Adaptive Adventures: How Gear Innovations Are Helping More People Access the Outdoors

Adaptive Adventures: How Gear Innovations Are Helping More People Access the Outdoors

That’s something always on Tommy Ausherman’s mind when he’s in the outdoors. “Anytime I’m out on a trail, I’m always thinking about what it would take to get someone with no leg and hand function from this spot where I’m at to that spot up there without any assistance from anyone else,” he said.

Ausherman’s interest in electric bikes started while attending Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C. Twice while riding his bike to class, he had close encounters with a truck passing and grazing him. In 2011, Ausherman started playing around with designs for a bike that could keep up with the flow of traffic, focusing on speed, ability to climb hills, and load range, before eventually adding a second wheel in front to enhance stability. But a few years after establishing Outrider USA in Fletcher, N.C., and manufacturing e-bikes for a niche market, Ausherman didn’t feel like they were making an impact in the way he had envisioned.

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That’s when he got a call from Dr. Chris Wenner wanting to know if OutRider would be interested in helping design a bike for adaptive riders. “Twenty-five years after [Wenner had] broken his neck, he had this recurring dream where he’d gone into this bike shop and got just the right parts off the shelf to build a bike he could ride as a quadriplegic,” Ausherman said. But at the end of the dream, the bike never gets built. This was exactly the change in direction Ausherman had been hoping to find.

When it comes to designing adaptive bikes, Ausherman discovered that making up the power differential was the easy part with the addition of electric assist. Where the company spends most of its time is figuring out how to increase rider confidence and control over steering and braking, especially for riders whose upper bodies have been impacted.

Outrider offers a variety of control systems, including handcycles, foot pedals, single-sided controls, and Tri pin controls for riders with little-to-no hand function. “It’s pretty amazing how the human body adapts to be able to engage whatever muscles are there and able to contribute,” Ausherman said. Outrider allows riders to test machines before deciding on a purchase and will even recommend other manufacturers whose designs might be more suitable. In the future, they aim to create a headset that would allow riders to control the bike through head movement.

Despite advances in technology, the problem for many e-bike users, disabled or not, remains access to trails. While private trail systems ...

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