alt Hacker NewsLots of good bikes in the $300-500 range. I've had one for more than 12 years and thousands of miles without issue or drama.
I paid $300 for a single speed road bike from BD in 2012, it looks fancier than it is with a carbon fiber fork. Added some Gatorskin tires and it's worked ever since, I only clean and lube the chain every 5 years so far. Made in Canadia.
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Most companies have a basic of the basic bikes in the 400-500 range but these are built with cheap parts that won’t last more than a season. A step up from that would be a 700-100$ bike that’s more likely to last. For daily wheelchair use don’t expect the 500$ level parts to be good enough.
Good wheels costs 500-1000 $/E for aluminium, carbon costs more, but for most people is really not neccesary. Premium tires like GP5k cost close to a 150 a pair.
Not saying that the wheelchair is provided with these because I haven't checked the spec, but saying you can have a bike for $300 is like saying you can buy shoes for $10.
To second this: I've owned three "Motobecanes" [Bikes Direct] and one of them is still going strong, since 2014.
The purchases from 2009 was stolen, and the 2011 bike didn't survive a gnarly crash — to no fault of BikesDirect.com
Please clean the chain more!
The feel of riding it after makes it worth it, and a decent degreaser makes the job trivial.
On the bike comparison, we should keep in mind that a sub-par bike isn't much of an issue for the general public, as requiring more energy is fine (even sometimes seen as an advantage) for able bodies, and the bike breaking during a trip will usually mean just walking from there. Bikes' defaults will seldom be critical short of an accident happening.
You don't have that luxury with a wheelchair, you'll want decent efficiency and better reliability, which means better parts and better construction overall. That's where top end bikes are a more reasonable comparison IMHO.