Which Kick Scooter?! I want them all!!

So which one? There are so many to choose from! Three popular makers, Xootr, Micro and KickPed gave me a real roll for my money. They all fold down, have nice large wheels for less work and more speed, and are easy to throw over your shoulder to hop on the train.

The Kickped is as streamline as you can get: beautiful wood deck, fat wheels, and a fender step brake on the rear wheel. It is simple. It rides nimbly and quickly over cracks and brick sidewalk and is nice and narrow to slip quietly around other pedestrians.

The Micro Maxi is quite futuristic and a little more forward thinking in looks. Its lightweight all metal design and snazzy paint job sure make for something good to look at, and also ride. The Micro’s stiff deck and large wheels make for easy rolling and smooth handling. It also is quite silent… you don’t hear the bearings or any rattling as the sidewalk moves quickly underneath.

Don’t forget the Xootr!

The final contestant in the line up is the push Xootr. The executive of the scooter world – with multiple styles, colors and materials to choose from – spans every type of scooter your scootin’ heart can stand to ride. Its 8 inch wheels and super wide deck allows for more cruising than scooting with this scooter. The hand brake is a great addition, especially as a cyclist, I have a tendency to grab the handlebars to stop. There is an optional fender brake that can be added which is great, I’m always a fan of more stopping power, and it keeps dirt from flying off the wheel onto your clothes.

Kick Scooters great for the city!

Let’s face it: kick scooters are awesome city vehicles. What I was surprised about was the number of adults using kick scooters to scoot around city streets. All the options – the KickPed, Micro Maxi and Xootr – prove that there is good reason for their growing popularity, and are real convenient transport systems. Particularly in a city that is about getting there quicker and more efficiently.

Check out these Kick Scooters and you won’t be sorry, who needs to walk when you can glide?

Xootr left and KickPed right

Most kick scooter riders and potential kick scooter buyers are thousands of miles from being able to stroll into a certain New York City bike shop called NYCeWheels, but thanks to the Internet anyone is able to choose to buy the scooter that I have personally chosen as the best scooter ever, the KickPed.

I did not just stumble across it and decide to say it is the best. No, I have owned and ridden six different scooters in California, and before that, when I lived in England I had a few more.

The KickPed competes with scooters of the past

Each scooter had its good points and bad points and each was used hard and evaluated objectively in several riding situations. And for me, the KickPed is the best one of all.

Toy Scooter

The scooter that I rode the most was a heavy, inefficient, steel child’s scooter that I bought new for $50 back in 1988. I lived at the time, a mile or so from Venice Beach, California, and would appear on the boardwalk daily, riding my little scooter, in an era where scooters were almost never seen. I was “Scooter Man”.

Occasionally a child would happen by on a toy scooter, not that mine was not also a toy, and very rarely, the elusive dream machine known back then as a BMX scooter would make an appearance. But in general, it was all bikes and skates, besides me on my scooter. Although I should add that the future Patmont guys (manufacturers of today’s KickPed) were field-testing their prototype of the combustion engined Go-Ped in Venice that year, and getting hassled by the police even then.

That $50 scooter wore out and the last pair of tires was kept in service with a can and a half of Fix-A-Flat. After donating the scooter, I was left with a hole in my life. I yearned to have another scooter. I flirted with bikes, got a bruised behind from the saddles, and even went through several models of stand-up electric scooters, which while fun, did not really fill the void left by my last human-powered scooter.

We each have our preferred way to get around, but for me, the kick scooter, or leg scooter or push scooter is the vehicle that really gets me going. I love the simplicity and the efficiency, and I also, I have to admit, enjoy the attention.

I will repeat at this point that my current scooter favorite is the KickPed, sold by NYCeWheels in New York, (or at their website, from anywhere). For me, the KickPed has all the right stuff. It is easy to ride, easy to push or kick, easy to carry and is the easiest scooter to fold and unfold.

In recent years I have had a few remarkable human powered scooters, and I will comment on each here and explain why the KickPed beats them all.

