Francisco Lupin’s all mountain wheelchair: what happened

The all mountain wheelchair that borrowed from the bike trail

In 2009 an Argentine design student built a three-wheeled wheelchair for rough ground, with suspension, 26-inch wheels and a fiberglass seat. The project was exhibited in Milan the next year and never went into production. Other makers brought the same idea to market from 2011.

What it was

Francisco Lupin studied industrial design at the National University of Mar del Plata in Argentina and finished in 2009. His major university project was a wheelchair for rough ground, designed for people with reduced movement in the legs.

He called it the all mountain wheelchair, a term from mountain biking, and built it the way a bike is built. Two 26-inch wheels with knobby tires carry the rider, and a smaller wheel at the rear adds a third point of support. A suspension system adapts to the rider’s weight, and the camber of the two big wheels can be adjusted. The seat is a fiberglass shell with upholstery and an adjustable belt.

The argument was about cost as much as terrain. Lupin wrote that the high price of sports wheelchairs kept many people out of sport, and that his chair should compete with the ones on the market on both cost and benefits. His portfolio shows more than renders: a full-size prototype, photographed outdoors on gravel and fallen leaves.

A wheelchair for rough ground has more in common with a mountain bike than with a hospital chair.

Where the idea went

In April 2010 the project was part of the Well-Tech exposition at Palazzo Isimbardi during Milan Design Week. Lupin says the Italian studio behind the show invited him. That is the last public trace of the chair. We found no manufacturer and no sale.

The idea reached buyers by other routes. In Britain, Tim Morgan had built a first prototype as his final-year engineering project at the University of Bath in 2007. His three-wheeled Mountain Trike, with lever drive, air suspension and hydraulic brakes, came off the production line in August 2011. In the United States, a team from MIT launched the Freedom Chair in 2014, with three big wheels, a lever drive and standard bicycle parts for easy repairs.

Lupin stayed close to the trail. By his own account he joined a research team at the National Technological University in Mar del Plata that develops products for disabled people. His later portfolio is mostly bicycle work, including the MET Lupo all mountain helmet presented at Eurobike in 2015.

What it means now

The three projects share one insight. Big wheels, suspension and bicycle components do the work off road, and they come from an industry that already makes them in large numbers.

They also show why a good prototype is not enough. Lupin had a finished chair and an invitation to Milan. Morgan’s company describes five years of design and development before its first chair was delivered. Turning a degree project into equipment that people rely on takes a company.

The brief has not changed. Wheelchair users who want to leave the pavement deserve gear designed with the same care as any other outdoor equipment. In 2009 that was a student’s argument. Today there are companies built on it.