About Ryan Grassley — Co-founder of Extreme Motus

Ryan Grassley, co-founder of Extreme Motus

Ryan Grassley, co-founder of Extreme Motus

Ryan Grassley

Co-founder of Extreme Motus. Caregiver and best friend to Sam Durst for 30+ years. Eight years of trail-testing the all-terrain wheelchair Sam rides every day — across four countries and 59 demo locations worldwide.

At a glance

  • 📍 Based in Utah
  • 🏞️ 8+ years trail-testing the Extreme Motus
  • 🌎 4 countries served · 59 loaner locations worldwide
  • 📝 157+ articles published on adaptive outdoor recreation
  • 📚 Author of two books — adventure memoir and a children’s book starring Sam & Ryan
  • 🎙️ Featured on KSL News Radio, VoyageUtah, and multiple disability and outdoors podcasts

How this all started

Sam Durst and I have been best friends since we were kids — three decades and counting. We aren’t brothers by blood, but the long version of that story is on the blog at “Are Sam and Ryan Brothers?” Spoiler: when you spend that many years pushing each other up mountains, the technicality doesn’t matter.

The Extreme Motus started the way most useful things do — out of frustration with the alternatives. Sam wanted to be outside. The standard wheelchairs we tried got stuck on every patch of sand, gravel, or mud they encountered. The few off-road chairs that existed cost as much as a car, weighed as much as a refrigerator, and required a trailer to transport. We needed something different: light enough to throw in the back of an SUV, capable enough to handle real terrain, and priced for an actual family.

That’s what we built. Eight years and dozens of national parks later, the Motus is now in four countries, at 59 loaner locations, and in the hands of families who’d given up on the idea that nature was wheelchair-accessible.

Extreme Motus all-terrain wheelchair at the skatepark

What I write about

  • All-terrain wheelchair design and selection. Honest comparisons against every meaningful competitor — Action Trackchair, GRIT Freedom Chair, AdvenChair, TerrainHopper, Vipamat Hippocampe, Not-A-Wheelchair, and others. I’m the founder of one of these companies, so I disclose that clearly and tell you when a competitor is the better fit for your situation.
  • Outdoor accessibility. Trail reports from places we’ve actually rolled — Zion, Bryce, Arches, Antelope Island, the Salt Flats, Pembrokeshire Coast, and many more. If a park can be wheelchair-accessible and isn’t, I write about that too.
  • Mobility funding and grants. The hardest part of buying an adaptive chair isn’t choosing one — it’s paying for it. I write detailed funding guides on Medicare, Medicaid waivers, VA grants, HSA/FSA paths, foundation grants, and GoFundMe strategies.
  • The caregiver perspective. Most mobility content is written by salespeople or clinicians. Mine is written by the guy who actually pushes the chair up the mountain.

Featured guides

Books I’ve written

cover for children's book Sam and ryan visit the moon.
  • The Volcán Barú Adventure — the story of riding a motorcycle from the lowest point in Panama (the beach) to the highest point in Panama Volcan Baru. Available on Apple Books.

Press, podcasts, and interviews

Before Extreme Motus

Sam-and-Ryan adventures are not new. They’re just the latest chapter.

  • 2006 — Iraq. Spent a year in Iraq as a private contractor. I did electrical work at Camp Liberty and enjoyed traveling to many different countries in South East Asia and Europe during that year.
  • 2007 — Utah to the Panama Canal and back, by motorcycle. Through Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama, then home. Three months on the road.

If you want to understand the founder’s perspective on the Motus — why “light, transportable, real-world tested” matters more than any spec sheet — the motorcycle trip is a decent shortcut. You stop caring about features the moment you actually have to live with them.

How I write about products

A note on conflicts of interest, because they matter: I founded and operate Extreme Motus. Every all-terrain wheelchair comparison on this site involves a product I sell. I try to handle that fairly by (1) recommending competitors when they’re the better fit for the reader’s actual situation, (2) using real specs and real prices that I verify with each manufacturer, and (3) flagging openly when a comparison is between my product and someone else’s.

If you ever spot something inaccurate — about my product or anyone else’s — tell me. I’ll fix it.

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