Triride
Italian manufacturers Triride specialise exclusively in handbikes, and are rightly considered the market-leaders. Their products feature their own electronics and motors that they have developed exclusively for their handbike models. This allows their handbikes to offer performance levels - whether that be speed, torque, power or range - above and beyond the competitors.
Each of Triride's handbikes is made to order with a range of configuration options. This allows them to be tailored to meet your requirements, rather than being "off the shelf" products with a "one size fits all" approach. The wide range of options includes matching handlebars and controls to your hand function, tyres and batteries to meet your lifestyle demands, or frame colours to complement your wheelchair. Electronic options include adaptive cruise control that can even keep you at a constant speed going downhill, and Triride's Intelligent Braking System, with both mechanical and hydraulic disk brakes are available.
Triride handbikes fit to almost every model of active wheelchair on the market, including those with swing-away legrests, and can be easily mounted and dismounted to allow for quick switching between self-propelling and powered driving, and also to allow for simple transport in a vehicle. Optional T-stands can aid with mounting and demounting, depending on your core strength and experience.
Triride Special Compact HT
The Triride Special Compact HT Power Handbike is the most popular of Triride's models. It features a powerful 1400W high torque motor that can tackle adventurous terrain with ease, particularly when backed up with the popular chunky All Road tyre upgrade. A top speed of 12.4 mph lets you zip around at pace, and the range is up to an impressive 31 miles dependent on battery choice.
Yet despite this, the Compact HT is - as the name suggests - a compact bike, much smaller than many of the massive, unwieldy off-roading handbikes available. The 12" wheel and compact frame allows for much better turning, making the Compact HT just as suited to urban and even indoor environments as it is to cross-country. It also keeps the weight of the frame down to 11.5 kg, which combined with the compact size, mean it is much simpler to transport.
Our Verdict
Many people instinctively look to the T-Rocks or MadMax Triride handbikes when thinking of off-roading. Yet in our experience, they will often end up choosing a Special Compact HT instead, because it lets them do everything they would want with just one handbike. While the T-Rocks and MadMax do allow for an extreme level of off-roading, their size also makes them harder to transport, and unsuitable for manoeuvring around more civilised environs - meaning you would need two handbikes to cover all your requirements.
When combined with a suitable pair of rear wheels - whether that be Loopwheels Extremes or Fat Wheels, the Compact HT will take you up steep hills, along muddy forest trails, and across uneven fields. It can then fit neatly into the back of your car, and be used to go shopping, around the workplace, or even in the house.
We would recommend trying the Special Compact HT alongside Rehasense's PAWS City, a similarly sized handbike that features a unique clamping system.
