New Continental Tires For My Wheelchair

I use tubeless yellow 26x1- inch Continental tires on my wheelchair.  Their tread is an extremely short/shallow diamond pattern that does not track mud indoors during the notoriously wet Pacific NW weather.  With such little tread, they do wear out after several months usage quietly going flat in their demise.

I have healthcare insurance for all things related to my on-the-job spinal cord injury which also covers durable medical goods such as wheelchairs, shower benches and high-tech seat cushions to avoid bedsores.  That is a huge blessing in my life affording me quality medical care and products as needed.

I have shopped for wheelchair parts from Washington to Hawaii to California to Florida.  My experience is that wheelchair parts stores provide some of the worst customer service in America.  It took two months to get tires for my wheelchair—and that was when I drove to the shop, got the tires and installed them myself.  It would have been even longer to schedule an appointment with the tech as preferred by my insurance provider.

In their defense, the shop seemed to have been bought out twice in the two months by bigger fish.   Turns out they simply merged with another shop across town with a really confusing story about what the hell they were doing.  That was not the doing of the repair staff.   Management clearly failed to implement a good plan.  Pulling up the new company’s numotion.com website their mission is “we aim to be the most responsive and innovative company to do business with.”  Grade so far: FAIL.

The good news is that I finally got my new tires today and don’t have to use a wheelchair with flat tires anymore…for now.  I like to be pro-active and keep spares around just like everybody else does with a spare tire for their car.  My insurance company hates that.  God forbid I die with an unused set of tires lying around. 

New tires are not quite like a new pair of shoes.  There is no breaking them in.  I have used the same tires for 25 years.  Spoke and wheel technology hit a plateau around the time of Greek chariots.  Tires have advanced considerably beyond bronze covered wooden rims.

I am grateful for my expensive ultra-lightweight titanium wheelchair with skinny tubeless treadless Continental tires.  The chair is extremely robust with a simple design that works well for me.  It might take awhile for the vendor to get it together, but it has always worked out—sooner or later.