What's unique about him? Now he DIYs China's first wheelchair mountain bike, with video | Accidentally trapped him in a wheelchair

December 3rd is the International Day for People with Disabilities. Noel Joyce, an interactive media and business teaching instructor at NYU Shanghai, built China's first wheelchair mountain bike, using innovative design to realize the cross-country dream of people with disabilities. What’s unique about this wheelchair mountain bike? What's the story behind it?

In Charleville Forest, County Offaly, Ireland, an 18th-century Gothic castle stands among ancient oak trees. This land was a place where Joyce often visited when he was young, and it was also his favorite riding paradise.

Joyce has loved cycling since she was a child. "Mountain biking allows me to ride in the forest, challenge more steep terrain, get close to nature, and appreciate different scenery." He said. As a teenager, Joyce worked at a local bicycle shop and honed his skills in bicycle repair. When he was 14 years old, a "simple yet elegant" mountain bike on the cover of a magazine caught his attention. Since then, his love for mountain biking has grown out of control.

Joyce enlisted in the army in his 20s, where he kept his love for cycling. He represented the army in various cross-country events, mountain biking, kayaking, forest cross-country running... He served in the army for five years.

However, an accident occurred while riding in 2006, and Joyce had to use a wheelchair from then on. While trying to adapt to a life of paralysis, she also had to take care of the children at home. Mountain biking gradually faded out of his world, and he had to retire from the sport and explore a career path again.

In 2004, Noel Joyce served in Liberia with the Irish Army.

After personally experiencing the inconveniences caused by physical disabilities, Joyce hopes to bring positive changes to the lives of people with disabilities through her work.

In 2007, he entered the Carlow Institute of Technology in Ireland to study product innovation design. Later, he became the design director of Shenzhen HAX Intelligent Hardware Accelerator, cooperating with more than 200 start-up companies, covering multiple fields such as robotics and consumer products.

In July 2021, Joyce started a new career journey and joined NYU Shanghai as a teaching instructor in interactive media and business, teaching courses such as "Innovation Laboratory" and "Character Prototype Design".

Affected by the epidemic, he could only teach remotely in Ireland, and during this period, he rediscovered his passion for cycling.

One day, Joyce and a neighbor decided to explore the newly built mountain trails on Broome Mountain, the same trails he had ridden as a child. Now, he is once again riding a wheelchair mountain bike specially made by a wheelchair manufacturer on the mountain trails. Joyce recalled: “The wonderful heart-pounding feeling that riding brought me came back, even stronger, because when it was taken away from me, I thought I would never ride again.”

However, the wheelchair mountain bike soon started to malfunction. To buy a new professional wheelchair mountain bike, you need to wait at least six months and the price is more than $15,000. As an industrial designer and rider, Joyce contacted manufacturers of customizable mountain bikes around the world, hoping that a company would be willing to tailor-make a mountain bike for him from scratch. Finally, a Spanish manufacturer responded and built him a custom mountain bike. But not long after, while riding in the woods, the car was crashed again. Joyce was once again left waiting for an expensive new mountain bike.

This is a common dilemma faced by many people with disabilities. “We can’t enjoy sports and do what we want to do because our bodies are more fragile than able-bodied people, so we have to pay longer time and money to enjoy a sport. "Joyce said.

A new thought came to me. Joyce decided to use his experience and expertise to personally design and build a wheelchair mountain bike that would be more affordable, stronger and more compact, and easier to buy. In April 2022, he started design work in Ireland. But because he was going to teach at New York University in the second half of the year, his research and development plans had to be put on hold.

At NYU, Joyce received funding from the Tandon School of Engineering’s Vertical Integration Program. This is a project-based interdisciplinary research platform where teachers and students can participate together.

Driven by this project, the "Thor's Hammer" open source project was born. The name of the project comes from the giant hammer held by the brave and capable Thor in Norse mythology, which symbolizes strength. "Open source" is a major feature of this project, which allows anyone to modify and share the technology. The goal of the project is to build a wheelchair mountain bike and customize it for wheelchair users who love sports.

