I first heard of Lignorim handrims from a New Mobility reader. When we published our Gear Guide detailing all the handrims available in the U.S., a helpful reader pointed out that we’d left out a new wooden handrim from Austria. I was intrigued — wood with its natural texture just feels nicer than metal or vinyl, plus it doesn’t transfer temperature like metal does. How would the material do in hot or wet weather? Just as important, how would it hold up over time? 

Fortunately, it wasn’t long before I started learning answers to my myriad questions, because Vapor Wheels had just signed on as the U.S. distributor for Lignorim, and its sales rep offered to send a pair for an extended review. Here’s what I found. 

The Details 

Lignorim are made of ash, a hardwood used in tool and shovel handles and in baseball bats because of its natural shock absorption and resistance to impacts. It is durable and resists cracking. That’s nice to know when you drop your wheels when pulling them into your car, or when an airline employee starts throwing them around the baggage belt. To shape the wood into circular handrims, Lignorim uses a laminate process common in Europe for structural timber in houses, which the company says further increases durability and water resistance, while reducing possibility of splintering.  

The wooden rims are available in four models: light, medium, big and prime. Light is a small-diameter round rim about the size of a typical metal handrim. Medium and big are both oval-shaped, which some find more comfortable to grip. Prime is the largest rim, with an ergonomically contoured gripping surface. All rims are available in 24- and 25-inch sizes, and come with six-tab mounts drilled with three holes for narrow, medium and wide mounting. You can choose from a variety of colors, from natural — a light tan — to flashy, including bright blue, green, red, pink, jet black and more. I opted for the lightweight model in a natural color, as I wanted to be able to see how they wore and how dirty they got pushing everywhere from the farm to the city.   

Initial Thoughts 

The rims are beautiful. I can count on one thumb the number of times I’ve said that about a mobility product. The wooden texture adds a classy, natural touch to a type of product often defined by harsh functionality. To be fair, I have a thing for Scandinavian cabins, so anything with clean lines and light wood is likely to hit my aesthetic sweet spot. But I’ve also gotten more comments about the Lignorim than other piece of wheelchair equipment I’ve used. Other wheelchair users and even nondisabled strangers stop to ogle my rims and ask if they’re really wood. “Yes, sir, I’m all natural.” 

The light model Lignorim isn’t featherlight, but it’s not heavy. It weighs about 10% more than a standard aluminum handrim, at about 0.9 pounds each versus 0.8 pounds for aluminum. I have run them on a pair of demo Vapor X carbon fiber wheels and on my everyday Spinergy LXLs, and didn’t feel like the handrims were weighing down either pair like vinyl ones do.  

Straight out of the box, the Lignorims felt tackier for pushing than metal handrims, and more slippery than fresh vinyl handrims or any other quad-specific offering. I have no grip strength, so I push and brake entirely by friction. Pushing inside or on flat, smooth surfaces was fine without gloves, but for any hills, rough terrain and/or distance, I used a trusty pair of rubber garden gloves for grip. Braking power was good enough that I didn’t need gloves. Immediately I noticed braking was easier than with metal rims, and generated significantly less heat than vinyl or foam. I could stop myself on a hill without burning my hands or wrists. I don’t have any way to quantify this, but they also just felt nicer on my hands than metal or vinyl.  

The Long Haul 

Photo by Ewan McBride

The author, a C7-8 quad, was able to push without gloves on smooth surfaces but needed the grip of gloves when pushing on gravel, dirt or uphills.

I’ve been using the Lignorims for over eight months now, starting in a hot autumn, through a snowy winter, a wet spring and now into a bone-dry summer. If anything, I like them better now than when I first put them on. They still look great and have proved way more durable than I would’ve guessed.  

I’ve dropped them from my car, rim-down, on rough asphalt multiple times. I’ve scraped them against concrete curbs and bumped them into metal poles. They have a few small scratches to show for it, but those mostly disappear into the wood grain. Importantly, they don’t have any sharp burrs like metal rims produce and no jagged flaps like those that appear when you gouge vinyl rims. They are as smooth as the day I got them and have an even better hand-feel after months of use. There are no cracks, and I’ve had no splinters.  

Where the wooden rims really excel is in wet and cold weather. They don’t transfer temperature, so they don’t freeze your hands off in cold weather like metal handrims do. And when it’s raining out they still give you braking power, a rare quality for any handrims.  

Final Verdict 

Lignorim is the nicest handrim I’ve ever pushed. It looks good and pushes better, and is more durable than anything else I’ve tried. Sure, as a quad with limited grip, it would be nice if they were tackier. But grip comes with drawbacks — typically heat while braking, and durability issues. For my uses, the trade-off is more than worth it. At $479 a pair, they aren’t cheap, but they are in line with other top-quality handrims like CarboLife’s quad-specific offerings or TiLite’s titanium handrims. When buying mobility products, we often pay luxury prices for bargain-basement quality. Lignorim at least has something to show for its high price tag.