NuDrive Original – Wheel Adapter

Item Description:
A unique lever-activated drive and braking system, enabling forwards drive, braking, turning and reverse; all without touching the wheels.

Source of Item:
eBay

Diagnosis:
Not Disclosed

Personal Opinion:
These are the original levers made by Nu Drive and not the Nu Drive air version, which is a much better and improved product. The levers attach really easily to the chair via the snap style lock, though we bought second-hand and one lever never worked perfectly from the start. To operate you simply push the levers to go forward and squeeze them together to break – very useful if you want to use them to do a wheelie up a curb. The concept is great and it really does help people with unstable joints, arthritis, EDS and any other condition where you need to protect your shoulders/wrists. At the time of purchase, I had severe Chronic Pain Disorder in one of my shoulders so I could not use a wheelchair properly or build any strength up. They would also be good for people who need to keep their hands clean as you aren’t rubbing against the tyres!

There is one flaw when the levers do not return correctly, meaning you have to take your hands off and quickly manoeuvre with just your wheels. An example of this being a problem would be getting in or out of a car, or even when you have one lever on and one lever off; although they have corrected this by bringing out the Nu Drive Air as a follow-up. Alternatively, if you wanted to use them with a steering attachment like the German Vosara then you will need to upgrade to the Nu Drive Air because the return then becomes part of the driving process.

To conclude – I don’t think a strong healthy person who can self propel with ease would benefit from these unless they wanted to use them on more challenging terrain such as the great outdoors because then they really come into their own – especially with a front-wheel attachment.