Joyce teamed up with Phil Caridi, makerspace lab manager at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Molly Ritmiller, design lab manager at NYU Tandon School of Engineering, and a group of students to begin the project in January 2023, with plans to take place at NYU Wheelchair mountain bikes are built at three campuses in New York, Abu Dhabi and Shanghai. Joyce said, “Diversity and inclusion are the core values ​​of New York University. It would be great if we could work with talents from all fields on the three campuses and make full use of resources to design and build an unprecedented open source wheelchair mountain bike. Remarkable thing.”

Noel Joyce assembles a mountain bike he designed at NYU Shanghai.

The team uses design software and 3D printers to create models, which are then sent to model makers to make parts. Next, team members assembled these customized parts into a three-wheeled electric wheelchair mountain bike about 2 meters long and 80 centimeters wide.

There are several unique features about this bike. First, the wheels are equipped with hydraulic brakes that work independently, allowing the bike to navigate tight corners. Secondly, the rider can control the bicycle through the hand pedal at the front to realize various operation modes of automatic, manual or electric manual. Third, bicycles can be customized according to the rider's body shape and physical condition, and can even be modified to become a daily transportation tool for the elderly.

This spring, the first wheelchair mountain bike built by Joyce and his Quake team was completed and unveiled on the New York campus. In June, he continued to promote this innovative project by teaching at the NYU Abu Dhabi campus, where he successfully built a second bicycle and the first wheelchair mountain bike in the UAE. During the summer vacation, he returned to Ireland and successfully built his third bicycle. During this period, product upgrades continued, and the performance and cost-effectiveness of the new bike continued to improve.

In July 2023, Rachael Wallach, who was paralyzed due to spinal cord injury 23 years ago, rode a wheelchair mountain bike designed by Joyce on the trails of Freshkills Park in Staten Island, New York.

In October this year, Joyce came to the Qiantan campus of NYU Shanghai and in less than two days, he built his fourth wheelchair bicycle and the first wheelchair mountain bike in China. The estimated cost of the bike is about $4,000, which is only one-third of the price of the same model sold in the United States. Joyce successfully proved that a wheelchair mountain bike can be DIYed. He plans to later publish the design files online, making them freely available to everyone and allowing users to adjust them to their needs.

What's more, consumers no longer have to wait up to six months to purchase a wheelchair bike, as they did in the past. At the same time, he also hopes that the manufacturing process will provide others with skills so that they can learn to assemble and repair themselves.

Alex, head of the Department of Interactive Media and Business at NYU Shanghai and associate professor of music education and technology, commented that research projects like the one led by Joyce can have a great impact on the local community, “Universities, especially universities like NYU Shanghai Such an international institution of higher learning can become a cradle of innovation, which will not only benefit the students here, but also benefit the local community and the world.”

Joyce himself saw the impact of innovation.

Dachengzi is the UP owner of the accessibility evaluation area on the video website "Bilibili" and lives in Shanghai. She uses her lens to record the real life of people with disabilities on social media and convey the concept of barrier-free travel. After hearing about Joyce’s wheelchair mountain bike, Dachengzi came to the NYU Shanghai campus to try it out.

Having never ridden a bicycle before, she was full of curiosity and anticipation for this trial ride. Dachengzi was a little nervous as she moved from a regular wheelchair to a mountain bike. But as Joyce repeatedly adjusted and helped her adapt, Dachengzi relaxed. She started to "pedal" the car with her hands and circled around the campus.

Da Chengzi tried Noel Joyce’s wheelchair mountain bike for the first time on the NYU Shanghai campus.

“I especially like to get close to nature, but most public places lack barrier-free facilities and I can’t go anywhere.” Dachengzi said, “I admire Joyce for sharing his designs for free with people in need. I believe that with this bike, more wheelchair users will get out of their homes and experience a sense of adventure.”

Joyce's move to open up the design of shared wheelchair bicycles has attracted more people with disabilities to pay attention to and participate in this innovative product.

Wang Feng is a member of the "Hand Cycle China" organization, which advocates wheelchair users to try hand bicycles. He tried out the bikes designed by Joyce himself and expressed interest in building a few for their next cycling trip to Inner Mongolia.

Open source design files are expected to be released early next year. Joyce plans to work with local manufacturers to produce the first batch of mountain bikes. He hopes that this project will attract the attention of more industry partners and promote the "barrier-free movement" to people with disabilities locally and even globally.