Summer Fun: Cycling for Everybody

Bicycle tours are a great joy for everyone –both short, spontaneous trips to the next cafe or pub or longer, guided camping tours. And trikes, handbikes and tandems offers a lot of cycling possibilities for people with different handicaps. 01/06/2004

Handcycling also improves ones
personal fitness; © Rodja/Pixelio.de

Handbikes are simply hitched on a regular wheelchair. Different types of handbikes are available, offering an individual amount of mobility and speed for each driver. ‚Allround-bikes‘ can be easily assembled and are designed for regular, rather unhurried trips to town. For more speed, you can mount a ‚sport-bike‘ onto your normal wheelchair. Handbike athletes have to switch seats – as their competition bikes are special devices, geared for fast paces during races and marathons.

Handcycling improves not just the personal fitness, but enables handicapped cyclists to go on tours, practice and compete with non-disabled cyclists and runners.

Integration through cycling can also be achieved by tandems – they offer blind people the chance to ride a bike together with a seeing companion. The concept of a blind–seeing team does not only work during competitions, a German bicycle tour operater has added mixed tandem tours to his summer programme.

Further Information:
- British Cycling Federation – Disability Cycling
- United States Handcycling Federation