The KickPed vs the Sidewalker city

Sidewalker City

The Sidewalker City was an amazing looking giant scooter, but it was inefficient. The foot-board was too high, making it very tiring to ride, as the supporting leg had to basically do squats on every stroke. It was also pretty huge and was as cumbersome as a full size cruising bike when you wanted to park it or transport it. At 26 pounds, it was a little on the heavy side, and in 2003 it cost $299. It was a good argument for the inefficiency of scooters, but it did cause a stir and attracted many curious onlookers.

Clearly the KickPed is faster, lighter, easier to carry and less expensive than the Sidewalker.

Kick Ped takes on the KickBike

KickBike Millenium Racer

The KickBike Millennium Racer was a scooter of the sort that is raced by European athletes. Scooters have always been more popular in countries such as Denmark. They call them Footbikes, and there is a FootBike brand, but mine was a KickBike. With its large front wheel from a racing bike and its 100 pound tire pressure, the KickBike would fly at terrifying speed over bumps and cracks, stopping at nothing except the steepest of hills. On a downhill it would speed along like Lance Armstrong, passing teams of cyclists, and I would see the road beneath me as death in waiting. Luckily I never once wiped out on that KickBike.

Despite it being fairly easy to remove the front wheel and toss it in the car, the KickBike was a never a vehicle that you could hop off, fold, and carry, so it never had the full convenience that is a major advantage of a scooter. It weighed under 20 pounds and in 2003 it cost $299 plus shipping.

The KickPed is easier to carry, more convenient, and less expensive than a KickBike.

Xootr MG folded and unfolded

The KickPed vs the Xootr Mg

The Xootr Mg is one of the more popular versions of the Xootr scooter range of foldable kick scooters.

Sometime around 2005 I had just written a magazine review of the KickBike on the-vu.com, and a man whose name I unfortunately cannot remember asked me if we could meet and ride each other’s scooters. He showed up in a van containing folding bicycles, two Xootrs and if I remember rightly, a Know-Ped with a shaved deck. Or perhaps it was a Xootr Cruise with a shaved deck, but whichever it was, he was onto something, as a shaved deck is one of the star features of today’s KickPed. Anyway, we rode together up to the top of Beverlywood and back, a steep climb up and free ride back down, about three miles, with he on my KickBike and myself on his Xootr MG. The next day I found myself ordering a Xootr MG.

When the surface is smooth and dry, the Xootr is hands down the best scooter you can get. The deck is low, the rolling resistance is minimal. and it is simply the most efficient scooter, and is also quite easy to fold, unfold and carry around. If all surfaces were always smooth and dry, there would be no beating the Xootr. But, not all roads are smooth are they? That is why I think the KickPed is the better scooter in the real world. Compared to the KickPed, the Xootr MG was very noisy, very bumpy, harder to fold and unfold, prone to sudden grinding stops on uneven pavement, and it skidded unnervingly on damp or wet pavement.

But there is no denying that any Xootr is a great scooter. The NYCeWheels store in New York has a custom version of the Xootr MG called a CityKicker. Other Xootrs include the Venus and Roma models which have a narrow deck for improved scooting efficiency.

More advantages to the KickPed

The KickPed Scooter is much safer, much quieter, much more comfortable, and yet still almost as fast as a Xootr, actually faster on the uneven sidewalks around this neighborhood, which often require a dismount and walk if you are on a Xootr.

It is no secret that my favorite scooter, the KickPed, is adapted, very cleverly, from an existing product, the Know-Ped. Despite the KickPed being better in a few ways, an original Know-Ped push scooter is still a nice scooter. I had a blue one for a while, but I lost it in a burglary in 2003, before I really had a chance to put many miles on it. I do remember that I wished the bars were higher, and that the kick stroke was a bit too far out to the side to be very efficient, but it was a nice smooth ride on an over-engineered platform that was originally designed for a combustion engine driven scooter.

The improvements that NYCeWheels brought to the Know-Ped when they designed the KickPed are all very effective. Especially the version with the taller handlebars. As long as these improved KickPeds are available there is no good reason to consider the older Know-Ped for your next scooter.

I realize that not everyone has the patience to buy and sell their way through five or six scooters just to find out which is the best choice for them, but if you take my suggested direction, you’ll be very happy with a KickPed, and slightly less so with any other choice.

