Two of my nephews came over today, stopping by after dinner (since I can't get into their house because of the steps). The 11 year old had seen my power chair (aka the Beast) once before, but his older brother, the 17 year old, hadn't. The 17 year old's first question was "What can it do ? Does it climb over obstacles?" and I proceeded to show him exactly why it's called the Beast.
I know that's a good name for the chair because no one ever asks why I called it that. All they ever say is "Wow" , and then they walk in a very wide arc around it.
Today it was warm enough to go outside, so I rolled over to a nearby park this afternoon to try out a bike path. The Beast took the rolling hills in stride and when the path ended and I had to off road (you know I hated that NOT) the chair didn't even hesitate. I've always struggled with pushing, since I'm a quad and manual chairs are harder to push on grass. So it was a feeling of immense freedom, not having to worry about the surface first. Which I'm sure makes it all more exciting to me than the average bear after a decade of quad pushing.
Or maybe not.
I headed down a side street. There was a guy on a bike lighting up a cigarette. He was watching me approach and since the sidewalk was new I was going fast. I thought he was a teenager but as I got closer I could see he was middle aged. He lit his cigarette and asked "How fast does that thing go?" and then "Does it climb over things?"
The Beast off roads. Oh yeah.
[Visual description: A photo of an Invacare TDX SP power chair is shown.]
6 comments:
Cool chair. I have one too. I'm hoping to get out on a good day and try some off roading. What color is yours?
Jerry
Jerry - Saw that you're just out of rehab. Welcome! My chair is forest green (not the grasshopper green shown in the photo). What color do you have?
If you click on power wheelchairs label, you can see the Wheelchair Cam vids. That's done with a TDX SP too and gives you a good idea of what it can/can't do. You might want to check that out before you go off roading (and take someone with you and a cell phone) in case you get stuck. It's a learning curve. Also check out Wheelchair Junkie on YouTube. Mark Smith has some fun videos on there (and his site Wheelchair Junkie is great.)
Let me know how it goes. Have fun!
My chair is red. I didn't get to pick the color but I like it. I'm going to go out with my brother tomorrow. I'll watch those videos.
Jerry
Jerry-
The red is very cool, especially with the yellow shocks. Let me know how your "off roading" goes!
Ruth
My brother and I were out for three hours and I figured out how to get around pretty well. I didn't get stuck but I came close when I went on a dirt path with some ice on it. Have you ever tried really steep hills?
Jerry
Jerry,
Sounds good. It depends on how steep you're talking. If you watched the Wheelchair Cam videos, there's one where he gets stuck. It's steep and the ground surface is "iffy" so he didn't have good traction. I'd check over at Wheelchair Junkie to see what advice people have but if it's really steep personally I'd back off.
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