RAZOR scooters for kids

I never had a scooter as a kid. I’m not even sure I knew they existed.

But one need only take a small look around any neighbourhood or skate park to see that scooter-mania has taken hold. I’ve even seen full-grown men on scooters!

When RAZOR asked if my kids would like to help review a couple of products, it was an easy answer for Miss Q (emphatically, YES!), but I was a bit hesitant with The K Man; he’s never really gotten into bike riding, despite our efforts putting him in Pedalheads last year — and he’ll be going again this year, too!

I know, I know…scooters aren’t bikes. But when I mentioned “scooters” in passing, he quickly threw up his hands in a “talk to the hand” kind of way and reminded me, “Mom, I’m just not into that stuff.”

But I picked one out anyway. Because moms are like that.

In the end, we went with a RAZOR Jr. Mixi two-in-one scooter for Miss Q, and RAZOR DeltaWing for The reluctant K Man.

THE GOOD

We love the bang for your buck you get with the Mixi scooter! It goes from a three-wheeler to a two-wheeler once your child’s balance improves. And at only $35-45, depending on where you buy it, the price is already really good.

While we’re talking price, the DeltaWing is in the $125-150 range — but before you get sticker shock, you should know that even I can ride on that thing. A woman who eats a lot of cake. That means, provided the scooter doesn’t break, you could have decades’ worth of use on this bad boy. Overall, the cost per use is very low.

And man, is that DeltaWing F-U-N!!! I had a blast riding it around one day when it was just Miss Q and me. And, boy, is it a good workout — covering core, abs, hips and thighs. But back to my kid: he LOVES it. All smiles, zero frustration. He was able to make it go immediately and it never gets so fast that it freaks him out.

As he gets more skilled on the DeltaWing, there are tricks he can learn, taking it to a totally new level of awesome.

Miss Q loves the colours on her Mixi — they happen to match her helmet, pink and turquoise.

In fact, both my kids love turquoise, which works out well because it’ll be easy to give the DeltaWing to Miss Q when The K Man is done with it. Unless I keep it for myself, that is.

THE GAFFE

Make no mistake, even the handiest of guys gets frustrated without a set of assembly instructions. The DeltaWing didn’t come with one piece of paper telling us which bolts went where. Thankfully, a bit of tinkering did the trick — but Big B is a skilled tradesmen with spacial reasoning that I don’t pretend to understand. So RAZOR needs to be sure it includes instructions in every box.

The foot area on the Mixi is quite small; Miss Q — who wears a toddler size 10 shoe — can’t get two feet on the platform. She seems frustrated by this at times.

You also can’t move the handles up on the Mixi, so once Miss Q has another growth spurt, it’ll be too small.

The hand brake on the DeltaWing is a bit tougher for little hands to manage, but we’re making progress.

THE GEARS

RAZOR Jr. Mixi — 3.5/5 (a bigger foot platform and adjustable handlebars would have put this at least at 4.5/5)

RAZOR DeltaWing — 4.5/5 (instructions would probably have put this one at a 5/5)