Jeffrey the Barak writes from Los Angeles, California.

The most popular push scooters in the United States are the small folding kind. The fact that they can fold up and be carried makes them so much more versatile than the scooter that remains it’s full deployed size and is basically a bicycle without the seat or the drivetrain.

While you may own one of today’s excellent push scooters such as the amazing KickPed, or perhaps a Xootr Mg or a CityKicker, or a Micro Black or a Razor A5, you can still use the same technique as the European athletes who race their larger Footbikes.

Scooters above, from left to right, Citykicker (Xootr), KickPed (tall), Micro (White), all from NYCeWheels.

Usually, when I am scooting around, I never see another person on a leg scooter, but on the rare occasions that I do, I see them wasting energy, robbing themselves of forward speed. No wonder so many people sacrifice the convenience of a kick scooter for the efficiency of a bicycle.

Getting the most out of a kick scooter

Now I will not argue that a scooter can match bicycle efficiency because it is not a machine. A bicycle is a machine that has gears and pedals, so whether it has only one gear or ten, it converts pedal motion into more forward motion per caloric input than any adult kick scooter can.

But not everyone can be comfortable sitting on a hard saddle and moving their feet in circles all afternoon. I for one, prefer to stand, even if it compromises how fast and how far I can go. And so I am a kick scooter enthusiast.

If your goal is to be as fast as possible then perhaps you should be on a KickBike or Footbike, because they will take you along faster than a smaller wheeled folding scooter, but the dynamics used by the racers can also save us energy during our casual rides on our more convenient folding scooters.

Don’t let leg scooters be a drag

The first thing to pay attention to is unintentional braking. I see it all the time. A rider will provide forward motion with a kick or push and then immediately cancel out some of that energy by dragging a shoe on the road or by inadvertently applying the rear spoon brake.

Another way the casual kick scooter rider will rob themselves of efficiency is with the handlebars. By unintentionally turning the bars they lose energy as the front wheel acts like a skier swerving or ploughing to control downhill speed. Keeping as straight a course as possible will reduce how much forward inertia is converted to friction and heat by the front tire.

Hannu Vierikko, pioneer footbike racer on his KickBike. (c) KickBike.com

But the key to getting more efficient forward motion from the same set of muscles is to use gravity as your assistant. We convert falling into going. The ideal power stroke involves swinging the kicking leg forward and then flexing the supporting leg as the kicking leg comes down to meet the pavement slightly ahead of your center. The propelling foot on the ground then has to roll back onto the ball of the foot and the toes, at the back of the stroke. That final pointing of the foot provides the final flicking thrust of the stroke. And then that same leg swings forward again, providing another seemingly magical forward thrust without any ground contact at all.

Adult kick scooters are fast but easy!

This may sound like a complicated athletic feat, but it uses no more energy than a normal kick, and it takes you more than twice as far. Having a bendable flexible shoe also increases how much thrust you get out of one identical kick. A rigid skateboarder’s sneaker will waste energy. A bendable running shoe that allows you to articulate your toes will give you an extra free push on every stroke. In fact good bendy running shoes, as opposed to skateboard shoes or cross trainers etc., are like high octane fuel for your kick scooter.

Eventually you will want to switch feet, because your standing supporting leg, the one flexing up and down on the footboard, will get tired if you do not. The most efficient way is to use the scooter racer’s hop switch technique. As the kicking leg comes forward again from the back of it’s stroke, it neatly lands upon the footboard as the other foot smoothly jumps off to continue the forward swing that the first foot started. This takes a lot of practice, but since you will be going for many rides on your scooter, you can practice a little on every ride. Eventually your switching of the foot will be hard for any observer to see.

Keep grip on push scooters light

Your hands and arms also come into play. If you are too tall for your scooter, or if your handlebars are too low, you may find yourself bending over and supporting your weight on the handlebars. This will transfer the vibration from the road through your arms and shoulders, which is tiring, but it also robs you of forward speed. Ideally you should keep both hands on the grips and be aware of the forces so that you neither push down nor pull back. Aim for neutral force on the grips. The exception is when you approach a pavement crack. A little pull back and up will help the front wheel over that speed-robbing obstacle.

