Right, Donuel. Narrow, light. I'm not familiar with the Sillouet.

I contracted polio at the age of two and walked with the aid of a leg brace and aluminum forearm crutches most of my life. In 1990, my shoulders gave out (every step was a push-up, and the human shoulder is not built for that sort of thing) and I had to take to a wheelchair.

I have a Quickie 2 Ultralight folding wheelchair that looks almost exactly like THIS. In addition to being foldable (for stowing in an automobile trunk or back seat), mine also has removable wheels. The wheels in the illustration are wire-spoke, but my wheels have six very strong plastic spokes, making the chair even lighter. I also have adjustable leg-rests on mine. And complete with a ROHO air-flotation cushion, it's quite comfortable. The seat on mine is 16" wide, but you can get them various widths, in two-inch increments. I weigh about 140 lbs. The chair weighs about 35 lbs.

Quickie also makes even lighter wheelchairs, generally for sports, such as wheelchair basketball. I have a friend (actually one of my wife's many cousins—auto accident, spinal cord injury) who has one. It looks like THIS. Note the camber on the wheels (fast cornering without tipping over), and the lack of armrests. So Chuck's is even lighter than mine.

I also have one of THESE, a Pride "Jazzy" 1122, but with a seat different from the illustration. The seat looks more like that of my Quickie 2, but the "power base" is the same. Power chair, mid-wheel drive, very maneuverable (you can sit in one spot and spin). You steer it with a joystick, and with the speed knob cranked all the way up, it can move along at about 6.5 mph (good jogging speed), and it will go 25 miles on one overnight charge (two 12 volt deep-cycle batteries). Don't know how much it weighs, but I think it's about 85 lbs. I can practically climb trees in the thing.

Don Firth