A real-world trial around Devonport, Narrow Neck and Stanley Bay
Cycling with Finlay is something I have always loved. When he was younger, we had our manual Duet wheelchair bike, and I could quite happily pedal him around. We had some wonderful adventures together on that bike.
But time moves on, and Finlay is now a much bigger and heavier young man, while Iโm a middle-aged rider who doesnโt quite have the same strength I once had! So, when we had the opportunity to try the Van Raam VeloPlus wheelchair transport bike, imported and sold in New Zealand by Milner Mobility, I was really interested to see whether electric assistance could make cycling together possible again. The answer is yes.
But our trial also taught me something equally important: having a fantastic accessible bike is only one part of the equation. You also need an accessible environment in which to ride it.
Kimberly Graham, Grab Your Wheels
Staying in your own wheelchair
One of the standout features of the VeloPlus for us is that the passenger remains sitting in their own manual wheelchair, which for someone like Finlay, who requires hoisting for transfers, is brilliant. The front platform tilts down to form a ramp, allowing you to roll the wheelchair straight on, secure it in position and raise the platform ready to ride, with no transfer onto a bicycle seat, no hoisting and no lifting. Just as importantly, there is no need to somehow take another wheelchair with us for when we reach our destination.
This was probably one of my favourite things about the VeloPlus, because when we reached somewhere we wanted to stop, I could simply lower the platform again and wheel Finlay off. If we wanted to head into a cafรฉ, we could park the bike, unload and carry on with our day, which for anyone supporting somebody with higher physical needs makes that kind of simplicity incredibly valuable.
How Finlay’s wheelchair was secured
Before heading out, one of the things I wanted to understand was how Finlay’s wheelchair would actually be secured to the VeloPlus. Once I had been shown the process, it was straightforward, and I felt very comfortable with how firmly his wheelchair was positioned on the platform.
Once Finlayโs wheelchair was rolled into position, the fixation straps and hooks were attached securely to his wheelchair frame and tightened before we set off.
There is also a separate restraint for the passenger once the wheelchair itself has been secured.
The VeloPlus we actually trialled
After our trial, I did a bit of detective work because I wanted to make sure I was accurately describing the particular VeloPlus we rode, and using its frame number we were able to establish that the frame was powder-coated at the Van Raam factory on 16 October 2023. Van Raam explains that the first six digits of its 11-digit frame numbers identify the date the frame was painted, which is important because our bike was fitted with Van Raamโs earlier Smart Display electric-assistance controls. Bikes delivered before 1 January 2024 used this Smart Display, before the newer Silent Smart Display became standard, and knowing exactly which controls I had also helped solve a mystery that came up later in our ride. More on that shortly.
Taking the VeloPlus into the real world
Testing an adapted cycle somewhere flat and controlled is one thing, but taking it around Devonport is quite another. With Megan, Finlayโs support person, joining us, we took the VeloPlus out around our local area, including a ride towards Narrow Neck Beach and another down through Stanley Bay and around the Navy Base, which gave us a much better sense of how the bike handled in real-world conditions.
The VeloPlus is a substantial trike, with the current specifications listed by Milner Mobility giving it a length of 253cm and a width of 110cm, while the electric version weighs around 74.8kg before you add the wheelchair and passenger. That width quickly became relevant once we left home, as some of our local footpaths were difficult to navigate because their widths varied, dropped kerbs werenโt always where we needed them, gutters could become obstacles, and some cycling infrastructure simply wasnโt wide enough or practical for a three-wheeled adapted cycle of this size. At times, we actually found riding on the road easier than trying to negotiate the footpath or cycleway.
You can have a wonderfully accessible bike, but you also need accessible cycling infrastructure to use it.
Planning our route around Devonport’s hills
Anyone familiar with Devonport will know that, although we have some lovely flat areas along the waterfront, we also have plenty of hills, so I had to think carefully about our route. When you combine the weight of the VeloPlus itself with Finlay and his wheelchair, gradients really matter, and this was where the electric pedal assistance made an enormous difference. The current VeloPlus sold by Milner Mobility provides pedal assistance up to a standard maximum speed of 20km/h, with an average battery range of around 59km, although actual range can vary considerably depending on conditions and use. For me, though, the most important specification wasnโt really the kilometres, it was the fact that I could cycle with Finlay again. Years ago, I could pedal our manual Duet with him onboard without thinking too much about it, but Finlay is considerably heavier now, and Iโm considerably older! The electric assistance took away so much of that physical load that, instead of concentrating on whether I was strong enough to keep the bike moving, I could actually start enjoying the ride.
It gave me one of the biggest takeaways from our trial:
Narrow Neck โ and finding my confidence
Once we reached the flatter stretches towards Narrow Neck, I started to relax, becoming more comfortable with the width of the VeloPlus, getting used to the steering and gradually picking up a little more speed. That was when Finlay really started enjoying himself. He loves movement and being outdoors, and you could see just how much he enjoyed feeling the wind in his face.