I learned these techniques slowly over more than three decades of scooting, but I mastered them when I had a KickBike. However, now that I ride my KickPed, all the same rules apply. This is not to say I ride fast everywhere, I do not. like to stand upright and look around and take my time. But when I want to, I can really make my little KickPed fly.

Most important, enjoy kick scooting!

So, even if you have not yet saved up to buy a KickPed or a Xootr and you are still borrowing your kid brother’s beat up old Razor with the worn down wheels to go riding, you can start to think about these techniques for speed and endurance, and start to practice them for when you have that shiny new ride. Believe me, you will soon find yourself calmly speaking to that out of breath cyclist who is going the same speed as you!

Jeffrey the Barak writes from Los Angeles, California

Fender brake on the KickPed

By Jeffrey the Barak

Ah, the humble kick scooter. Often maligned as inefficient, or silly looking, but to those of us who know, it is the ideal vehicle for short-distance, low to medium speed transportation.

True, if you need to go ten miles, then a bicycle of any type will get you there with less energy spent, and if you need to go a hundred yards, walking may be more convenient, but lets say your trip is between half a mile and five miles, well then what could be easier than an adult kick scooter?

With a kick scooter, also known as a leg scooter or push scooter, You don’t have to remove your shoes and put on skates, you don’t have to unlock and lock your large, heavy bicycle, you don’t have to risk a fall from a skateboard, you just step on and go.

While still in a tiny minority among human-powered vehicles, scooters are nonetheless the best choice for such distances, especially when they are highly-efficient, light-weight, quickly foldable examples, best exemplified by the truly excellent KickPed.

KickPed kick scooter in the grass!

Easier to ride then the original Know-Ped upon which it is based, and smoother to ride on the street than the similar Xootr line of kick scooters, the KickPed is a perfect example of a well conceived design. New York City retailers NYCeWheels are not just a bike shop with a couple of scooters in the window for eccentrics and tall kids to buy, they are enthusiasts who truly understand and appreciate the virtues of scooter riding.

I have owned, borrowed and ridden many different human-powered scooters in my time, and I think that to date, the KickPed review is the one that got it right. It’s the perfect balance of efficiency, stability, foldability and convenience.

I have written many an article about scooting, or scootering over the decades, as well as several product reviews of scooters, large and small, and will try to contribute here also. Hopefully describing use and experience will help convince hundreds more to acquire a scooter and take advantage of what such a vehicle can offer.

City Kicker kick scooter

Before the Razor craze of the 1990’s I never saw another scooter rider besides the occasional small child, and a decade and a half later I am still often the only one out there, but this has nothing to do with people’s experience of kick scooters, which is usually very positive, it is more to do with perception. I hope to help boost awareness of how underrated scooters are as general transportation vehicles.

Cycling and skating are of course great activities, but there are some things that are best done on a scooter.

To browse a nice selection of quality kick scooters visit the Kick Scooter section at NYCeWheels.

Stay tuned.

Jeffrey the Barak writes from Los Angeles, California.

Result: A solid KickPed kick scooter frame

It’s also fun to see where our KickPed came from. It’s easy to pick up a solid adult kick scooter and take it for granted, but when you see what goes into making it you get a whole different perspective and a richer insight into the quality of the product.

If you want super high quality workmanship and a scooter that will last a life time order your own KickPed kick scooter.

If you don’t stay at one of Miami Beach’s hotels near Lummus Park, you’ll need to drive into the area and secure a parking place before they are difficult to find. To do that, we arrived at a large public lot just north of South Pointe Park at 10AM. By 10:30AM, it was packed.

This location gave my husband, Phil, and me a wonderful starting point for exploring all things Miami Beach on our Xootr and KickPed. The area is lined with palm trees, has flat, smooth sidewalks and features plenty to see, making it a perfect place to explore. A simple round trip is just under a mile.

The far southern edge of South Pointe Park borders The Government Cut and Biscayne Bay. The Government Cut is a channel that makes way for the largest cruise ships in the industry and this edge of the park provides plenty of places to sit and enjoy boating traffic. It is also the location of a gracious Smith & Wollensky steak house. Even if you don't want to dine, stop in for drinks on its ground floor patio or terrace. Kick scooters tuck under its tables quite nicely.

