PAWS wheelchair

Whoa, I'm digging this chair:



Love how you can keep the wheels in the same
position and spin the seat.

TopChair

I'm really interested in this chair and there
is very little information about it on the
internet. Check this out though:

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/topchair/comment3E.htm

Their webpage says the project started in 2001, but
I'm wondering how long it's been on the market.
Selling price? Can you raise the seat so that
you are eye level with a standing adult? Does
it go through sand and gravel? These are the
things I need to find out.

Another stair climbing wheelchair

Whoa, I know nothing about this chair other than
what I see in this video and what I've read on
their website, but this looks really great for
stair climbing. Better than the iBOT even.
The stair climbing function is the biggest
disappointment about the iBOT.



The sad thing is, it'll probably never go anywhere
because there's no money in it since Medicare
would classify it as a "luxury" and therefore
not pay for any of it which means most people
wouldn't be able to purchase one, just like the
iBOT. There is amazing technology out there and
there could be a completely knock your socks off
wheelchair, but someone brilliant and well-known
like Dean Kamen has to be behind it, and a
huge company with tons of money, like Johnson
and Johnson, has to market it.

Frustrating.

What to do when you have a flat

The iBOT manual says to not drive the iBOT
if it has a flat. In my opinion, that's a
ridiculously unrealistic statement. These
tires are not easy to get on and off. The
guy at the bike store yesterday who had
experience and proper tools took at least
15 minutes and a whole lot of swearing to
change just one tire. (He didn't swear
out loud, but I know that it's a lot of
work and I'm pretty sure some bad words
were said in his head!) I know I wouldn't
be able to change a tire myself, and I'm
not about to a) carry the proper tools with
me wherever I go and b) ask an average person
to change it for me. In addition to not
being able to change it myself or ask a
Bob Smith to do it for me, there is no emergency
wheelchair flat tire fixing service such as
AAA. I can't even call a friend to come
pick me up because I can't get the iBOT
into their cars. I could call a cab, but
finding one with a wheelchair lift to come
out right away probably wouldn't be easy.
A reader of this blog suggested public
transportation, which is a great idea...
however, I haven't looked into that yet.
I don't know if they'd be able to take
me to my house, or just the nearest bus
stop which is 2 blocks away. Besides, I
might be in a different town/city where
they do not have accessible public transport
and/or taxi cabs.

Whenever I get a flat, people always say,
"Why not just switch the clusters so that
the flat wheel in the back is in the front?"
That is what I did do when I got my last
flat, but I was really uncomfortable doing
it because you just never know if the iBOT
is going to perform normally with a flat
tire. I've since talked with IT (Independence
Technology) and here is what they recommend:

While in Standard Function, transition to
4-Wheel Drive. Drive the iBOT in 4-Wheel
Drive to a place that can fix it. Rolling
with a flat in 4-Wheel Drive function is much
better than Standard Function because the
other 3 wheels will help keep the weight off
of the flat one.

While rolling in 4-Wheel Drive with a flat
tire could result in wheel damage, the guy at
IT said it's highly unlikely to get damaged
as long as I'm not going over rocks or going
a very far distance. If it did damage the
wheel, I'd have to pay for the cost of a
new wheel, plus a service call because
a tech would have to put the new wheel
on. Putting on the new wheel is NOT something
a bike shop could do. I asked IT how much a
new wheel costs, and he didn't know off the
top of his head, but he's going to find out
and let me know. However much it is though,
I'd rather risk damaging the wheel than
switching the clusters and possibly having
the chair flip over backward or throw me out
forward.

**Some iBOT users do switch the clusters when
they get a flat (and I did it once by using the
stair climbing function), but IT does not
recommend doing this.**

Some random recommendations:
1. Always carry a spare tube with you.
Your local bike shop will not have the right
size tube.
2. If you've got the room, always carry
a spare tire with you.
3. Carry the number of public transport
and taxi services.
4. IT has a 24-hour support line.
1-800-INDE-NOW.
5. If traveling with an iBOT, bring along
a spare manual wheelchair. If you don't have
a spare manual chair, you can purchase a
cheap lightweight foldable travel chair for
about $150.
6. Possible places to fix a flat: bike
shops, Les Schwab, probably gas stations.

Better day

Yesterday's post title should have read, "Bad
crip day", or maybe just "Bad day". We all
have them, disabled or not. The iBOT is a
great mobility device that has changed my
life and I shouldn't have whined about it. It
was just a bad day and I blamed it mostly on the
iBOT, which I shouldn't have.

Just to clarify, IT is Independence Technology.
They provide iBOT tech support and they have
nothing to do with the design (except for
giving the engineers feedback probably). DEKA
is Dean Kamen's company. They are the people
who designed and who make the iBOT.

I took my BOT to the bike shop today. I decided
to put a new tire on the wheel that keeps popping.
I also decided that instead of changing just one
tire, I'd change them all. I could have called
IT and had them send a tech to change the tires
for me, but that would have cost me $90 for the
service call (as least I thought it would since
I didn't think it was covered under warranty). So
I decided to take it to the bike shop where
they only charged me $5.00 per wheel = $20.00.
They're super nice... it took them well over an
hour to get the new ones on. I know they must
cringe every time they see me coming in! I think
all the guys in the shop try to ignore me as long
as possible and hope that one of their co-workers
will find out what I need. LOL! Getting these
tires on and off is not easy.

