Ok so at this point I've had two people roll up to me in manual wheelchairs, well, one of them was somebody pushing somebody who was nonverbal at the time, but it still counts. They asked me why I had zip ties around my tires.
It's winter where I'm living and we have really bad snow. And the snow plow people are really bad at their jobs probably because there aren't snow plow people who clean sidewalks. As a solution I got to thinking about how I could increase the traction on my wheels. And the most redneck thing I could think of was taking a bunch of zip ties and tying them around my wheels. They last surprisingly long, and work surprisingly well. It's basically the same premise as chains for your tires during the winter.
I chose to space them out pretty evenly so there's about one for every spoke. You could probably do more or less depending on how many you want and how much traction you get but I wouldn't go more than three per spoke. I realize that it's a bit later in the winter, and I probably should have made a post about this sooner, but I came up with it about a week ago. So please share this, even if you're not disabled, because there are tons of people I know who are stuck in their houses because they can't get around in the snow. A pack of zip ties costs about $5, which compared to $200 knobby snow tires is a big save, and if you want to invest you could get colored zip ties.
Image ID:
First image: a picture of a wheelchair tire from above. The wheel has five white zip ties spread out mostly evenly. The zip ties are situated on top of the tread.
Second image: A picture of the same wheel from the side. The zip tie knobs are pointing down towards the ground. They have been trimmed down.
Third Image: A picture of the same wheel, from a top down side point of view. There are zip ties all around the edge of the wheel, and knobs of the zip ties are all positioned to be on the inside of the wheel, away from the edges.
Here are some pictures for those that are asking! You wanna make sure that the zip tie knobs are facing to the inside of the wheel otherwise you WILL cut up your hands trying to move.
@spacecripple Wanted to make sure you saw this!
@bangtansboyfieyfies I'm not sure with a power chair but depending on the kind of wheels you have, you might be able to use larger zip ties. Anything can help! If you have an extra set of wheels, I know that some bikers will install their own studs (essentially screws) into their wheels, which might be useful for you!
