Speed King! 
10
“How fast is the new chair?” you’re wondering. Well, wonder no more!
While it may not seem that fast in these videos please bear in mind that I’m sitting in a chair that I can actually see very little of (just the control and knee pads) so the moving, hard ground features very much in my view of things and that the slightest bump or dip is accentuated by the slightly top-heavy-ness of me and the chair. Plus the first video is up a slight incline.
Wooooosh!!! When can I have a go? - Tyla
Buy your own!
:^P - Timmargh
Have you resisted the urge to scream “Timmmargghhh” as your zipping about? - Tyla
Heh, I’m usually too busy watching for dips and bumps for too much tomfoolery — I do have some fun when I’m indoors, though, like at the cinema or Merry Hill shopping centre where it’s a smooth floor … it seems so much faster then, too. - Timmargh
Tim,
Get yourself into halfords, and get some tack stuff stuck on the wheelchair…. I’m thinking of some awful ‘Lexus’ lights, and some little blue lights o the front.. oh yeah, and get a pointless wastegate pressure release that goes whoooosh when you finish revving the nuts off it.
Can you anodise the gear knob? - tugger
“slightly top-heavy-ness..”
no shit..
:-) - tugger
That looks pretty fast. I think I recognized your car from a previous post. How far can you go on a charge? If you’re out somewhere and it dies can you just plug in? Does it have a quick charge feature? So many questions… - Murphy
The info says it’s a top speed of around 10 miles per hour over 20 miles on a charge — for me that equates to about six days around the house plus a couple of outdoor excursions walking Rocco, going shopping or to the cinema.
There’s a six stage battery meter so I can keep an eye on how long I’ve got before it’ll die — if I know I’m going out the next day and I’m down to two out of six bars then I’ll charge it overnight. And it’ll charge to 80% in around two hours and then the final 20% takes about another four hours. - Timmargh
That does look quick!
But I bet it can be tuned - not necessarily go quicker, but certainly accelerate to the top speed quicker.
They’re just like cars in a way - they’re capped!
I remember a slow afternoon back in 2004
We had a Ottobock B-500 in stock - not a standard NHS provision and cost the best part of £5k with all the customisation (and that’s with discounts from suppliers):
http://www.ottobock.com.tr/images/490E32=00000.jpg
It was waiting for modifications by an engineering company called RMS, who had sourced the chair for the service. This particular one was designed to power a 25 stone person at up to 6 mph (so not as fast as your’s). We took the DX handheld programmer:
http://www.dynamiccontrols.com/index.cfm/3,78,245/dx-hhp-connection-card.pdf
And ramped up all the settings.
Both me and the technician (who were going to test it out) were less than half the weight of the person it was intended for, so was going to be pretty powerful. We took it into the assessment room - I’m not good at guessing sizes of rooms, but it’s probably about the length of 3 large living rooms and the width was about 1/2 the length of the room.
The two hardest things to do - even for a fully able person - were stopping in time before you hit the end wall and turning accurately - because we’d ramped up the turning speed too! Spinning for more than a few circles was enough to make you very dizzy, and the acceleration when speeding across the room was similar to the time i drove a monkey bike in a friend’s back garden and promptly drove it straight into the hedge!
The batteries are usually a variation on a car battery, so they should last a few years of charging.
Have you got solid tyres? Because punctures to refular tyres are the thing that can cause the biggest problem for new chairs preventing you getting home when out and about.
If not, Flexel in Brackley, Northants can make a set of wheels puncture proof, though you do need to send them the wheels to do so. They will inject a liquid rubber composite into the tyre which goes rock hard, making it puncture proof.
Alternatively, am sure whoever sourced your Balder, or Balder themselves can supply different forms of tyres.
Then all you have to worry about is the tread wearing out - especially if you’re going to be red lining it around the shops - stonysleep
That sounds like a riot! Imagine getting hit by a 25+ stone going 6mph? Ouch.
Yeah, my tyres are puncture proof so I’m sorted, but thanks for the pointer. - Timmargh
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