfectly well, but downvotes rain in from people who spend five times more than a middle-Americans month’s worth of savings on a bike and won’t hear of anything less. It’s not often that the class divide on HN is so front and centre, but it is…

>It’s not often that the class divide on HN is so front and centre, but it is here. It's an entire forum of people who have never experienced scarcity so they can't understand it.

Unlike a bike, where able-bodied individuals can take the trade off buying it for cheap and risking it breaking a weld and having to gasp walk.

People that are handicapped kind of need their wheelchair not to break unexpectedly.

I don't see anything being out of touch here. You can absolutely get a $100-$200 bike, and it's completely fine if your use is casual. You start going up in bike prices when you start talking about more and more serious use of bikes which is what probably users here think of. Road bikes are hyper focused on cutting every gram with the most efficient cranksets, MTBs are focused on shear abuse and you absolutely will destroy a $100 bike in a month if you actually ride seriously.

Re: A $1k Wheelchair

#390

Post by delfinom » Wed, Oct 02, 2024, 3:20 PM UTC

jillesvangurp wrote: post #242

I just did a search for wheelchairs on the German version of Amazon. I'm not in the market but I was just curious. https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/bestsellers/drugstore/28602980... There are lots of models with very reasonable prices and features; mostly well below 1000 euros. Including a few electric ones. Manual ones seem to be generally well below 500 euros. At 1000 euros we're talking some seriously tricked out mod…

Everyone is whooooooshing on this because they literally don't understand using wheelchairs.

Not-A-Wheelchair is offering wheelchairs customized to your dimensions. Many insurance wheelchairs that cost $$$$$ are also custom built/fitted to your dimensions. There are absolutely cheap wheelchairs in the US. But people in wheelchairs due to permanent disabilities want comfort and rightfully deserve it. The designs being worked on here by Not-A-Wheelchair are basically all "lifestyle" chairs, rather than boring "temporary injury" chairs.