Hi All

[rickystyx]

My name is Richard and I'm new to powerchairs, broke and retired early on a very small personal pension, so I have to rely on what I can manage to create for myself from second hand bits that I gather here and there. I got my first chair a little while ago (knackered knees from an op 30 odd years ago developing into OA and destroyed cartilage and they won't replace them until I lose another 3 stone). My first few outings were a fast learning process having found that all of the local pavements slope all the time and drop at weird angles every time you go past a driveway (now I know why other chair and scooter users around here use the road) and then I go off to a local nature reserve and find that the front castors just love soft bits of gravel to bury themselves in. So it was off to the drawing board to think about changing the dynamics of this chair and then getting a better chair to build up slowly into something that will really work as I want it to.
That is how I ended up on this site - some great info on here thanks John and everyone else who contributes of course, but I have to be realistic and although the long term project will be something like the BM design - it will take me forever due to lack of finances. So for a first mod on my current nasty little chair I'm hoping to fit some 10 inch wheels (2 inches bigger) with pneumatic tyres in the hope of better grip and drive (Also hoping that they will be the same fit on my axles since they are off a different make of chair) and the moving of the seat rearwards in the hope of better weight on the rear wheel drive and less dig in on the castors. That will be it for this chair - I'm hoping to find a Quickie Salsa to build my next chair from - I've picked that as is has more weight capacity than the F55 as standard and is still being made so I can find parts for it (unless there is a really good reason not to go for this particular model?) Stripping off all extraneous bodywork and bits (including the footplates which I will change to a single fold up footplate) to leave me with as little weight but with reasonable comfort.
It was nice to find such a great resource as there doesn't seem to be many decent reviews of chairs showing them on anything other than completely flat floors - someone hasn't taken these things out around here or there really would be some interesting reviews.
Hope to get lots of help as I progress into chair building for myself.
Cheers
Richard

[Burgerman]

I bought a salsa, and made it work properly.

But its a heavy thing. Not for off road.

Read carefully post 1 here. Than scroll.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7455&start=600#p122818

[rickystyx]

Thanks Burgerman - that was exactly the sort of thing I was intending - not really looking for heavy off-roading (well not yet :0) but something that will manage forest tracks and reasonable gravel covered tracks. I have no idea about reprogramming either how or what to do but I'm sure I will have time to research and read up on it before I get to that point. I already have a couple of new trailer wheels with tubeless tyres that I got as spares - so there are possibilities for at least some quick mods :0)