Working with Penguin and The British Museum, The Reading Agency have given reading groups the chance to explore their local museums and tell us all about their favourite discoveries. Reading groups read A History of the World in 100 Objects and were treated to exclusive talks from curators.
We’re sharing the best entries on Reading Groups for Everyone throughout December. Today we’re focusing on an item that was handmade in Loughborough and has been seen all over the world through the Paralympic Games.
Bromakin Aero Racer Wheelchair
The Loughborough Foresters Reading Group visited Charnwood Museum where they selected a piece of sports equipment as their favourite object. The Bromakin Aero Racer Wheelchair was made around 1995 and its design is the basis of current racing wheelchairs.
The bike was handmade by Bromakin Wheelchairs of Loughborough, a company founded in 1983 by Peter Carruthers MBE and his wife Sheila after Peter himself became disabled in a car accident, leaving him a full-time wheelchair user. Since then he has had a successful racing career, competing in over 50 marathons and successfully winning a Gold Medal and achieving a World Record at the 1988 Seoul Paralympics.
The frame of the racing wheelchair is made of aluminium and its size is custom made to the user. The smaller front wheel has a small brake similar to that on a bicycle. The two larger rear wheels are approximately 70cm in diameter and each has a hand or push ring attached to the wheel spokes. The racer has no chains or gears and is propelled by pushing down and around on the hand rims, almost in a full circle. Seats are also created to fit the user; seat size is important because people with paraplegia generally have atrophied small hips and over-developed shoulders so a custom fit is essential.
Peter based his company in the town of Loughborough because of the University’s reputation as a centre for sport and technology. Students continue to visit the factory and benefit from the depth of the company’s expertise. In earlier days Peter had as a training partner Tanni Grey, then an undergraduate politics student and now Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, winner of 11 Paralympic gold medals.
The Bromakin Aero Racer can be seen as an apposite symbol for many past and potential future achievements in the areas of design, disability and disability sport. The London 2012 Paralympic Games reached new heights of athletic excellence and the stunning performances of disabled athletes aroused unprecedented levels of admiration, enjoyment, support, and acceptance of disability from members of the public. And finally, the Aero Racer is quite simply an excitingly attractive piece of design which has made an outstanding contribution to the progress achieved in the last 60 or so years by disabled athletes and disability sport.
Contributors: Hilary Fearne, Lynn Dutton and Alison Clague
