My bride has bad hips and a bad spine. She has reached the point that she is often unable to walk more than short (one-block) distances - and has finally conceded that, sometimes, getting pushed in a wheelchair may be a necessary solution to staying active.
I'm weighing the choices. Definitely aluminum, so I can heft it in and out of the car. There seem to be two major styles: transport chairs, with little wheels front and back, and the traditional "big wheels" chairs, with large wheels at the back and smaller ones up front. I've used a transport chair for someone once or twice, and I found it very frustrating out on sidewalks; the small wheels were difficult to get up over the slightest irregularity. So my inclination is to go for a "big wheels" model with handgrips on the backrest, and quick-release hubs on the wheels.
But I'd appreciate observations from folks who've been the motive power for someone sitting in a wheelchair: which style, features to look for, brands to choose or avoid, etc.
This will be a now and again thing, so I'm not interested in power chairs, at least not of the huge-and-weighty kind. I'm also not interested in spending a fortune - she's worth any fortune, but we're not rich.
