Choosing an everyday sports wheelchair can be like sharing a closet with your spouse: An irksome compromise that will frustrate you for years. A rigid sportschair is light, a folding sportschair is convenient, and a custom sportschair is responsive -- if only one company could roll up all the best sportschair qualities into one set of everyday wheels, life would be so much closer to one of so-happy-it-makes-you-sick cola or shampoo commercials, right?
Well, the team at TiSport -- an offshoot of Titanium Sports Technologies, manufacturer of titanium golf clubs and bicycle frames -- listened to the consumer and developed the TiSport XC, a custom, folding, high-performance sportschair geared toward everyday use.
The first noticeable difference between the XC and other folders on the market, is in its construction material, titanium. Titanium weighs half as much as steel, and has three-times the strength of aluminum, with superior shock absorption properties, making it a great material for wheelchair construction. Titanium is, however, very difficult to work with, which adds considerable costs to the product. Nevertheless, TiSport has its own fabrication processes that afford high-quality construction while keeping costs down (the XC’s list price of $3,095 isn’t cheap, but by titanium standards, it is reasonable).
The foremost issue to overcome in a folding sportschair design is creating operational rigidity. TiSport went with the traditional cross-brace design (invented by Mr. Everest and Mr. Jennings more than six decades ago), and refined it to maximize the frame’s rigidity when unfolded. Traditional cross-brace designs place the seat tubes atop the main side frames. While many manufacturers use plastic guides to help keep the seat stabilized over the side frames, the seat tubes have a lot of room for movement, often seeming to float independent of the rest of the chair -- this is why folding chairs often feel unstable and wobbly. The XC locates the seat tubes flush, on the inside of the side frames, which, along with guides, prevents the seat tubes from side-to-side shifting, enhancing its rigidity. It’s a subtle design difference that increases the XC’s performance over other folding chairs. (Also, aesthetically, the flush seat tubes give the frame a sleeker look than the conventional design, as well as make transfers easier since there’re no additional protruding tube ends to snag your rear or clothing.) Secondary to the enhanced cross-brace design, the XC’s optional one-piece, center-folding footrest ($125), creates total “lockout” on the frame when unfolded, producing a rigid front end (traditional flip-up footrest are standard, but if you don’t need flip-up footrests, the one-piece option is meaningful feature for getting the best performance from the chair). With the rear wheels attached, the XC folds to an overall width of 12½ “, and a scant 6” without the rear wheels, allowing it to quickly stow in the smallest trunks.
If “X” represents “folding,” then “C” represents “custom.” Unlike all other folders on the market, the XC is a full-bore custom sportschair, allowing you to specify seat width and depth, front and rear seat heights, rear axle location, caster housing location, front frame taper and angle, camber, and back angle. The XC -- void of later adjustability other than footrest height -- is custom fit to your needs, omitting adjustable mounting hardware that lessens a chair’s performance. The result of the XC’s custom-fit is the lightest -- 17lbs. -- most responsive folding chair possible.
With a vast options list, the XC can be rigged as you wish, most notably offering 3”, 4”, 5”, and 6” casters; 24”, 25”, and 26” rear wheels, including high-flange hubs and Xcore wheels; coated and projection push rims; scissors and high-mount brakes ($110); fabric and rigid hip guards; rear anti-tips ($120); and removable desk armrests ($195, available in February 2000). More extravagant options include titanium push rims ($400), and titanium rear axles ($195). One choice you won’t find on the XC’s order form is paint color, as the chair only comes in bare titanium -- specifically, a standard bead-blasted finish, or optional polished finish ($500), which the manufacturer boasts as a way to avoid unsightly scratches and dings associated with paint finishes.
By comparison, the Quickie 2HP ($1,900), features titanium mounting hardware on an aluminum frame -- for a base weight of 22lbs. -- and has a one-piece, flip-up footrest for increased rigidity. The Quickie 2HP, however, isn’t a custom chair -- as well as lacks a tapered front end -- and sacrifices some performance due to its adjustable, bolt-on running gear.
TiSport’s XC -- lightweight, responsive, and compact -- may be just your ticket if you’ve longed for a folding sports wheelchair that doesn’t compromise performance for portability. As for the solution to sharing a closet with your spouse. . . well. . . I guess there’re limits to the problems wheelchair designers can solve.