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Wednesday, November 6, 2002
By diversifying, company helps others
For the past decade, Advanced Transportation Products Inc. has tried to build a better bicycle.
Now the Mountlake Terrace company wants to develop a better wheelchair.
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 | Phil H. Webber / P-I | |
| Joel Smith, left, co-founder of Advanced Transportation Products in Mountlake Terrace, helps Steve Nash work on the frame of the No. 4 prototype wheelchair. | ||
ATP produces recumbent bicycles, which allow riders to peddle while essentially sitting back in an reclining position. The design, say the company founders, reduces stress on a person's wrists, arms and back, making them easier and safer to ride than traditional bicycles.
"(Bicycling) is a great sport as long as it is comfortable," said Joel Smith who founded the company 10 years ago with his business partner, Greg Bower. "If it's not comfortable, it's torture."
The pair now plans to apply their design skills to the wheelchair.
The company -- which does about $2.5 million in sales annually -- has developed a prototype for a wheelchair with a basic metal frame to which a variety of seats and arm supports can be attached. Once testing on the wheelchair is complete, ATP plans to submit it for government approval and eventually introduce it to the market a year from now.
More than 2 million Americans use a wheelchair, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report.
ATP's venture into the wheelchair market came as the company's founders were looking for ways to diversity their business. Although sales of bicycles are typically busy during the summer, they tend to slow during the rest of the year. By adding wheelchairs to ATP's list of "mobility products," Smith and Bower said they hope to bring in revenue throughout the year.
Depending upon the season, ATP produces five to 15 bikes a day at its 20,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Mountlake Terrace. The company, which bought a wheel business about two years ago, also manufactures wheels.
ATP has developed six different bicycle platforms -- from an upright bicycle to a tandem recumbent. Combining different parts, about 150 models are available. The bikes -- which run from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars -- sell at about 300 dealers nationwide.
P-I reporter Christine Frey can be reached at 206-448-8142 or christinefrey@seattlepi.com
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