Carbon Black - Did anyone see "My Perfect Wheelchair" on TV?

[dannos85]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... heelchair/

Pretty Cool Looking.
Im sure some standard quickie aluminium wheels would reduce the weight.

[Burgerman]

I thought it looked like an ikea office chair. All arty design but not a good engineering solution. It seems to be more looks over function to me. But if thats what he wants so be it. Thats the point of custom powerchairs.

Personally I think manual chairs are already optimised and different designs have been done to death. They are - much like a knife and fork, or a push bike, already as efficient as can be. Its like trying to reinvent the wheel. The real problem, as the sheer number of people I hear from that are trying to "motorise" one is that they are unpowered! Of course this leads me back to the old manual/power debate...

http://www.wheelchairdriver.com/power-o ... lchair.htm

Personally I would be making it the other way around. Form follows function. Not the other way around. It should not be designed to look good. But GOOD engineering and materials and build quality and functional design looks good anyway.

[K'sdad]

I realise i'm late to this one but i recirded this and just watched it hoping for some useful insight into design.IT seemed more like a fly on the wall doccumentary of a guy not quite getting what he wanted and falling out with lots of people having spent a whole lot of cash doing so. All CF chair would be cool but did you see the bit near the end when other people tried it and it didn't work for them? One guy fell out the back and it was only then he said "it seems other people want different things from their chair than i do", that I think he realised he had built a custom chair for him not mass market appeal.
Anybody know if he got anywhere?