Looking For An Adventure in an Electric Wheelchair. Part 3
Worth it. But expensive. A quick update.
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Hello Cabbage Heads
How is the world with my fellow chronics? For the new people I have ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) often know as CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome) a mane I disagree with and dislike greatly as it doesn’t encompass in any way all that ME is. I include it purely as that’s what a lot of people know. I’ve been living with this disease for 15+ years and I’ve tried an awful lot of things, to help, 99% of which haven’t.
Another quick update, last Wednesday I tried out these two beasts of a wheelchair. They are the Mountain Trike ‘SDMotion’ (on the left) and the ‘eTike’ (on the right)
The first is an all electric chair, the SDMotion. Featuring good off road chunky wheels etc and no physical input from the ‘rider’. All motion controlled through that little throttle there. It was comfortable, felt good to be in though a little too reclined back (something scientific to do with centre of gravity etc) which meant I sat forward a bit too much as I didn’t want to laid back. I started testing this one first as I was having a very lack lustre energy day and the thought of all electric was enticing. We took it for a short bimble on tarmac and gravel, over a couple of kerbs, all good, and then tried to get it up a grassy knoll. I was surprised that it struggled to climb even on full power (it has 5 power settings). Once pushed to the top I then tried it coming downhill and it was fine, though snappy on the breaks and you needed to remember to lean back a lot to stop being snappily thrown forwards. It is powered through the large wheels and the brakes apply themselves automatically when the throttle is released. The inability of it to climb the knoll was quite disappointing, and even the 4 people supervising were surprised.
So that meant I was persuaded to try the second one. My reticence had been because this one has geared levers to propel the wheelchair along. Levers that are moved by pulling and pushing with your arms. That sounds incredibly energy intensive. HOWEVER, it was well geared and it wasn’t as hard as I expected AND you can add an electric kit to the basic model (or buy it new ready made up) which is meant to assist you. First of all, the helpers were talking about it only being an assist not a full electric and that was making me anxious about how much energy would be needed to use it. As the session wore on though they said things like the battery could do 10 miles, and it was fine to use it a lot etc. And that grassy knoll? At power level 1 of 5 it sped to the top like a champion. And then I hit a ditch at the top, steered erratically, and fell over, pure user error. It was hilarious. I loved it. I felt alive. I wasn’t just sat on the sofa watching the world go by.
It has good, easy to use, manual brakes so I felt in control. Not so snappy initially so you could feather them on and off but sharp when they needed to be. Also a parking brake able to be applied and the ability to freewheel, not possible in the all electric version. One brake handle applies the brakes across both wheels, but you can apparently get separate brakes for each wheels, which gave me a lovely vision of slewing sideways deliberately at full throttle and brakes on on just one wheel. But that’s probably an advanced skill for later.
Steering is via a twist handle on one of the levers, which took some getting used to especially when I was transferred into a left handed one which had steering, brakes, and throttle all on the same grip. The steering could be quite stiff but the trick is to get the chair moving forward slightly first and then steer as all the steering and power is in the rear wheel. So moving that wheel whilst stationary with big, hulking me in it too, was always going to be a large ask.
The cushions in the main were comfortable, one chair (I tested 3) had a well used cushion that was hard under the back of my legs but cushions can always be replaced.
The levers can be moving at the same time as you using the steering which is an odd feeling. I felt safer having the levers out in front of me than having nothing. They can be used in a variety of ways. They can be used both at once, one at a time like a cycling motion (sensible for keeping the wheelchair moving and not in a state of inertia), and even just one lever alone. All work and don’t slew the wheelchair. The levers operate the large wheels, the electrics the small, so the levers can also be used in conjunction with the battery to add extra oomph to get over obstacles or up slopes etc.
It did fit in the car boot, just, and at 25kg was reasonably light so R could do it himself. Though we will look at a specialist bike rack as there was almost zero room for the dog (or anything else) too. And that’s where the extra costs begin add up, specialist bike racks, tow bar installed to hold said rack, the extras on the basic model to make me safer and more comfortable etc.
So basically, I think we have found the one. How we get sort that out is a matter to be decided. I have a contact for a second hand basic model (no electrics) which I hope to buy if it is as good as it looks and then add on all the extras I need - electric motor being the main bit. Should save us a wee bit of money and not make it too much more expensive than the Robooter e60 pro we looked at previously. I can’t imagine finding anything else as good.
The Trekinetic is the main alternative but the foot plate is very low, meaning obstacles are going to be difficult to negotiate and it’s expensive too. Price wise the electric version is roughly the same as the all electric one above. Their manual version you need to push the wheels and that would mean you get very mucky if rambling. They don’t do a hybrid version like the one I’m looking at. Reviews do seem to imply it’s better for urban landscapes. Snazzy though. I don’t think I’m going to test this one.
So that my brief update, I’ll let you know more when I know more. Any questions please ask.
Till next time.
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Great news! I hope it happens soon.
Thanks for the info. I really want something that can get around natural settings better than my standard manual wheelchair.