Wheelchair

My old beat-up loaner chair from Mary Free Bed got a flat on Wednesday morning. I found this as I attempted to transfer from the bed into the wheelchair and the brake failed to hold. (The brake is a friction lock that sits against the inflated tire, so a deflated tire doesn't sit as high and therefore the brake provides zero friction) Luckily I was at Mary Free Bed, so I wheeled the broken chair to therapy hoping they could fix it for me. But, instead of fixing the loaner chair, they sent me home in a Breezy.

What is a Breezy you ask?

Breezy's are big, heavy, un-maneuverable beasts that take two living rooms to turn around in. A Breezy is the tandem trailer semi-truck of the wheelchair world. Hospitals use Breezy's as complimentary, visitor wheelchairs because they know that no one would ever even think of stealing one.

Luckily for me, UPS showed online that the Quickie Q7 demo wheelchair that I bought from New Jersey had been delivered. When I returned home in my Breezy, I quickly assembled my demo chair and transferred into it. I was just beginning to adjust to the chair when we realized that it had a flat. Another flat? To make matters worse, the valve stem is not a normal automotive/bike stem, it's a European thin valve designed for racing. Unfortunately my air compressor doesn't have that type of fitting.

Thursday morning, I called around and found that Cycle and Fitness in St. Joseph had the required adapter and could fill up my tire. The staff at Cycle and Fitness checked my tire and tube and filled both tires to the correct pressure. Cycle and Fitness keeps both tubes and tires in stock for all sizes of wheelchairs and they can repair or modify just about any part on the chair itself. I was definitely impressed by Cycle and Fitness. www.cycleandfitness.net