New seeker of the holy grail

[ellaguru2u@gmail.com]

Hi , I'm Dave
Husband of Rose who has had MS for 25 years.
As the title says I'm still looking for a wheelchair that will suit her needs with little success so far.
She likes visiting National Trust type properties but after a few minutes negotiating the cobbled courtyard it's back to the dentist for new fillings. ( Don't visit Gothenburg in a wheelchair - its the cobble capital of the world)
I've just acquired a well second hand F55 and I'm hoping to acquire some of Burgermans special parts to run part inflated tyres (it worked well with my trial bikes...)

[Burgerman]

Well I dont actually do any parts. But can help with advice and where to get stuff, as will others on here.

[ellaguru2u@gmail.com]

Thanks, all help gratefully accepted.

[Martin O Refurbisher]

Hi Dave,
Welcome.
Where I live in Shoreham-By-Sea, the local council have gone mad spending money on paving areas with cobbles. Still large areas without even decent level pavements though. I entirely agree about the ride - even with rear suspension and wider soft tyres, I still need a gel cushion!

I'm happy to do what I can to help you access the parts you need - see my profile.

Best,

Martin

[Martin O Refurbisher]

Regretably, my workshop landlord has just filled in my test pothole!

I'm now going to have to work out how to build a dummy to demonstrate suspension and steering - all ideas welcomed!

Best,

Martin

[Burgerman]

Dig it up.

[Martin O Refurbisher]

I like it but nanny landlord has CCTV watching everything, so I don't want to be accused of criminal damage!

Best,

Martin

[Burgerman]

Well most of the world is an assault course so you wont need to go very far!

This is why "normal" production powerchairs are crap outdoors! Control, power, tyres, rough ride, lack of floatation, nose heavy, or worse 6 wheeled, small casters, etc etc...

The pictures on this page are the good bits around here. Try going off the regular pavements. If you suffer from spasm, as I do, then these small uneven bits are all it takes to make it hell! http://www.wheelchairdriver.com/why-all ... apable.htm

Hence the low pressure tyres.

[Martin O Refurbisher]

Yes,
This is why I like to have a standardised test course. I'll have to build a new one from scratch I guess!

Best,

Martin

[ex-Gooserider]

For whatever it's worth department, some of the videos put out by Mark over on Junkie Wheelchair show the "test track" used at Pride - essentially a bit over chair wide path with different sections of (not very) challenging terrain, maybe 8-10' of each type, like sand, gravel, etc...

Might be worth trying to put something like that together with your favorite "problems" such as cobblestones, maybe some nice broken up sidewalk slabs, potholes, and so forth...

ex-Gooserider

[Martin O Refurbisher]

ex=G
That's a great idea, thanks.

Can you give me a link to any of these videos please?

Best,

Martin

[Burgerman]

Seems to me my regular trip to the local park, and back by a different route already covers every type of challenge about 5x over!

No need to build another one!

[ex-Gooserider]

ex=G
That's a great idea, thanks.

Can you give me a link to any of these videos please?

Best,

Martin

I don't have links as such, didn't think they were all that great, however they were all on the Junkie Wheelchair site. Essentially they were posts by Mark trying to defend his claims that a mid-wheel drive chair can deal with obstacles w/o getting stuck - I'm sure you could find them w/ the board's search feature...

Not sure how much they'd really help though, as the basic idea is pretty simple - a sidewalk wide (about 36" or so) path with different sections made up out of different "challenging" terrain - I seem to recall seeing stuff like carpet, sand, gravel, and so on.... I'd probably look at having sections w/ rough cobblestones, some broken up concrete slabs, and so on, including a few nasty potholes. I'd probably try to make each section 8-10' long at a minimum, so the chair is traveling over it long enough to really show off it's good or bad points.

ex-Gooserider

[Martin O Refurbisher]

Thanks Ex-G

Looks like I'll need to design one - it also has to fit within the space I have access to at the workshop!

Best,

Martin