Push Rims

With it being the season of snow accumulation, wet tires and push rims, and the friction reduction caused by the cold, this post is very intentionally timed for now.

There are the less frequent mobility enhancers such as the recently mentioned Lever Door Knobs and Automatic Door Openers but, for every push of the wheels with paralyzed hands, coated hand rims make all the difference. Losing your grip part way through a push wastes energy, can cause a loss of balance and, if it happens on a slope, can make you need to stop, straighten out, and restart your climb.

When first establishing my preferred choices of traction enhancement The Gloves were an obvious option given to me. However, the first pair I tried that had only leather palms were not enough to give me efficient pushes on uncoated rims. It was standard procedure for the rehab department to provide plastic coated hand rims for people in my situation but, at the time, they did not have a a set that would fit on the chair I was in. I made due. After being approached by a variety of wheelchair salespersons, making the reality of my situation more concrete, I was given a few different makes and models of chair to try. Many of those did not come with coated hand rims and additional traction was added in the form of surgical tubing wrapped around the bare aluminum push rims. It helped but for the most part it just rolled on the rims.

Once I discovered the gloves with the patch of rubber sewn to the palms, in combination with plastic coated hand rims, I did a lot better. That is, until they got wet. It seemed that no amount of force or effort would give me a good push when those rims had any water or snow on them. That went for braking, as well. Some of the injuries to my fingers that occurred because I had no breaking make me cringe at remembering them.

It is only within the last few years that newer products have come on the market. Typically they are third-party push rims made from varieties of material such as plastic mixed with neoprene or other rubbers. Black Sparkles are the type pictured above and seem to provide a respectable mix between durability and additional traction. However, they are becoming very hard to find and for quite some time the precision in which the tabs that bolt to the actual wheel rim was sloppy and you were simply lucky to get a set that would fit your rims properly.

I tried two sets of Push Blax which provided excellent grip when dry and reasonable grip when they were wet. Unfortunately, the durability of these was abysmal and when I was using them there were black crumbs of rubber absolutely everywhere. On the dash of my van, in my shoes, on my desk, simply everywhere. My second set wore out one week before our trip to Vancouver and Seattle, the cities with the most hills that I have ever been to, where I needed traction and braking more than I ever have before.

My current set are Q Grip and are holding up beautifully, almost as durable as standard plastic push rims with nearly as much grip as the Push Blax. I have yet to test them through a winter but from the rain I have been in I suspect they will perform nicely.

Rim coatings will get dinged up from running into things and worn down from braking but your chair shouldn't need to be in the shop for an extra day more often than it already needs to. And in the time between maintenance you should be able to get where you are going based on your strength, not on the deficiencies of paralyzed hands.

Source: Wheelchair dealers and mobility stores.