As my confidence increased along those straighter, flatter sections, so did his enjoyment, and mine.
There is something quite special about discovering that you can do something together again that you thought perhaps belonged to an earlier part of your life.
Stanley Bay โ where we really had fun
Another ride took us down towards Stanley Bay and the Navy Base. Megan joined us and, once we were down there, we found a lovely relatively flat circuit. This was where the VeloPlus really came into its own. There was space. There weren’t constant kerbs and narrow paths to negotiate. I wasn’t concentrating on the next hill. I could just ride. And Finlay could enjoy the movement and the speed.
This was probably where we had the most fun. For a while, it wasn’t about adaptive equipment, disability or accessibility. We were simply out enjoying a bike ride together. And, for me, that is exactly what good adaptive equipment should enable.
Electric assist is brilliant โ but what happens when you have to stop?
This became probably the most important real-world lesson from our trial, and I want to make it clear that the VeloPlus electric assistance was excellent. The issue wasnโt necessarily getting up a gradient while the bike was moving, the challenge was what happened when I suddenly had to stop, because when youโre cycling in the real world, you donโt always get to maintain nice, steady momentum. People cross in front of you, traffic lights turn red, vehicles approach, and there are intersections, kerbs, pedestrians and all sorts of other obstacles to contend with. On a flat section, stopping and starting again wasnโt particularly concerning, but on a gradient, with Finlay and his wheelchair onboard, it became a very different situation, and that was exactly what happened coming back up from Stanley Bay.
What goes down eventually has to come back up…
I had planned the route carefully because I knew getting back out of Stanley Bay would be the harder part, and on one uphill section using the road was actually easier than trying to negotiate the footpath. Then a vehicle approached from the opposite direction and I needed to stop, and once I had stopped, I lost all my momentum. Suddenly, something that had been manageable with the electric pedal assistance became a very heavy, stationary VeloPlus carrying both Finlay and his wheelchair, which I somehow needed to get moving uphill again. I couldnโt, so I got off and began pushing, while also trying to use what I understood to be the bikeโs โwalk assistโ to help me. I couldnโt get it to work, and there I was attempting to push Finlay and a very large electric wheelchair bike up a Devonport hill.
Enter one very fit stranger…
Then one of those lovely little moments happened that seems to occur surprisingly often when Finlay and I are out having adventures, a man walking his dog saw me struggling, stopped, and came over to help me push Finlay and the VeloPlus up the hill until we reached a flatter section. It turned out he had recently completed a cycling journey from the very top of the North Island all the way down to the bottom of the South Island, so yes, he was fit! Even so, he told me how much he respected the fact that I was out there giving it a go, and I loved that. Iโm constantly reminded when Finlay and I are out exploring just how many kind people there are around us, and somehow we seem to find ourselves in situations where somebody appears at exactly the right moment and lends us a hand.
So, what was that “walk assist” actually meant to do?
Afterwards, I wanted to understand why I hadnโt been able to get the assistance to work, and now that we know which electric system was fitted to the VeloPlus I rode, we have the correct instructions. It turns out I had misunderstood the function, because Van Raam doesnโt call it walk assist, it calls it starting aid. On the Smart Display fitted to our trial bike, the rider holds down the top button and the electric system can propel the bicycle at approximately 6km/h for up to five seconds without pedalling. Van Raam says the starting aid is designed to provide additional help when starting and extra support when cycling uphill, so in theory that sounds ideal for exactly the situation I found myself in.
What I had understood, however, was that I could get off the VeloPlus and use the electric assistance to help me walk and push the heavily loaded bike uphill, but that isnโt how Van Raam describes the function. It is a starting aid for the rider, rather than a conventional walk-assist designed to help you push the bike alongside you, and that distinction matters. What I should have been doing was using the starting aid to help get the VeloPlus moving again from stationary and then begin pedalling. Would I have felt confident doing that halfway up that particular hill, with Finlay onboard and traffic around me? At the time, no. Would I like another lesson and the opportunity to practise it somewhere safe? Definitely.
That is one of the things I really like about doing these reviews, because sometimes it isnโt until you get a piece of equipment out into the community that you discover the questions you didnโt know you needed to ask. This trial left me with an important one: it isnโt only โCan I cycle up this hill?โ but also, โIf something makes me stop halfway up, can I confidently get us moving again?โ For me, that is a much more realistic way of planning a route with an adapted cycle.
The Van Raam app
I also downloaded the Van Raam e-bike app while trialling the VeloPlus because I was interested in exploring the bikeโs settings, but I couldnโt properly use it because the bike was already assigned to its owner. If this were our own VeloPlus, that would be another part of the electric system I would want to become familiar with. I also think my overall experience would have been quite different after several weeks of riding rather than during a relatively short trial, because, like any large adapted cycle, there is a learning curve and it takes time to build confidence and become familiar with how everything works.