To view the very first entrance to Miami Beach's soft, sandy beach, kick scoot to the southeastern point of the park. Here, you'll find that beach is similar to what you might see along the Atlantic coast of New Jersey and Long Island. What makes this area stand out is that it feels more natural than the portion of the beach that runs along Lummus Park and bathers get to enjoy the exciting sights related to passing, gigantic cruise ships.

Although I'm not crazy about seeing skyscrapers (I've have my fill of them in New York City), Phil and I admit that the skyscrapers to the immediate north of South Pointe Park are spectacular. Rather than dominating the area, they lend just the right decorative touch.

Check out a range of kick scooters, perfect for trips like this one.

To contact the author of this story, email Karen Little
Karen Little is the publisher of Littleviews.com

My primary handbag ballast includes a wallet without even a single picture in it, a cell phone, a camera, and keys. Together, those objects make up the bulk of the weight and I’ve given up trying to figure out how to make my purse lighter.

Under all conditions, I hate carrying a handbag except by necessity. Unfortunately, I always need my camera and cell (not to mention money and keys), so I very rarely leave home without it. When I kick scoot, however, I lash it to the base of the scooter’s handlebar, with the purse facing the scooter’s floorboard.

What I accidentally discovered is that my kick scooter rides better with my purse in that position, than it does without any extra weight over the front wheel. My kickscooter even rolls better when being walked!

The conclusion I’ve drawn is that although kick scooter manufacturers do their best to keep their products’ weight low, more weight is needed over the front wheel; at least 3 or 4 pounds more weight. This appears to be true for the KickPed, Citykicker, the Razor A5 Lux, and a Micro Black or White.

Is my insight wrong-sighted? Test it for yourself by securely strapping a weighted bag at the base of your kick scooter’s handlebar facing its floorboard, and let us know!

To contact the author of this story, email Karen Little
Karen Little is the publisher of Littleviews.com

Kick scooter in St. Petersburg

To give you an idea of a 7- to 10-mile round trip route via kick scooter, start just north of the Albert Whitted Airport at St. Petersburg’s world-class Salvador Dali Museum in Demens Landing Park on Tampa Bay.

Continue heading north through Straub Park, making a point to spend several hours scooting up and down The Pier, a 1.2 mile roundtrip stretch of smooth, level sidewalk that juts into Tampa Bay. There you’ll find ample parking, stunning bay scenery (including Pelicans galore), entertainment, and, in The Pier’s end-point recreation center, dining, from casual to fine.

After returning from The Pier, continue heading north to the coastal areas of adjoining Vinoy Park, North Shore Park, and Flora Wylle Park, where you’ll find plenty of places to relax, including a beach. Note that this is one of the few stretches of heavily trafficked areas I’ve seen that is given over to an equal number of pedestrians and human-powered vehicles (kick scooters, inline skates, bikes, and multi-person surreys).

At the end of Flora Wylle Park is the beginning of Coffee Pot Boulevard, fronted to the southwest by mansions and lush gardens, and the northeast by a Tampa Bay inlet. After traveling a half-mile on this street, consult a map as you have an option of crossing over the Shell Isle Boulevard Bridge into a maze of beautiful, foliage-fringed neighborhoods, or head back through neighborhoods with older mansions and more lush foliage. No matter which way you go, you’ll appreciate staying in the shade on a hot Florida day.

My husband, Phil, and I toured the lower St. Petersburg mansion area on a Xootr MG and a KickPed, which is manufactured exclusively for NYCeWheels in New York City. If it hadn’t been for our kick scooters, I’m sure we wouldn’t have seen as much as we did. Even though the day was hot, kick scooting produced a welcome breeze, especially when cruising.

Because nearby Beach Drive runs at an angle to traditional east-west streets, it is easy to head in the wrong direction when you leave Coffee Pot Boulevard, especially if you want to see mansions and gardens. Always carry a real (not “tourist”) map of the area (or cell phone map app) and make a point of noting the places you like best.

