I haven’t posted for ages, mostly because I’ve been giving updates on Twitter instead. This blog was originally about my learning how to navigate the world while disabled and especially about how to buy and use wheelchairs for doing charity distance events.

This, I have done.

Over the last few years, I’ve done well over a dozen wheelchair half marathons, I did 2000 wheelchair miles in a year and I did a virtual wheelchair trip to Mordor (1815 miles) in about four months. All of this was done to raise money for the amazing nia, which is a charity run by women for women who are survivors of domestic and sexual violence. So far, people have been generous enough to donate about £10k to various crowdfunders, all of which has gone directly to nia.

But this year, I decided everyone was probably bored with the wheelchair stuff and that I needed a new kind of challenge anyway. So I bought a handbike! Here it is!

I don’t know anything about handbikes and I’m not even sure what kind of events I’m going to do to keep raising money for nia, so I find myself back at the start, right where I was when I got my first chair.

I’m sure others are in the same position, so I thought I’d start blogging about my experiences again on the off-chance it helps or inspires someone. I’m sure the learning curve will be steep and jagged.

First up, I’ll describe buying the bike, attempting to get it serviced and adapting my wheelchair rolling road so I can use it with both the chair and the bike.

I know, you’re on the edge of your seats.

If you’d like to donate to my new crowdfunder, it is here. All donations go directly to nia.

Follow me on Twitter/X with the tag #HellOnAHandbike.