Transport was actually one of our biggest barriers
One of the frustrating things for us was that we couldnโt easily take the VeloPlus somewhere else, so we were confined to our local area for the trial because we simply donโt have a practical way of transporting a cycle of this size.
That was a shame, because put us on a wide, relatively flat, separated cycle trail and I think this bike would absolutely come into its own. There are some fantastic dedicated cycleways around Auckland that I would have loved to try, and I can also imagine a VeloPlus being wonderful somewhere like Christchurch, where large parts of the city are considerably flatter than Devonport. The current VeloPlus available through Milner Mobility can be ordered with a separable frame, allowing the bike to be divided for easier transport and storage, although Milner lists this as an optional extra rather than something fitted to every VeloPlus. If transport were an important consideration, that is definitely an option I would investigate.
Feeling safe with Finlay onboard
One thing I felt very comfortable about was Finlayโs position on the front platform, where he remained in his own wheelchair directly in front of me so I could see him throughout the ride and immediately tell how he was responding. There was absolutely no mistaking his reaction either, he loved it. Being able to stay in his own wheelchair also meant that when we reached our destination I could simply unload him and carry on, which makes the VeloPlus much more than just a recreational bike. You can actually use it as part of an outing, riding somewhere, stopping for a cafรฉ or visiting somewhere along the way, then loading up again and continuing on. I really liked that.
A note about Finlay and cycling helmets
You will notice in our photographs and videos that Finlay isnโt wearing a cycling helmet, and this isnโt something we take lightly. Finlay has significant sensory difficulty tolerating anything on his head, so wearing a helmet is something we have been gradually working on with him, but it remains a disability-related barrier. We continue with desensitisation because I want him to be as safe as possible while still being able to participate in activities he enjoys. Families facing similar circumstances should seek appropriate advice about New Zealand cycling requirements and any exemption process that may apply to their individual situation.
VeloPlus specifications for New Zealand
According to Milner Mobility, the current VeloPlus available in New Zealand has:
- Length: 253cm
- Width: 110cm
- Weight with electrical system: approximately 74.8kg
- Electric pedal assistance: up to 20km/h
- Average battery range: approximately 59km
- Stated battery range: 34โ90km depending on use and conditions
- Maximum driver weight: 110kg
- Maximum passenger weight: 140kg including wheelchair
- Reinforced passenger option: up to 200kg including wheelchair
- Boarding height: 28cm
- Front wheels: 20 inches
- Rear wheel: 26 inches
- Separable frame: available as an option.
Always check current specifications and available options directly with Milner Mobility before purchasing, as individual VeloPlus bikes can be configured differently.
What worked really well for us
The biggest success was simple: the electric assistance allowed me to cycle with Finlay again. Rolling him directly onto the wheelchair platform was easy and removed the need for a transfer, while having him positioned in front of me meant I felt comfortable and could see how he was responding throughout the ride. Finlay clearly enjoyed the experience, and being able to wheel him straight off at our destination made the VeloPlus practical for outings rather than just cycling for cyclingโs sake. On flatter, wider routes, it was also enormous fun.
What challenged us
Our local terrain was probably the biggest issue, with Devonportโs hills requiring careful route planning and the width of the VeloPlus making some footpaths and cycling infrastructure difficult to negotiate. Dropped kerbs and gutters became far more important than I would ever have considered on a standard bicycle, while stopping unexpectedly on a gradient proved much harder than simply continuing uphill with momentum. I also needed more practice using the starting-aid function and, for us personally, not having a practical way to transport the VeloPlus meant we couldnโt take it to the kind of dedicated cycle trail where I think it would really shine.
So, would I ride a VeloPlus again?
Absolutely. The biggest compliment I can give the VeloPlus is that, once I became more confident using it, I started thinking less about the equipment and simply began enjoying cycling with my son. Finlay loved the movement, the speed and feeling the wind in his face, and I loved being able to share that with him again. Would I need more practice before confidently tackling Devonportโs hills? Yes. Would I want another lesson on the starting assistance? Absolutely. Would I plan our routes differently now that I understand how important it is to think about where I might be forced to stop? Definitely. But put us on a wide, relatively flat cycle trail, give me a little more time to build my confidence and skills, and I suspect youโd have trouble getting us off it. For me, the VeloPlus opened up something I thought I might have lost as Finlay grew bigger and I grew older: the ability for us to get out and enjoy a bike ride together, and thatโs pretty special.
Find out more
The Van Raam VeloPlus is imported and sold in New Zealand by Milner Mobility. Their current VeloPlus page contains specifications, available options and information about arranging a test ride.
– by CLICKING HERE!