FAO: Burgerman

Better! I know the designer and hes bringing me one! A site you havent met yet...

All you need is a downhill chair with 9" of travel on each corner and you've got every eventuality covered...

"Burgerman" wrote in news:oBrcg.2353$XR6.2053 @newsfe2-gui.ntli.net:

I'm gobsmacked - modded radio controlled chairs??? FFS !!! Excellent work. Website is awesome too. That tankchair looks a right laugh, wish I could afford one for MIL, she has to shuffle about in an NHS special. Dunno if it would fit in the back of my Pug 205D, but hey, it would probably outperform it anyway :-(

I dont just mess with cars/bikes!

"Burgerman" wrote in news:zjtcg.2378$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe2-gui.ntli.net:

I can imagine, you are meant to be institutionalised if you use a chair, the experts know best. That mentality drives me nuts. We improve everything else we own if we can, but modding something designed by people who never use it themselves is a NO NO. What a load of Arse. It's ok to mod a car or a bike for wheelchair use, but not to mod the wheelchair. Which are you sitting in for most of the time, FFS !!!

Maybe adding a parking or pubing to the tankchair to lower it would be useful.

The new one is a production version. Its smaller and narrower, and the seat is lower. Still should scare the wcservices and the pub/shopping centre though!

Lay out out like a recumbent bike. Fit another set of tracks. Bigger motors. I'd have one just for fun...

Is that still run by the twatty f*ck Brant Richards? He owes me one. I didn't kill him after he pissed on my tent at Dalby Forest. He was tech editor of MBUK then, and was covering "Team hot Pies" pissing about and getting drunk at the race meeting.

I was camped with them as I hooked up after the Cheshire MBC event the month before and we had all been on the bladder in Scarborough. This was in the very early 90's. I hold a grudge.

The brakes are very difficult to just apply slightly and evenly, being just a lever that's pulled down onto the top of the tyre. The wheel hasn't any flat bits for bike brakes to grip, the rim is curved inwards. The wheels are stuck onto a bolt that sticks out of the frame so you would also need a bracket to hold the brakes. It wouldn't be all that difficult to modify but it's more than I would want to do. You can get versions with disc brakes though so they may be better.

That was supposed to say 'parking or pubing mode'...

Would it be more flexible for cross country if the ground clearance was higher? Just wondering about those dirt tracks that have lower ruts each side of the grassy bit. Then individually adjustable track height with a self leveling seat just makes things more complex. People will think they are filming a new Dr Who episode when they see you :-)

Main problem is that it will trash all the carpets leaving the house... And wheelchairs actually seem to help when chatting up wimin. They kind of dont feel threatened. That chair will change all that! Bugger!

What I meant is why didn't the maufacturer do it with decent brakes in the first place, and use small spoked wheels (a la kids bikes + scooters). Cheap disc brakes are always s**te, FWIW and more complex and fiddly than standard bike brakes. Hydraulic brakes on one of thsoe would be taking thigns a bit far at £50 a side...

Yep. Just get one singletrack and join the group chanting "inbred are shit". I quite like my Inbred. It was cheap :D.

With small wheels, discs are a lot better, so cheap discs may stand a chance of working.

Standard V brakes have a fiddlyness all of their own if you don't happen to have forks and canti bosses in the appropriate places.

All this is moot however since I suspect these things are made to a budget that makes sterling-house look spendthrift.

cheers, clive

You could probably get away with calipers, which would make mounting simper. Dual pivots need too close adjustment. I reckon making this stuff must be nearly as profitable as double glazing.

I've got dual pivots with plenty of clearance - and since you're not restricted by having to use drop bar levers, there could be even more. However if they were putting calipers on, they'd almost certainly be horrible chinese things made out of crap pressed steel as seen and sworn at on many bikes. Worse than the old weinmann calipers.

The problem is a lack of care about the product and lack of reward for making a high quality one. Similar to the situation with kids bikes, only worse. The end user isn't the customer, so there isn't the incentive to make things better. Unfortunately I've got no magic ideas on how to improve the situation :-(

(Anybody know how much these things are selling for?)

cheers, clive

I hope you meant Pubbing. Can't think what pubing is?

The one with the brakes was around £100 IIRC. I fully expect the NHS will be paying £150 at least for a similar item - I used to work in admin for a bit of the NHS for a while, and they bought paper at £20 for 5 reams of recycled paper, and seemed to be contracted or restricted by upper management to one supplier for office supplies. I can find the same stuff now online for a tenner a box. Nobody really gave a f*ck that the money for this had to come from somewhere...

Anyway. Like I said elsewhere, the only way I can see it getting better is people being able to buy their own mobility gear, and not having it rammed down their throats by salesmen. It's not just that the purchaser isn't the consumer - the purchaser doesn't know, hasn't seen, and doesn't give much of a toss about the consumer.