Re: solid or pneumatic tyres


"Mark Horton" <markhorton2@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:eshigo$l9d$1@xxxxxxxxxxx
Don Moody wrote:

"roy" <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:pgzGh.26565$fa.12396@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Just about to buy my first mobility scooter. It is roadworthy (Maxi
class?)
but I will only use it for visiting towns and for some cross
country stuff,
so that I can maintain my bird spotting interest. - hence the need
for a
more robust model. With this use in mind, the guy in the shop has
said I
should consider non pneumatic tyres, (Did he say same tyres filled
with some
sort of spongy material?) to avoid any possibility of puncture, on
stones/thorns - but I am concerned the ride will be much bumpier.
The
salesman thinks this is still the best compromise, and will give
much more
peace of mind for minimal change in smoothness of drive.

Can anyone advise me?



You are looking at the wrong problem. The comfort question is simple
to resolve. Try both, preferably over cobblestones or some such
rough surface.

The problem here is cost. Doing as you suggest would cost on average
the thick end of £200.00
This includes call out and labour charges.

The important issue is what you do if you are in some remote lace
with your bird-watching and the scooter breaks down for any reason.
How do you get out?
You don't, but you make sure your powerchair or scooter is well
maintained, and that you have your mobile phone and the number of a
taxi firm that has mini buses with tail lifts.

Make sure before you go you have a mobile phone with battery charged
and plenty of units to use. It isn't the breakdown itself which is
your main problem. It is the consequences of being isolated in some
place when conditions get inhospitable and you can't get out
unaided.


Forward planning will minimise any risks. I manage to regularly go
into the New Forest without any qualms, as I know every inch of my
powerchairs, and I get problems fixed as soon as they start to
appear. It is extremely unlikely for there to be a sudden
catastrophic failure without some prior warning. Failures come about
as a general lack of preventative maintenance.

For instance do you what tightness the hub bolts are on your
powerchair or mobility scooter? The amount left on the carbon
brushes? Batteries never suddenly fail. There is always prior drop
off in performance.

The fact is the main type of breakdown is a puncture. That is why I
have solid tyres fitted to all my wheelchairs.


The point, Mark, is that however meticulous and careful one is about
kit and its preventative maintenance there will come a time when there
is a catastrophic failure of some kind. If that failure is survivable
without serious consequences then prevention and training are enough.
The issue arises when the consequence of failure of kit and the place
in which it fails is to get dead if remedial action is not taken at
once. What is the fail-safe? If it did cost the thick end of £200 to
preserve a life, isn't that a trivial price to pay?

In my days as a Diving Officer I applied the same philosophy. Yes I
was hot on maintenance, on constant checking of all kit, and on
training in its proper use. I managed to train over 400 divers without
losing a single one in thousands of dives. Did we have a completely
catastrophe-free series of dives? Definitely not. But we did figure
out in advance, and train as necessary, what to do to survive when
your aqualung packs up unexpectedly at 30 m down in pitch-black water,
for one example of a hairy situation which actually happened.

The thinking is clearly a lesson which needs to be learned. I live on
the south slopes of Dartmoor and the weekend just gone was a training
weekend up on the high moor for teenagers doing the Ten Tors. One
party had a girl slip into a turbulent river. They clearly had no idea
how to handle the conditions or what to do instantly in such an
emergency. By the time the helicopter was scrambled and found her she
was already so severely injured that at best she would have been
disabled for life. In fact she died shortly after arriving at
hospital. It needn't have happened. If you go into areas with
fast-flowing water, falling in is a predictable possible event.
Firstly it can be avoided, and if it happens the situation is
remediable providing people know what to do and do it fast enough.

As a wise old man taught me as a youth, you don't send anybody in to
get information until you have addressed how to get them out again
come what may. The default assumption is that however well you
maintain and train, something will go wrong. The fail-safe is how you
survive whatever that wrong may be. No fail-safe, don't go. For the OP
the fail-safe is a topped up and charged mobile. And if he needs to
use it, the cost of the rescue is irrelevant.

Don


.

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