AdvenChair, a Bend-made, all-terrain wheelchair, helping more C. Oregonians enjoy the outdoors
(adding video, comments from creator, designer)
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) --AdvenChair, an all-terrain wheelchair designed by Bend resident, Geoff Babb, aims to help people with mobility restrictions enjoy the outdoors.
“I was always mountain biking or skiing or being outside and my main bulk of my career was spent in national resources so I was always outside,” Babb’s said.
Babb’s, a former wildland firefighter, suffered a near-fatal brain stem stroke almost 16 years ago, affecting his mobility.
“Surviving that, I realized that being outside is where I really need to be but my standard wheelchair was not going to do it for me,” Babb’s said.
Rather than lobby for wheelchair-accessible wilderness trails, Babb chose to develop a wheelchair capable of adapting to trails.
Jack Arnold, a retired product development engineer partnered with Babb’s to help create the all-terrain Advenchair.
“We built this specifically around mountain bike parts. They’re more robust than wheelchair parts, they’re more readily available,” said Arnold.
Both men say the device is made almost exclusively in Central Oregon.
Kirin Stryker, of Cogwild Mountain Bike Tours said Babb’s used the bike skills course by her business to test run the wheelchair during its development phases. She thinks it’s great to see him do something great for the community.
“We’re trying to normalize all abilities in recreation and so for our clients who are on mountain bikes to see Jeff and his clients accessing the outdoors on the same trials via a slightly different method is great,” Stryker said.
The wheelchair can hold all sizes from a small child to full grown adult.
“That’s always been a big incentive of ours to make the outdoors accessible for kids as well for older folks,” Babb’s said.
Sales have begun and "demo days" are coming up for AdvenChair.
The AdvenChair team will be hosting demo days where they will be demonstrating how to use the chair to the public beginning August 7th.
