At the end of March I took delivery of a new Batec Scramber (One of only 10 in the UK and 30 Worldwide). The Batec is powered front wheel add on that connects to your wheelchair lifting the castors off the ground and essentially turning into a trike.
The Batec Scrambler has a top speed of 28 km/hour (approximately 20 miles an hour), and is the top of the range Batec with a bigger wheel than the other models as well as a reverse gear , suspension and a main beam and dipped headlight. The Main Beam is seriously bright and the suspension has little red leds builts into it so those behind you can see you.
As well as the actual powered wheel you need a special clamp that fits onto your wheelchair and enables you to hook and unhook from the wheel in less than 4 seconds. You are recommended to get the Batec Off Road Wheels and I also got those to help with going over any bumps and provide extra traction on loose surfaces.
I was lucky enough to be told about the Batec range of add-ons for Wheelchairs at Rookwood and they sounded exactly like the sort of thing that would be transformational in terms of being able to get out and about.
I am fortunate to work at Bluestone National Park Resort, a fabulous resort in Pembrokeshire, Wales spread over 500 acres and my job needs me to get around the resort, without my Batec this simply would not be possible on my own. With it I can go anywhere on resort apart from up a series of steps (and there are very few of those).
We have offices that are spread around the resort and also just off site and I am able to get to all of them (and quickly)
The Batec is fast and being so low to the ground in a wheelchair and exposed to the elements makes it feel faster than if you were in a car doing the same speed and has a range that is over 30km on a single charge so more than enough for a day’s work. I have tried it on gravel, loose stone/mud, grass as well as tarmac and it performs great on all of them.
Am particularly looking forward to trying it out on the Beach.
It is not the lightest piece of kit and weighs about 20Kgs so it is a bit of a struggle for my wife to lift into the car boot, but taking the battery off first helps make it a bit more manageable. It is quite a big piece of kit so you will need a decent size boot to fit it and a wheelchair in there.
You are very noticeable on it, and you will notice kids and indeed Adults as you whiz past stating that it’s cool and they wish they could do with one, whilst it is tempting to say that it would be better if you could walk, personally it doesn’t bother me
So the Batec Scramble is a fantastic piece of kit but and this is almost certainly reason you don’t see very many of them around is that they are expensive, I have bought a number of cars that have cost less. There are charities that may be able to help you fund such a piece of kit and the Access to Work Scheme may help part fund it if like me you need to be able to get around your place of work and this is what will help you into or stay in a job.
The UK distributor for all the versions of the Batec (Manual, Electric, Rapid, Min and Scrambler) is Cyclone Mobility . They have provided excellent service that is above and beyond what I expected, when I ordered my Batec Scrambler back in October 2018 and expected delivery was December, I stated that I was off to Disneyland Paris in December over Christmas and would it be possible if it wasn’t ready in time to borrow a demonstration version. They agreed and lent me a Batec Rapid in time to go to Disney and let me continue to borrow it till my new Batec was ready. This was fantastic service and when my Scrambler was delivered, the MD Stuart Dunne, as well as the Rep Chris and the Engineer Lukas all came down to swap over to the Batec Scrambler , all 4 of us in wheelchairs attached our Batecs and zoomed around the resort.
It was great, not just because it was a glorious day but because I felt that even though we all had different injuries that had caused us to be in Wheelchairs we were like one big group (admitedly we were no Hell’s Angels, though my wife is keen for me to wear a Helmet as it does 20mph and she thinks that would be sensible, I would be happy to do so as long as it’s a matt black open face helmet and I wear a Leather Jacket just for the look, somehow I don’t think it is going to happen)
Images courtesy of Cyclone Mobility