Sunday, November 3, 2013

Part IV - The Waiting and Arrvial

Now it was the waiting time. Summer was approaching and I wasn't going to have the K2 until July 7th. I was curious to see how I'd manage the terrain of Surprise Lake Camp with my old chair.

Well, the time came and it was a little treacherous. I knew I'd have to pop a wheelie while going downhill. It was tough. Plus, the old chair has rubber coating on the push-rims because at the time I got the chair, I had lesser hand strength. Burning the skin off my hands was not fun! I also realized, that due to the rocks on the road, I had to ride most of the time in a wheelie. It was difficult. The K2 couldn't come fast enough! I was able to manage for those few weekends, but I knew I'd have a chair in a few weeks that would open up the roads!

I was excited when my friend Sarah departed for the Emerald Isle. It meant that she was coming home with a special gift! I could hardly contain myself. I was very excited. I left camp early on Sunday afternoon to drive to her house.

Seeing it in the back of her car was awesome! She has an SUV so she was able to have it in back fully assembled. In this photo the wheels are at the narrowest setting. The black (with silver in the middle) axle is how you adjust the angle of the wheels. The way the wheels are here is called the "lean" setting. Twisting the axle changes the wheel angle. I immediately twisted the axle to change the wheels to the "mean" setting before taking the chair out.

Then, it was time to take it out for its inaugural spin! I hopped in, easily adjusted the back angle (there's a little lever in back that you depress), and started pushing myself around. While the wheels have push-rims, it is way easier and more effective to grab the wheels and push. I played around with the brakes which definitely took a little getting used to. The chair spins pretty easily as I realized when I pulled to much on one brake. But wow, what a sweet chair! The back wheel, while it is on a caster stays straight mostly. It has a setting so that when your traveling, it stays "locked" in because most of the time you want to go straight. This also is beneficial when you're zipping down a hill. You don't want a wheel behind you going all akimbo...it could cause you to spill. When you need to turn, however, it pops out of that setting and swivels.

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