Roma Marbella P200
as an out of the box daily use chair, it is fairly good alround
It has 50ah AGM batteries as standard, mine are 55ah AGM Batteries
I had to re adjust the suspension as the manufacturer or the seller had overtightened the white springs so the rear yellow springs had no function, and with the solid 14 inch tyres an extremely rough ride. Even with the adjustment made, there is a lowered pavement corner of Bentsbrook Road and Spook Hill (North Holmwood) where the chair gets stuck (got stuck twice). Having to ask for help or wating for somone to come along not being my forte, I skip that bit now and travel in the road (Spook Hill down Holmesdale Road) and then use a driveway to reclimb the pavement. I also bought the luxury cushion after my first outing. The second outing was better even without the luxury cushion as I had adjusted the suspension.
The third outing was in torrential rain and despite waterproof coat and overtrowsers got very wet. Got to the Dentist 4 miles away, took off waterproofs, soaked Medwyns disabled toilet floor (appologised to staff); put waterproofs in a carrier bag, and took the lift to the first floor. Arrived almost 45 minutes early. Had my tooth extracted, made a new appointment for Halloween, used the lift to go down, went back into the disabled toilet to put my waterproofs back on.
Went home.
Got a bug that night and couldn't get out of bed for 3 days.
But since then I have done some mods to the chair, I removed all the thumb bolts (except the 2 for adjusting seat width 18 to 22 inches). There's no reason I can see unless i get extremly overweight to ever adjust the width from 18 inches.
Swapped the footplates to my homemade footplate (hangers from an Invacare Mistral), swapped the controller arm, to a swing away (from a Mistral) attached a chain link repair link, so I could hang my keys etc and a Mirror (made by Raleigh, micro mirror) and a pocket ashtray (using a neodium magnet).
made a couple of holes in two black mouse pads, and fixed them to the back end so that I dont get a draught
added a retro reflective red tape to the battery bar and bicycle button lights (button cell)
to improve evening/night visibility
the cats eyes bicycle lamps from my Mistral
though I stow them away in the bag during the day (normally)
and have white bicycle button lights white (button cell) on the sides of the chair
that I need to find amber lens paint for.
So if you need a no fuss everyday wheelchair, the Roma Marbella is a good place to start
The leather tool bag seen in the picture, lights and easy reach do NOT come with the chair. The tool bag holds the 5amp charger, the power lead is stowed in the bag at the rear (for emergency charge ups or sitting in front of my pc's playing games) and as the controller uses the crx plug as fitted to my previous chairs charger, I use the other charger at night whilst I sleep, 6 amp invacare charger.
The first day I used this without any adjustments and stuff (and an overnight charge), it completly ran out of power just as I got back from booking a dentist appointment near the top of Holmesdale Road so approx 9 miles of travel. Glad my AA gold membership is kept up to date, AA said half an hour, 10 minutes and they were with me, 20 minutes later after a boost to the batteries I was on my way. What had caused it to stop wasn't the batteries but a loose bullet connector
which is now taped.
Still waiting for new caster stem bearings on the Near Side (left side)
Insurance was from Mark Bates Limited, £99 fully comprehensive, which is breakdown insurance too and Legal protection
The Marbella RRP is £2,395.00
Mine was ex demo at £1099 though insured for £1499 (Betterlife Healthcare List price)
and is being purchased via Hire Purchase via Betterlife Healthcare at £93 a month over 12 months, if you buy a wheelchair from them, they don't know a great deal about the wheelchairs they sell but their customer service is very good.
I started with an Enigma Energi, even though I ordered the Energi Engima Plus, eventually got the Energi Enigma Plus (with too many faults to list here) and they exchanged the Enigma Plus for the Marbella on the 7th October 2013.
Both Energi Enigma's are shown on their web site as Ex demo now, just rechecked the site and they seem to have sold one, but still have the Enigma Plus
http://www.betterlifehealthcare.com/pro ... &subID=347
The Marbella pictured on their site is NOT a Marbella