The Wheelchair Sports Federation website describes the sport as involving the use of a modified bicycle that replaces foot pedals with hand cranks, allowing people with spinal cord injuries and other disabilities that limit the use of their lower extremities to cycle. The brakes are also located on the steering column.
Most handcycles are designated as lean steer cycles. This means in order to steer, an individual has to lean into turns much like a bobsledder. The activity involves the use of the entire body, not just the arms.
According to the Canadian Paralympic Committee website, handcycling is one of the four types of paracycling practiced currently at the Summer Paralympics. In competition settings, especially at national or transnational events like the Paralympics, both individual and team events are held. Some common examples include the 1,000-metre time trial and road tours.
What does an old barn in Massachusetts have to do with handcycles?
In 1987, lifelong cycling enthusiast and inventor, Mike Augspurger, created the first multi-use handcycle for wheelchair athletes. His inspiration was a Schwinn bicycle that he had as a child during his years growing up in Fort Wayne, Ind.
Wanting a lighter product for mountain-biking, he designed the first titanium bike and handcycle frames. From Merlin Metalworks, which he sold in 1988, he founded One-Off Titanium with his wife Leni Fried.
He was the first to implement measures to perfect the speed and safety of handcycles. Strapped supports for the rider’s legs would allow them to lean forward when grabbing the steering column, improving comfort and aerodynamics for competitions.
The company has been rebranded, splitting up the manufacturing and decoration of the bikes between Augspurger and his wife, who is an artist as well as his business partner.
As for the old farm house in Cummington, Mass., this is where the handcycles are built and painted. Augspurger continues to manufacture the models himself. The finished products are sold in the store at the front of the workshop.
(This biography was compiled by the Lemelson-MIT Program that commemorates inventors and uses their stories to inspire youth. It is sponsored by the Lemelson Foundation founded by inventor Jerome H. Lemelson and his wife Dorothy in 1994.)