At the bike shop they changed all four tires and
they thoroughly inspected the one that keeps popping
for anything that might be causing the flats. They
found nothing. I've been home for a few hours now
and no flat so far. Oh, also, when I ordered my
last set of tubes from IT, they also sent me these
rubber things. I don't know what they're called,
but basically it puts a layer of rubber between
the tube and the wheel. That should help prevent
flats.

When I got home from the bike shop, there was a
message from IT. They said they wanted to send
a tech here to inspect the wheels and try to
determine what the problem is. They said they
were also going to give me 4 new tubes since I've
been going through so many lately. They said it
will be covered under warranty, so I'm cool with
that. As I've said before, IT tech support is
excellent.

Still no call back from DEKA. I called them again
this afternoon and left another message. I still
want to ask them about switching the clusters when
there is a flat. Will post again when I do hear
from them.

Bad iBOT day

Today has not been a good iBOT day. I still
love my bot, but today I'm frustrated with
the tires. This will probably be a long post,
but I'm doing it mainly for my own personal
documentation. If you don't have an iBOT
yourself or you don't know much about it, the
following will probably be of no interest to
you.

I called IT this morning to ask about switching
the clusters when there is a flat tire involved.
I asked them if there have been tests done to
see if, while switching the clusters, the bot
performs the same way with a flat as it does
when there isn't a flat. I've tested switching
the clusters with no flats, and it worked well.
I don't want to test it with a flat though
because I don't feel like being a crash test
dummy.

IT didn't know if it has been tested. They also
didn't know how I could go about finding an
answer to my question. He looked up flat tire
information in the manual and it said that if you
get a flat, don't move the iBOT. It could "result
in serious injury or death". So, uh, what am I
supposed to do? Call AAA? Obviously you have to
move the bot when it has a flat. IT said the
only thing they could recommend I do is check the
tire pressure every day.

Since I didn't get my question answered (btw, IT
is always very nice and helpful, but they are
tech support only and they have nothing to do with
any sort of testing), I called a friend of mine
who also has an iBOT. He suggested I called
DEKA and talk to one of the engineers there. I
called. The person she transferred me to wasn't
at his desk so I left him a message to call me
back. I waited around for about an hour hoping
he'd call, but he didn't. I had to go to the
grocery store and so I left the house, in balance,
and went to the store which is approximately 15
blocks away. As I'm in the check-out line, the
lady behind me says, "It looks like you have
a flat." ARGGG! Not another flat. This is
getting old. I didn't know what to do because
my house and van were about 15 blocks from the
store. That's too far to roll on a flat. I
thought about switching the clusters, but I was
worried the bot might tip over or throw me out
if I attempted to do that. So I decided to go
down to 4-Wheel Function the normal way. Strangely,
it didn't shoot me forward like it did last time
I did that. It went to 4-Wheel and then Standard
with no issues. But there I was in the store
with a rear flat. My choices were, limp all
the way home which would definitely ruin the wheel,
go back into balance and force it to go into 4-wheel
by tipping it forward so that the clusters would
switch, or doing the stair climbing thing to switch
the clusters. I was nervous about trying either
one of the cluster switching ways because as I said
before, I don't know if the BOT would behave the
same way.

Lucky for me, my bf works in my neighborhood. I
called him and he met me at the store. He's been
trained on stair climbing and he's a mechanical
engineer, so I trusted he would know what would
be the best thing to do. We decided to use the
Stair-Climbing Function to switch the clusters.
I didn't do the stair climbing myself, he did
it. It worked. The clusters switched and I
rolled home in Standard Function with the flat
tire in the front and slightly raised.

My concerns:

1) Why do I keep getting flats? Someone just recently
asked me about the frequency of flats and I said that
I didn't think it was too bad. I've changed my mind.
Something needs to be done to prevent these flats.

2) Someone needs to answer my question about switching
the clusters when there is a flat.

3) Why is it that last time I had a flat tire when I
was in Balance Function, it shot me forward about
5 feet when I made the transition to 4-Wheel Function,
but today it didn't do that?

Ugh. I'm having van issues as well. The ramp broke,
the service engine soon light is on, the speedometer
and the other things on the dash aren't working. T'is
a sucky crip day.

Also, I have to get new caster wheels for the bot. I'll
post more about that tomorrow probably. $120 for two
new pieces of rubber. I can think of a least a gagillion
other things I'd rather spend $120 on.

Stress headache about to make my head explode. Sorry to
complain so much. I just need to vent every once in awhile.
To end on a happy note, I just saw my hair in the mirror and
it's shiny. :D

The correct way to climb stairs

In the post below (the one titled "New
Video"), I climb one step in order to
switch the clusters. I didn't do a good
job climbing the step. You can hear the
iBOT beep at me, telling me that was too
rough. Luckily I didn't throw a wrench.
Throwing a wrench means something didn't
perform the way it was supposed to. IT
wants to know about these things. So a
wrench shows up on the UCP, and you get
locked out of every function except for
standard. Clearing the wrench is most
likely just a call to IT and they clear
it remotely.

Anyway, there is a technique to make stair
climbing smoother than what you see in my
video. Since I almost never use the Stair
Climbing Function, I don't have this technique
down. In the following video, you can see how
smooth stair climbing is supposed to be.

And one more way to switch the clusters

But like I said in my last post, I'm not sure
how it will perform if it has a flat.

New video

One way to switch the clusters:


My only concern is that the chair will not behave
the same way with a flat. I'll give IT and call
to find out if it's been tested.

Creature Discomforts

The following post has nothing to do with the iBOT,
but it is about disability.



To watch their fabulous ads, go to CreatureDiscomforts.org.