FreeWheel Attachment: The Best Wheelchair Add-on Ever?

In the crazy expensive world of adaptive equipment, getting anything under $1000 for a significant piece of mobility equipment is unheard of, and that’s exactly why the FreeWheel Wheelchair attachment is getting so much buzz, and why we here at SPINALpedia have decided to dedicate an entire post to it.

For only $500, you can turn your manual wheelchair into an all-terrain wheelchair. Taking a mere 15 seconds to snap onto a manual wheelchair, the FreeWheel is a singular wheel that sits in front of your chair. It really is a brilliant design.  It lifts up the front casters just enough, and opens up the outdoors to manual wheelchair-users and making it possible to get through previously impossible train – sand, gravel, snow, even curbs.

And not surprisingly, thanks to its low price, thousands of wheelchair-users have been able to get one for their own, with many making videos showing the world what they think of this highly popular piece of equipment. Here are three awesome user-made videos showing what people have thought of the FreeWheel.

Our first video comes from Elizabeth Ferris, a wheelchair-user from the UK.  She just got her very first FreeWheel attachment last month, and made a short 1:56 minute video showing her “first go” at it, as they say across the pond. After snapping it onto the front of her chair, she rolls around in tiny rocks showing how smoothly she can get through them thanks to the attachment. And then she removes it just to show how much it helps. Watch her first try with the FreeWheel

In the second user-made video, we found a thorough review of the FreeWheel from DisabilityChat. If you’re seriously considering buying one, then this is the video to watch.  Six minutes long, a knowledgeable wheelchair-user gives a detailed review, starting out by showing how it looks up close and how you attach it to your chair using its “friction fit.”

He also shows him using the FreeWheel, maneuvering through his bumpy lawn and getting to his garden. He says he has one of the bumpiest lawns ever, and the FreeWheel can get through it without any issue. Its main impressive feature – it prevents accidental flip-overs. Watch the review

Our third video comes with some European flair, Amsterdam to be specific, courtesy of Mathys Roets, a super active paraplegic. The FreeWheel attachment is also a dream come true for wintertime, as Mathys shows in his video. He shows himself zipping around on snowy roads at a ski resort using the attachment, not getting stuck whatsoever.

As someone who grew up in Minnesota and gets her wheelchair stuck in the snow all the time, this is really quite something to see. Watch the FreeWheel cut through snow

It’s not every day a product gets the attention of so many people in the disability community, and the FreeWheel is certainly one of them.  It’s no wonder though.  When a product can return so much independence and not more than the price of a new vehicle for once, it’s easy to fall in love.

Have you used the FreeWheel attachment yet?

Visit the site: GoFreewheel.com

Watch the videos!

– A woman’s first try using a FreeWheel

– Review of FreeWheel from Disability Chat

– Demoing the FreeWheel Attachment in the snow