GPV. progress and possibilites

[davidgillon]

Well, good news, the GPV vendor says 'whoops' and of course they'll accept a return. I'm not sure they appreciate yet that they're picking up the cost of the return, but we'll see.

They claim the other GPV they're selling is genuinely 16", and am I interested? Now I reckon the GPV was close to being what I'm looking for as a short term main chair, long term spare, the only issues were not fitting in it (bit of a killer that) and needing to tune the tippiness. So I'm potentially interested (and it does seem to be in slightly better nick than the current one). I need to check a few things - I want a picture with a ruler against it for one! But unlike the 14" it's a folding high back and forward folding, rather than backward folding as on the clown chair. Because I have issues with the width of a standard back throwing my shoulders out I've mostly been using the clown chair with the back folded (also keeps handles away from overly helpful strangers), but clearly that's not workable with a back that folds forward onto the seat. Long term aim is to get a chair with a good Jay back (which costs more than I paid for this chair) which is narrrow enough not to interfere, plus properly supportive (I've tried  Kaberett's so I know this for sure), but this promotes that from long term aspirational to short term need to look into it now.

So I've got a question. How much effort is it to replace a wheelchair back with a rigid one (I'm going to go see if I can hunt up a GPV manual online in a minute). And are there any decent rigid backs on the market for less than the £450+ a Jay back will cost me? (Because sticking a £450 or £550 back on a £200 chair doesn't strike me as necessarily entirely sensible).

Comments

[kaberett]

Wheelchair backs are easy to bolt on -- you get clamps onto the up-pipes of the frame an then slot the back into that, typically.

It's worth noting that Wheelchair Services cover seating as a separate ticket from the cost of the frame and you're in a good position to argue for decent supportive seating -- but that does of course require getting WS to a point from which you can wrangle them.

It's also worth noting that if you buy a back you'll be able to buy more than one set of mounts and Jay backs *do* do quick release, so it would be possible to have one back that you swapped between whichever chair you were using (I theoretically do this with my cushion, but in practice I have a spare on long-term loan from a friend so don't bother). Er, thwap me if I'm being patronising!

[davidgillon]

Absolutely not patronising! I sort of figured that swapping was possible, given the ease with which the back comes off and your main chair folds, but the practicality of two different sets of mounting brackets I hadn't thought of.

I'm sort of hoping I can use the annoyance factor of this to drive me past the rejection anxiety of trying for the third time to get wheelchair services to assess me. I'll see if I can get somewhere tonight.

[kaberett]

Cheerleading.

[davidgillon]

<3