New Toy: Xootr

[walkitout]

Not too long ago, T. got out his Kettler scooter and started trying to ride it around the driveway. Shortly after that, we were going around the loop and to and from Julie's Place with him on it, and me trying to figure out which was less uncomfortable: riding the bike or walk/running. I figured if he was committed to playing with the scooter on a regular basis, I should just get my own.

I looked at the Razors, but the deck on them is skinny and the wheels are small and the weight limit on a lot of them is awful low. A very brief amount of looking around found me this:

http://www.xootr.com/kick-scooter_mg.html

That seemed inordinately cool (altho possibly hugely dorky), so I ordered one. It arrived a couple of days ago in the middle of the rain, so today was the first day I tried riding it. I saw R. riding it around the driveway and he suggested I give it a try. I put a jacket and shoes on A., handed her to him, and gave it a whirl. Never having ridden a push scooter before, it took a few minutes to figure out which foot I wanted on the deck and which foot I wanted to push with, and several more minutes to get the hang of the brakes. T. impatiently hung out on the sidewalk, but I was in no hurry to do the loop with him at dusk. However, once I realized he hadn't had dinner as far as we could tell, I offered Julie's Place and off we went on our scooters. Without our helmets. Or a light. Oops.

The Xootr is light and folds up, so I didn't have any trouble bringing it into the restaurant with me and tucking it under the table; I did not want it stolen the first day I rode it. We parked T.'s outside on the general principle that not that many people are going to steal a pre-K kids toy, and besides, Amazon Prime means a new one can land on our doorstep in a two days. The Xootr is indeed a more compatible ride for accompanying a small child on a scooter, but stopping abruptly when the kid crossed my path unexpectedly was a little exciting.

I'm still trying to get any sense of just how bad the dork factor is here, but it sure is a lot of fun, and it is absolutely lazy transport compared to walking.

ETA: This is an awesomely accurate review, especially the remark about "ankle spanker", and the description of which muscles get the surprise workout (after all, a kick scooter is fundamentally a one-legged squat workout disguised as transport).

http://www.thewsreviews.com/2008/10/xootr-mg-kick-scooter-six-months-five.html

It looks like there is some consensus that riding one of these is about half the effort of walking.

Comments

[jinasphinx.livejournal.com]

(*scooter envy*) Between this and the Townie, I'm thinking you have the best transportation toys. :)