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Handcycling is in principle cycling by using armpower in stead of legpower. Therefore equipment named handcycle is used. Thus a handcycle is an alternative for people who can't or hardly can cycle the regular way.

As written above a handcycle is an armpowered cycle, including chain, gears, cranks and brakesystems. Common for all types of handcycles is the increasing of the mobility for the most wheelchair users. Very quick you can go 3 times faster with a handcycle.

Roughly there are two kinds of handcycles. One type consists of one wheel wich can attached to a wheelchair. The frontwheels of the wheelchair will be lefted up a few cm  and you can go. The other type is a tricycle without the use of a wheelchair also called solid frame. Both types can be divided in different sort of types. Below I will tell further about the different types of handcycles.

Type Handcycles

The attachable handcycle is a sort of fifth wheel which can be attached to a wheelchair. The frontwheels will be lifted ± 5cm. The action of radius can be increased over three times. If the speed with a wheelchair mostly is 5 km/h. With such an ataachable wheel you will go over the 15 km/h. There are two types of bikes. The AP (Arm powered) and ATP (Arm Trunk Powered). The first sort does have straight cranks. The cycle movement of the handcyclist is high because the cranks must go above the legs. With an ATP your rotating movement happens lower. This is possible by the use of bullhorn cranks. (click on the image for a larger one). With this bike you can use more trunk power and more musclepower.

The solid frames are handpowered tricycles. Because you need the make a transfer this cycles are less suitable for ADL (All Day Living) usage in case of wheelchair dependency. On the other hand they are much more suitable for competition. You can recognize four types of solid frame handcycles. AP tour, AP competition, ATP longseat and ATP kneeseat. The names speak for them self.

Possibilities

Do you want to handcycle there aredifferent acivitie you can do. You can use your handcycle strictly as transport equipment, but you can do more.

A possibility is to do pleasure rides. For this you can choose the few events which are special organized for handcyclists, wheelers and wheelchair users like the famous "twentse rolstoelvierdaagse" at Delden (Holland). Further is hardly never a problem when you do a ride beside regular bicycles.

Handcycling in competition is also a possibility. In this sport top speeds far above 30 km/h. The most common distances are 10 km, 10 english miles, half marathon and full marathon. But sometimes the distance is much more. For instance. every year there is a race of 170 km in Switzerland.

There is an national and a European competition. They are called NHC (National Handbike circuit) and EHC (European Handbike Circuit). The national circuit in Holland was been organized by the "RRCN". This nowadays organized by the KNWU by meaning of integration of disabled sports into regular federations. KNWU in the Netherlands is the federation who is responsible for cycling. Because of this the traditional distances are seen less often as in the early days of this beautiful sport.

Cycle holidays are also organized. There are several companies which have a business in this.

Send mail to info@seinesnippe.nl  with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: 08/13/11