A Mountain Bike for People with SCI

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Mother Nature has been wise enough to create two laws of physics that, when used properly, can make life for those of us with limited mobility feel less restricted—even liberated. Those concepts are buoyancy, as in swimming, scuba diving, or snorkeling, and gravity, as in skydiving, skiing, bungee jumping, or mountain biking downhill.

It was gravity that motivated Dr. Jeff Rosenbluth, director of spinal cord injury and director of the TRAILS (Therapeutic Recreation and Independent Lifestyles) program at the Rehabilitation Center at University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics to begin collaboration with the university’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. 

The reason for the collaboration:  the development of an off-road “mountain chair” that would enable people with high-level (C6) spinal cord injuries to experience the thrill and freedom of true downhill mountain biking—safely. The revolutionary machine, still in the prototype stage, will make it possible for spinal cord injury survivors with minimal shoulder, tricep and wrist movement to steer and brake, while high-profile wheels enhance side-to-side stability, preventing it from tipping over.