Custom-Built Wheelchairs Fit Customer’S Needs Local Manufacturer Screens Potential Clients Before They Will Build Them The ‘Bounder’

Are you a timid wheelchair driver, or a “hot-rodder?”

Don’t laugh. That’s a serious question on the order form at a local wheelchair manufacturer.

It’s one way that Susan Harris and Ron Prior screen whether potential clients are a good match for their product.

Custom-built chairs at 21st Century Scientific are the sport utility vehicles of the wheelchair world.

They can travel at speeds of 12-1/2 mph. They can be built to withstand lots of steep uphill driving. At 350 pounds, they’re sturdier and heavier than standard models.

And with price tags ranging from $9,000 to $40,000, the chairs - which sell under the “Bounder” label - are more expensive, too.

“We dig a Bounder like hippies dig LSD; it’s fun but dangerous to mess with,” said one tongue-in-cheek Internet reviewer, who rated different lines of wheelchairs. “The manufacturer claims a top speed of 12-plus mph, but many users laugh at that, for many can run twice that fast on a slight downhill.”

Bounders aren’t for everyone, the couple are quick to point out.

“We tend to get the end of the bell curve,” Harris said.

Some clients need a high-speed chair to commute to work or around a large university campus. Others are what Prior calls “aggressive drivers” - those who constantly burn out motors on standard models and need a vehicle that can withstand higher levels of wear.

Also among their clients are people too large to fit comfortably into regular wheelchairs.

“Here’s a real customer,” said Prior, pointing to a picture of a 700-pound man sitting in a chair that resembles a sofa when it’s not occupied.

Prior started 21st Century Scientific two decades ago.

He holds a doctorate in electronics from the University of California at Los Angeles. And while he was working on a project to convert vans for use by disabled people, he realized that many wheelchair users had specialized needs.

He first sold motor kits that allowed people to convert their power wheelchairs into faster vehicles. The kits took the speed of the chairs to 8 mph without wearing down the tires.

“This was radical at the time,” Harris said. In 1979, the average speed on power chairs was 3-4 mph, she said.

The company also sold a line of wheelchair accessories before it started manufacturing its own chairs in 1988.

“By that point, we were manufacturing almost everything but the frame,” Harris said.

The company moved to Coeur d’Alene from Los Angeles in 1990. It is located in the Coeur d’Alene Industrial Park, where it employs 20 people.

Each wheelchair takes about eight weeks to complete, so the company produces a relatively small amount each year, Harris said. The chairs are sold through medical equipment dealers.

Nothing excites Harris more than seeing a Bounder wheelchair in use on the street.

“It’s a real product that real people need and use,” she said.