Kick Scooter Pro

Pick your kick scooter for sightseeing by taking into account your weight, height, and shoe size.

All scooters are rated for body weight. While you can usually stretch their specifications a bit, a 275 pound person should not scoot on a scooter rated for 220 pounds. The lower weight rating on scooters often indicates that they are better suited for short people.

Your height, not your weight, determines whether you can properly stand on a scooter. Ideally, a  kicks scooter’s fully extended handlebar should at least reach your waist. If, when you stand upright on its floorboard, you bend slightly to touch its handlebar, the kick scooter is too small. If you must “make do,” you can usually have a longer handlebar/poll crafted at a bike shop, but the new length might alter some other feature that the kick scooter provides.

While children often scoot on smooth asphalt playgrounds, sightseers cannot pre-select uniform scooting surfaces. More likely, you’ll find yourself traveling from smooth to rough surfaces, such as those found in San Antonio’s glorious Riverwalk. If your push scooter doesn’t fit your body type, rough areas will be very uncomfortable, cause imbalance, and possibly be dangerous due to poor shock absorption that’s stressed by your weight.

Scooting techniques: Take the time to learn your scooter’s navigational behavior. Speed control, for example, is exceptionally important. Keep in mind that it is very easy to travel at speeds far faster than walking. Dragging your kick foot along the ground for speed control is not enough to suddenly stop it (especially when rolling downhill) without pitching forward.

I prefer an alternate-leg pushing technique because it equalizes the pressure on my hips and can greatly extend the time spent traveling. To execute this maneuver, however, the floorboard must be long enough to rest two feet. The picture below shows that I can execute the alternate-leg push on my beloved Original Kickboard (a 3-wheel scooter), but just barely when wearing size 9 woman’s athletic shoes. Small feet on this kick scooter rule.

No matter which pushing technique you use, you need enough room on the floorboard to position a foot near the back fender brake without continuously resting it on the brake itself. Overall, when rolling (or “cruising”) having the ability to place both feet on your scooter’s foot-board makes sightseeing and the distances covered during it more pleasurable.

Carrying and packing a scooter: An adult kick scooter takes up less floor space than a bike, about the same space as a portable shopping cart, and less space than a baby stroller. This means that unfolded scooters can be pulled in areas used by carts, strollers, and bike-accessible areas.

When folded, my preference is to roll my kick scooter like a shopping cart. Not all scooters allow this, although adjustments can be made. No matter what, minimize your need to haul a folded scooter.After all, the object of this portable transportation device is to scoot. Click for a quality selection of adult kick scooters.

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

Kick scooter travel involves three techniques (walk/riding, pushing, and coasting), rather than continuously pushing. Using those three travel techniques, here is what you can expect when riding a kick scooter for sightseeing.

Kick scooting along the canal

Walk/Ride: In popular, pedestrian-heavy areas, it’s likely that you’ll walk your kick scooter, or walk/ride it through crowds. You will also walk over surfaces that are heavily broken or have deep ruts. It won’t all entail a lovely ride, nor do you want it to.

While heavy pedestrian traffic in popular sightseeing areas definitely impedes free-flowing scoots, the time saved by scoot-as-scoot can greatly increases your area of exploration.

Example: Before 10 AM you can enjoy clear scooting in San Antonio’s Riverwalk, but by noon, the area’s jammed. At the same time, other San Antonio city streets between major tourist destinations tend to be clear. In this case, scooting back and forth to your parked car over city sidewalks (the further away, the lower the fee, and the more parking availability) as well as through other city center neighborhoods more than makes up for your lack of speed around its main attractions.

Push: You’ll push (kick) scoot along flat areas (and for ease, I recommend the alternate leg technique). As a general rule, river and shore walks, such as found along the East and West coasts, provide wonderful kick scooter sightseeing opportunities.

Example: Boardwalks along the Jersey Shore (Ocean Grove and Asbury Park, seen below) and Long Island (the miles-long Jones Beach, in particular) provide lots of sightseeing, gaming, dining, entertaining, and swimming opportunities. Best, with kick scooters, which are easier to carry onto a beach than bikes, you don’t have to worry about getting sand in their gears.

Keep in mind that the use of bikes on some boardwalks and walkways might be restricted to certain hours, often in the morning before 10 AM. Kick Scooting, however, might not be restricted. As long as you don’t menace pedestrians, sneak in and go with the flow. If you kick scoot with several friends, of course, respect bike rules and pedestrian rights.

Coast: Ideally, you’ll want to coast downhill whenever possible, but depending on terrain, you need excellent brakes and speed control techniques. One little slip might render you unconscious, or, as James Heselden, the inventor of the 2-wheeled Segway, experienced, might end your life.

Example: Locations such as San Francisco and San Diego present special challenges  In my area (Weehawken, NJ), which is on the lower edge of mountains originating in Pennsylvania and beyond, I walk my foot scooter west (uphill), coast east (14 stories downhill – I lightly use both brakes, plus drag my foot for control), and push north and south on a stunning, flat river walk that travels between Hoboken to Fort Lee while overlooking New York City to the east.

