Hire a Mountain Trike wheelchair - perfect for a field trip

19th May 2016

Generally, we find that our all-terrain wheelchair products are secondary chairs and can be an expensive purchase for a lot of people. To help people experience the great outdoors with our products we took the decision to create a fleet of Mountain Trikes that could be hired out - this is a great option for a couple of reasons - people hire for specific activities - festivals, weekend trips away, school trips and we've even had them hired for weddings! The other option is people hire them to try out at their leisure in their own environment before making the decision to then go onto purchase.

We were contacted by Sophie, who is currently studying a degree in civil engineering at Loughborough University. She'd been looking for a suitable off-road wheelchair to enable her to join her fellow students on a 3-day field course to the Peak District. Sophie struggles with walking and uses a wheelchair for the vast majority of her time, but her day chair would be unsuitable for the trip and wouldn't allow her to join in on the many activities involved on the field trip - hiking up hilly and rocky paths, exploring quarry areas, riverbanks and woodlands.

We knew that the Mountain Trike would be more than adequate to enable Sophie to join in on the trip and responded with some price options for the hire period along with the recommendation of the Push handle, which is an accessory designed to fit behind the Mountain Trike to help friends or family push the rider over any really difficult terrain.

Sophie was keen to try out the Trike before heading out onto the field trip to ensure she was confident the Trike would be suitable for her - we have a number of Experience Centres located throughout the UK where people can try our products or join in on organised activities. Sophie was able to visit our Norfolk centre and test ride a Mountain Trike which she found absolutely fantastic (so much so, that she didn't want to get back into her day chair!) - any doubts that she had about the Trike not being suitable where instantly wiped away - she was straight onto the university staff to help her finalise the hire detail.

Sophie needed a few adjustments to ensure the fit was right for her - such as adjusting the brakes and adding an extension to the footplate - all of which can be made at HQ before delivery.

Sophie returned from her field trip with a glowing report:

"I just wanted to tell you how amazing a time I have had using the Mountain Trike. With it I have got to places that I never thought I'd have reached: on the last day of our Peak District trip we climbed Pindale slope, with the help of my friends, I made it all the way to the top in the Trike, which I never thought I would have been able to achieve. To be able to take part in all of the activities with my peer group has been fantastic - the freedom and independence I felt has been amazing - thank you so much! And if you are ever looking for an ambassador for the Mountain Trike I would love to, as I expect this won't be my last Trike outing."

Here are some pictures from Sophie from her field trip: