Cait has this Planet Bike Handlebar Tape on her adult tricycle and says it reduces the hand pain and fatigue that can come from gripping the bars of a bike.

Planet Bike calls the tape a gel but its really more a spongy foam backed by cork. The soft tape, which comes in fourteen colors, is easy to apply and becomes tacky when wet for a better grip.

Cait likes the Planet Bike tape so much she’s thinking of applying it to the bar of our gas mower to reduce the vibration to her hands.

Eds. Note: Cait has a teen-age friend who says this tape “screams Baby Boomer - the older crowd seems to put it on every thing.” To which Cait replied, “Just like young people and ketchup.”

This one-of-a-kind chair was crafted from a never-used prototype of jaws used to lift torpedoes in a nuclear submarine.

Built by artist and machinist Zoran Milivojevic, the chair features working motorized hydraulics to perfectly adjust its position and ergonomics for your body comfort.

If you don’t care for orange, Zoran will customize it with a color more to your liking, including leather padding, all for just $37,000.

(via Device Gallery)

The Wall Street Journal has this great story about Gimpy people learning to use their canes as weapons.

Senior centers and retirement communities looking for new ways to promote exercise are teaching Cane Fu - developed about 10 years ago by Mark Shuey, 61, a tae kwon do and hapkido expert.

At the time, Shuey’s father was starting to use a walking stick, and he had heard reports of attacks on seniors who carried canes but didn’t know how to use them to fight back.

Canadian magazine Martial Arts Experts calls canes “the weapon you can take anywhere” and Cane Fu, also called “combat” cane, has been endorsed by at least eight martial-arts organizations.

Cane-fighting converts say one of the best things about the cane is that it’s a legal weapon that can be carried anywhere, unconcealed. “No one will tell you can’t take it on an airplane,” says Victor Cushing, a teacher of self-defense at the University of Scranton, in Pennsylvania.

Click here and here to see videos of Cane Fu fighting.

Eds Note: Cait is going to be impossible to live with until she takes this course and becomes certified to teach it. She’s dreaming about a new genre that combines water aerobics with a cane - “Aqua Cane Fu.”

Inventor Glenn Martin says he’s ready to sell the world’s first practical jetpack but he doesn’t expect to design it any smaller in our lifetime.

Martin, 48, from New Zealand, unveiled his jetpack at the experimental air show held yearly in Wisconsin. He spent 27 years designing it and hopes to begin selling them for $100,000.

Click here to watch a video and read the New York Times story that says Martin has made the future look both sleek and nerdy with his jetpack, which stands about five feet tall and has rotors encased in two large ducts that look something like cupcakes.

This wheelchair accessible tent is being marketed as the first tent designed for Gimpy people.

The tapered rectangular dome will accommodate two wheelchairs and the frame can be assembled from one side of the tent or from a wheelchair.

The combination side entry doors/windows in the sleeping area are sized for side transfer of a person onto a cot, and the pull handles on the internal doors and window zippers appear easy to grasp.

The maker says the zipperless fan door can be opened by people with mobility, strength and dexterity limitations. Once open, the wide doorway provides unobstructed access to wheelchairs or walkers.

Eds. Note: Cait wants one of these as a screen porch for our mosquito-plagued backyard. That would be about as close to camping as Marty gets. Still floating among her friends is a photo of Marty camping in California, her friends’ backpacks sitting outside the tent by Marty’s bright blue ’70s vintage Samsonite suitcase.

P.S. The insects are so bad here this summer we’re thinking of this for our voice mail message: “You have reached the Gimpy Girls’ Mosquito Farm. We’re out feeding the flock. Please leave us a message.”

This MSNBC video features five so-called “Comfort” bikes that come with wider seats, ergonomic frames and those fat tires we loved when we were little.

We especially like the hidden mini trunk in the seat of one model and the model with the really low bar that makes it easier to mount and dismount.

Cait rides this beat old adult trike with a tractor seat that she bought from a newspaper ad for $50. It’s so functional and easy to ride that she regularly scoots around the neighborhood and to the corner store and our local plant nursery.

Marty, on the other hand, has a handsome two-wheel Giant with electric assist - seen above - but doesn’t ride it as much as she would like.

It’s a great ride, so comfortable, but Marty’s balance is a little iffy and she doesn’t feel safe riding on streets. Marty’s thinking of adding training wheels. No joke. Cait found these sites - here and here - with additional wheels for adults.

Eds. Note: We’ll post a picture of Cait’s ride later. For the record, Cait thinks her ride is beautiful, not homely, though she concedes it is beat and old. One dealer thought Cait’s ride might have been made in the 1940s. Another thought the ’50s or early ’60s.

Toyota has unveiled a new motorized stand-up-and-ride device that purportedly helps people move as if they have wings.

The Winglet is similar to a Segway, except it’s slower, going about the same speed as pedestrians. The smallest version, weighing about 22 pounds, folds up to be carried.

The Winglet is designed to respond almost intuitively - moving forward when you lean to the front, and turning when you sway to the right or left, similar to skiing.

Toyota plans to test the Winglet in Japan at an airport, a mall and a resort complex. Reporters at a news conference said the Winglet takes some getting used to because its movements were sometimes jerky and they weren’t sure how to position their weight.

Click here to watch a video or the Winglet in action.

(via Mainichi Daily News)

Eds Note: It seems Toyota has some tinkering to do before it can loose the Winglet on its target audience: the elderly and those who have trouble walking distances. Cait, ever the party girl, still thinks the answer to everyone’s transportation dilemma is the Mobile Cooler.

Winning industrial design came into play when South Korea’s Yakult yogurt company wanted a better pushcart for its 13,000 delivery ladies, who range in age from 20 to 60.

The carts go door-to-door daily because many in South Korea prefer their probiotic yogurt drinks delivered to their homes, in the same way milk was delivered to American homes during much of the last century.

The old Yakult push carts did little to ease the physical challenges of the door-to-door delivery job. So Yakult had Continuum redesign them into rugged, ergonomic carts that resemble walkers with wider wheels and a bar to lean on.

Yakult says its new cart enables workers to feel proud of their association with the Yakult brand and their important role in Korean daily life. The Yakult cart has been recognized by the Industrial Designers Society of America.

Jane Gross’ blog NewOldAge in The New York Times has a good post this week about how vastly walkers have improved in the last few years.

NewOldAge is getting a lot of attention at a time when most major newspapers still dedicate little space and time to the issues of aging, mobility and independence.

These are huge issues, affecting so many people today - and even more in just the next few years. Kudos to Ms. Gross and the Times for taking a lead.

This is one Gimpy man’s answer to number of issues. He wanted something that was easy on gas, could carry him around town and keep him close to a bathroom.
(via Dale’s Designs)