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

Adult kick scooters are not designed for child’s play, although riding one is fun. Instead of frantically kick, kick, kicking like kids do, adult sightseers combine gliding (rolling downhill), pushing (rolling along flat surfaces or slight inclines), and walking for maximum enjoyment

Kick scooting can easily double or more the distance covered by strolling while significantly reducing the fatigue induced by long hikes. When ridden to enhance sightseeing, you can stop as often as needed to take photos, videos, sketch, or just admire the area. Best, kick scooters can be easily packed on planes, carried on buses, lifted into the back seats of cabs, and rolled into shops, restaurants, and specialty areas.

Unlike riding a bike, where distance and speed matters, sightseeing relies upon ambling. If you find yourself in a remarkable areas, sightseeing by foot alone, unfortunately, can limit your range because ambling by itself is just too slow.

Over time, walking four or more miles per day (while frequently standing to appreciate views) is tiring and can and even stress your back. The point? Sightseeing is not hiking (where stress and effort count for the experience) and the result of sightseeing should make you feel energized while not making you feel like you’ve conquered a heavy trail!

Scooting Along Magazine Street, New Orleans: My husband and I recently returned from New Orleans where we were able to amble/scoot through several stunning districts without missing the kind of detail we would have via a tour bus, street car, or car. Best, we were not subject to typical tour-based discussions about architects, architectural styles, and property owners. Instead, we enjoyed what we saw for “what it was” and how it enriched us.

One of our trips was along New Orleans’ famous Magazine Street, which, frankly, appears drab when quickly traversed via car or bus. By slowly strolling/scooting the route, however, the street came alive with interesting landscapes, homes, shops, and friendly people (see the photo above).

To begin our journey, we rode a bus from Canal Street to Audubon Park (known for its a zoo, aquarium, nature institute, and golf course) along fabulous St. Charles Avenue. Once off the bus, we strolled/scooted to Magazine Street, detouring on Exposition Boulevard, as well as other interior streets.

Hey! Café

We then strolled/scooted east on Magazine Street where we became aware of specialty shops we had seen advertised in tourist guides (we probably wouldn’t have sought these shops out individually, but name-recognition was comforting), plus we relaxed at one of New Orleans PJ Coffee Café locations, as well as passed by other interesting places to stop and snack, such as the Hey! Café

Frankly, the distance we traveled was far too long for a single afternoon stroll, yet we comfortably covered at least twice as much area by kick scooter as we would have if we had just walked.

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

When you arrive in an unfamiliar area, buy a local map, then physically get out and about:

• Join commercial sightseeing excursions. Make note of the areas you especially like.

• Take free or low-cost public transportation. In New Orleans, for example, an inexpensive street car ride along St. Charles Avenue will alert you to the fact that its side streets (which are great for kick scooting) offer fabulous sights. Likewise, the free Canal Street Ferry ride that crosses the Mississippi River to Algiers puts you in a community of historically interesting, flowered, and beaded shot-gun houses.

• Hire a knowledgeable cab or limo driver who can show you the town. Make sure that you follow the route on a paper map so you can trace your interests.

Travel literature provides a wealth of ideas, but figuring out where interesting areas are in relationship with other interesting areas is not usually clear. Don’t leave things to chance! Buy several local maps (or photocopy an existing map), and mark those maps up based on your interests.

Example: In Philadelphia, the Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens (giant-sized mosaics on old buildings) and the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program (giant-sized murals also on old buildings) both supply detailed maps, but these maps do not overlap locations, even though mosaics and murals can be seen in the same neighborhoods. .

Survey local bike shops because they frequently sell or give away bike tour maps. While a person who kick scoots wouldn’t join a formal bike tour, there may be locations along bike tours that are relevant. Best, bike shops are often staffed by area enthusiasts who can give you good advice.

Check with real estate agents. Many stunning neighborhoods are never mentioned in tourist brochures, but agents know where they are. If you’ve conducted business before with a national realty company, make inquiries through your local agent who can put you in touch with someone from that chain in your target city. Otherwise, simply cold call to an area realtor, but be honest. Tell the office that you are looking for neighborhood information although your are not currently in the market to buy. Ask about neighborhoods with historical or architectural relevance, the presence of trees, parks, and nearness of coffee shops. Exclusive areas, such as off St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans (see photo below), that include mansions and luxury housing almost always make good places to ride a kick scooter.

Example: Few people outside of Milwaukee know about its stunning Upper East Side or old St. Francis (which both border Lake Michigan) or old Wauwatosa (among several places), but real estate agents can tell you where they are and what you can expect to see. If you really want insiders’ knowledge, offer to pay the agent a reasonable fee to map it out, or perhaps, drive you on a mini-guided kick scooter tour.

Research the web by using a phrase similar to “[city name] guide to neighborhoods,” as well as contact the community library for additional information.

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