Lockdown Roller 1.0

Requirement; to produce an exercise solution based on the user manually propelling a wheelchair in an indoor environment during the Covid lockdown, winter 2020.

The project also had a series of design specifications and restrictions.

• The exercise solution should allow the user to manually propelled their own wheelchair, without modification to the chair. Winter is always a challenge to get sufficient pushing exercise outdoors due to temperature and weather, not to mention the restrictions of Covid lockdown.
• It is important that the usual muscle groups used for wheelchair propelling are being utilised and maintained.
• Although existing “rolling road” style wheelchair exercise equipment is available the cost because can sometimes be prohibitive. The aim was to keep the budget for this project as low as possible.
• Assembly and construction of the exercise equipment should require very little technical skill and knowledge be as intuitive as possible. You can’t make assumptions that wheelchair users will have access to workshop equipment or that they or their friends and relatives have engineering skill.. The decision was made to provide a solution required no tools to assemble.

The Lockdown Roller 1.0 is simply a wooden ramp which holds 2 bicycle training roller assemblies side-by-side.

Would you like to make your own Lockdown Roller 1.0?

The bicycle training rollers used in this project were purchased through Amazon and are readily available. No tools required to modify. Each assembly arrives with an extendable frame and a third roller attached. This third roller and frame is simply removed.

Click here if you would like further information on the cycle training rollers used.

Two units simply sit into holes on the Lockdown Roller 1.0 baseboard and are held securely in position side-by-side. If you want to vary the effort needed to turn the wheelchair wheel then reduce or increase the pressure on a wheelchair tires.

The roller ramp pictured is made from 6 mm hardwood ply which has been laser cut to shape. There are a number of laser cut providers based around the UK. The Lockdown Roller 1.0 was cut by what-a-geek based in Leicester. Click here for more details.

You can download the DXF files for the plywood profiles here:

1. Base_Plate, You will need one of these: Download here.
2. Roller_Base_Web, You will need one of these; Download here.
3. Ramp_Rib1, You will need 6 of these; Download here
4. Ramp_Top, You will need one of these; Download here.
5. Ramp_Top_Reinforce, You will need 2 of these; Download here.

You can also download a free copy of edrawings and take a look at the full assembly drawing of a ramp to see how it all goes together. (Download the assembly file here).