Prosthetic cycling legs

These are prosthetic cycling legs custom engineered by designer Wayne Alexander of Dashfoot Ltd for double amputee athlete Mark Inglis.

Wayne Alexander
In the late 1990s, Alexander became interested in designing high performance prosthetics for amputees involved in sports and other physical challenges. He approached Mark Inglis with the idea of designing cycling legs. He noted that 'it's much easier to reverse-engineer something that's been honed in that environment than to go the other way'.

Prosthetic legs
In recent years there have been huge advances in prosthetics - mostly in the use of materials such as carbon fibre. However, the fundamental problem in prosthetics is that they produce no power and can't receive sensory information. Energy-storing feet, where a spring captures power at the strike of the heel and propels the leg forward, were developed in the 1980s.

Design
These cycling legs are prototypes. They are made from carbon fibre and aluminium, as carbon fibre is light, immensely strong, and has energy-storing properties. Each leg features aerodynamic carbon fibre twin spars, polymer 'ankles', and toe-axis movement.

These legs proved to be strong enough to withstand Mark's mileage of over 20,000 km, several crashes, and local adaptations (for example, Mark had to restrict the movement of the heel by inserting a metal plate).

Significance
With the help of these legs, Mark won the silver medal in the 1000m track event at the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games.