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Kick scooter

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Children in Berlin, Germany playing on scooters in 1955

A kick scooter or push scooter is a small platform with two or more wheels that is propelled by a rider pushing off the ground. The most common scooters today have two hard small wheels, are made primarily of aluminium and fold for convenience. Some kick scooters have 3 or 4 wheels, or are made of plastic, or are large, or do not fold. High performance trickster scooters made for adults resemble the old "penny-farthing" with much larger wheel in front.

Models and history

Early scooters

Primitive scooters have been hand-made in industrial urban areas for at least 100 years. One common homemade version is made by attaching roller skate wheel sets to a board with some kind of handle. Steering is provided by leaning, or by a second board connected by a crude pivot. The construction was all-wooden, with 3-4 inch (75-100 mm) wheels with steel ball bearings. An additional advantage of this construction was loud noise, just like from a "real" vehicle. An alternative construction consists of one steel clamp–on roller skate divided into front and rear parts and attached to a wood beam.

Aluminium scooters

Child with miniature folding scooter
Kickboards for adult stagehands

In the late 1990s, a sleeker, narrower folding version of the kick scooter was created by Wim Ouboter of Micro Original Scooters and kickboards in Switzerland.[1] His invention was then copied by JDBug (or Razor) and many others as the aluminum scooter became wildly popular in Japan. In 1999 and 2000 they became popular in the United States, in a wide variety of colors and styles. Popular brands include Razor and Micro, which are still produced and are popular with children and with a niche market of young adults who use the scooters to perform stunts. See Scootering.new scooters from today are used to do tricks and jump over stuff also used as a sport.

"Adult" folding scooters

Folding kick scooters intended for adults generally have more durable parts, and are designed with wider and longer decks, hand brake and larger wheels, for smoother transportation. An example is the Xootr, which incorporates 180 mm (7.1 in) wheels and a deck sized for a standing adult[2].

Big wheels

Scooters made for racing use bicycle wheels and do not fold. Some are used in dense urban areas for utility purposes, being faster than a folding scooter and handier than a utility bicycle. Some are made for off-road use and are described as Mountain Scooters, such as Sidewalker, Freetrail and Diggler.The development of the Kickbike [3] in Finland in 1994 changed the way scooters are viewed. The kickbike has a large standard size bicycle front wheel and a much smaller rear wheel, allowing a much faster ride.

Besides commuting, sports competition and off road use, large wheel scooters are a favorite for Dog scootering where single or team dogs such as huskies pull a scooter and rider in the same way that a sled is pulled across snow. Today variations on the kicksled with scooter design features are also available, such as the Kickspark.

Four Wheels

In 2006, a company called Nextsport started producing a line of four-wheeled scooters, known as Fuzions. Fuzion scooters are typically bigger and heavier than Razor and Micro models. The early Fuzion models come with large, wide wheels, and an oversized deck for carving stability. Later scooters, such as the Fuzion NX, include smaller, harder wheels, and 360 degree handlebar spinning capabilities, unlike its predecessors.

There are also a few instances of freestyle scooter riders mounting skateboard trucks to standard aluminum style scooters to make four wheelers. Timur Mamatov, of Russia, is the first known rider to do this. This method of modifying kick scooters, however, has not caught on to the freestyle community.

Compared to bicycle

Unlike a kick scooter, a bicycle has a seat and drive train, which bring more speed, cost, weight and bulk. At the end of a journey a folding scooter can be more easily folded and carried indoors than a folding bicycle or even a portable bicycle. Even a non folding scooter is easier to bring into crowded places, since it lacks pedals which jut out. Thus a cyclist has advantages on longer journeys and open spaces, while a kick scooter on shorter and more crowded ones. Kickers seldom have a luggage rack, so the rider usually carries any cargo by backpack or other bag

At minimal speeds a bicycle is difficult to control while pedaling, which is why bicyclers sometimes kick their way through dense traffic or other conditions where they cannot take advantage of the speed of their machine. Thanks to the superior low-speed stability of a kicker, it is allowed on many footpaths where riding a bicycle is forbidden.

Since the feet are lower to the ground, it is easier to step on and off a scooter than even a step-through frame bicycle, hence the rider can alternate walking and pushing as energy and route dictate. Large wheel scooters such as the Kickbike afford a more effective cross training workout than standard bicycles as the whole body is engaged in the effort of kicking. Pushing or kicking a large wheel scooter places less stress on the knee joint than does pedaling a bicycle. Although the bicycle is a much more effective long distance machine, in 2001 Jim Delzer pushed a kick bike across the United States[4]

Modifications

Riders are modifying their kick scooters with the increase in the manufacturing of aftermarket kick scooter products. This includes items such as grips, one-piece handlebars, "bolting" the folding mechanism, complete deck griptape, aftermarket bearings and metalcore wheels.

References

  1. ^ The Guardian Inventor of the micro scooter
  2. ^ Xootr review
  3. ^ kick bikes
  4. ^ Delzer trip