A Word About Equipment

22 December 2015

I’ve never been much of an equipment person. The whole reason I loved running was because it was just me and the shoes – no racquet, no bat, no ball, no tires, no tubes, no ropes. Just me, a t-shirt and shorts, and shoes. You can imagine the mind boggle I have when it takes two hours to ‘script’ a new chair. Every piece and every millimeter of placement of each piece matters.

But gee, isn’t she a beauty? It’s the same type of chair as the one I’ve been trialing – a TiLite ZRA – but it has a few modifications and a few adjustments just for me.

It is made of titanium and has a lovely green colour near my feet at the front casters and behind the wheels at the axle level. The colour is “sub-lime”. It weighs about 4.9kg (just over 10 pounds) without the wheels.

The wheels are ‘spinergy’ and the tires are schwalbe bike tires with kevlar to help prevent punctures.

And check this out – disc brakes. Not only can I slow down on steep declines, I can stop one wheel and corner like a mother- … well, like a person who might get a certain level of satisfaction from turning quickly.

The push handles not only fold down and out of the way, they telescope up and down so that a tall person pushing me doesn’t have his mouth right next to my ear while he’s complaining. Not that I know anyone that would need that feature.

And look! Fat tires for off-road! The hubs are quick release so the tires can be swapped out and because the brakes are in the hub, not on the front of the chair, they don’t have to be adjusted when the tires are switched out.

Once I get better at it, I’ll try to put up some video of something fancy like wheelies over curbs.

Equipment is not cheap, and once again, I thank my lucky stars I didn’t have this accident in a country with no national health insurer. In addition to the chair, I have a companion bed that is motorised on my side but flat for Steve. The mattress has pressure relieving qualities so I don’t get pressure wounds from lying in the same position for 8 or more hours. I have a special folding frame wheelchair that I can take into the shower. I have a frame underneath my lounge chair to raise it and make it easier for me to get in and out. I could floor you with how much these things cost, but in all honesty, I don’t know. I never see an invoice, I never touch order forms, I never have to seek reimbursement for these things. It all magically happens and I could not be more grateful.