Return to where you started by heading south on Beach Drive. It runs into a classy hotel, shopping, and dining district featuring outdoor patios that easily accommodate travelers on wheels. No matter how nice an establishment looks, if you are on a budget, you’ll be happy to know that food and drink prices appear to be far lower in St. Petersburg than in New York City (where I’m from). These reasonable prices, plus sunny skies, stunning scenery, great sidewalks, and flat terrain make St. Petersburg, FL, a kick scooter paradise.

To contact the author of this story, email Karen Little
Karen Little is the publisher of Littleviews.com

Kick Scooter over Treasure Island bridge to Johns Pass

Treasure Island’s primary distinction over its neighboring barrier island communities is that its hotels and resorts are low-rise and do not crowd up against each other, thus hiding views of the coastline from the passerby. When kick scooting along the town’s main sidewalk, for example, you can actually see the Gulf of Mexico; something that is almost impossible elsewhere. Another distinction is that Treasure Island is directly linked to St. Petersburg via a bridge, has a long sidewalk that runs on the Gulf beach proper, features beautiful neighborhoods on its Bay side, and is next to popular John’s Pass Village, where, among many things, you can dine, shop, take cruises, or arrange for fishing charters.

The length of the city from where we kick scooted on our Xootr and KickPed between our lodging and John’s Pass Village was just under four miles, round-trip. The city has a large Walgreen’s, Publix Grocery Store, and Surf Style tee-shirt shop, which are not touristy, but are convenient by kick scooter from all quarters.

When you look at a map of Treasure Island, you’ll see what look like fingers of land that extend east into its bay side. If you kick scoot along its bay side Lagoon Lane (also called 1st Street East), you’ll enjoy a one mile round trip that features small parks and great views of water, boats, and resorts. Other routes throughout the “fingers” feature flat sidewalks, although water views are often hidden by apartments and resorts.

My favorite kick scooter trips, however, were between our lodging and John’s Pass. Although we did have to walk our scooter up a mounded bridge on Gulf Boulevard to reach it, its incline was short. Like other tourist hotspots, John’s Pass Village has light pedestrian traffic in the morning, then starts quickly filling up from noon onward. Once there, you’ll find a number of places to eat or snack, plus local (not chain!) merchants that offer everything from Florida fruit wines to magic tricks. (Purchase Rocco’s D’lite! You won’t be sorry!).

Should you visit John’s Pass in the evening and plan on scooting back to your lodging, make sure you have lights on your kick scooters. Perhaps better, just plan on walking.

To contact the author of this story, email Karen Little
Karen Little is the publisher of Littleviews.com

Phil kick-scooting by art deco hotels in Miami Beach

The colorful art deco hotels and apartments, built between 1923 and 1943, run along the west side of Ocean Drive. Unfortunately, kick scooting on this side of the street is impossible. The reason is because almost every historic building features a restaurant, each with multiple rows of tables placed on either side of the sidewalk itself.

Fortunately, across the street from the art deco buildings is Lummus Park, which borders Ocean Drive and the beach itself. Between 5th street and 15th Street, in fact, its sidewalk is continuous, with no curbs or stops for intersecting streets, providing ten blocks of kick scooting-friendly sidewalk that can’t be beat, but there’s more . . .

There are also palm tree-shaded sidewalks within Lummus Park itself, plus plenty of places to relax and tan, either on the lawn or on lawn chairs. Want to enjoy the beach itself? These sidewalks lead you right up to it.

If you choose to ride as close to the Atlantic Ocean as possible (which we did on our Xootr and KickPed), you’ll discover the entrance to a beautifully landscaped trail at the northern end of Lummus Park that runs between Miami Beach’s skyscraper hotels and the beach itself. This trail ends at 47th Street, making it an easy five-mile, kick scooting round trip back to Lummus Park again.

Need to sit down and catch your breath? Well, hopefully, your kick scooting was not all that strenuous, but if you do want to rest and enjoy the scenery, you might find the Starbucks on the corner of 15th Street and Ocean Drive the perfect spot. It is housed in the base of a stunning Marriott Hotel and features an expansive outside veranda immediately next to the park.

To contact the author of this story, email Karen Little
Karen Little is the publisher of Littleviews.com