Freestyle scootering

Scootering (also scooting or freesytle scooter or scooter riding) is a relatively new action sport which involves using kick scooters to perform freestyle tricks, in a manner similar to skateboarding and BMX freestyle.

History

In 1999 the J.D. Corporation in Taiwan released the first collapsible scooter model (ms130a), presently referred to as the "old a" [Collapsible skateboard United States Patent 7559561]. For the European market it is known as JD Bug and Razor USA for the American market.

Founded in June 2000, Razor USA, LLC is a privately held company based in Cerritos, Calif.

The first sponsored team was created in the same year and released their first video titled "Razor Evolution" Team riders present in "Razor Evolution" include: John Wilkening, Jarret Reid, Dereck Beckering, Jason Fry, Ali Kermani and Team Manager Pistol Pete Maravich. The team since then has developed and changed quit a bit with Ali Kermani as the current Manager. The Razor Team has released three other videos after Evolution.

Since Razor's release many individuals saw the potential for the use of kick scooters for more than transportation. Very small scattered groups across the world developed what is now known as freestyle scooters.

Trick riding advanced some what slowly in its infancy because of lack of communication and knowledge of other existing riders. This caused the onset of online scooter communities, the first of which found on the Razor website among others, and most famously The Scooter Resource (created circa 2003). 2005 can be marked as the beginning of serious competitive riding, as the first substantial competitions were organized. One of the first major competitions was Thrillzone 2005 in Tacoma.

In 2007, a miniramp scooter competition was held at the Australian Planet X Games. Even though the actual competition didn't happen due to technical issues with the ramp, thousands of people attended the exhibition session.

There have been many more large competitions that are held yearly such as SD, Xtreme Wheels, Cooter Con, San Francisco Hyphy Street Jam, Scooyork’s Brooklyn Banks Jam, Meatfly, and Montreux among many others.

Since 2007 the free style community has progressed in what can only be described as a tremendously accelerated rate not only with trick development, but also with numerous after market parts companies, dealer companies/websites, competitions, and media.

Riding styles

File:Jesse-frontflip.jpg

Jesse Macaluso executing a turndown frontflip during the 2006 Xtreme Wheels skatepark competition.

Park

Park riding is the most common form of scooter riding. Kick scooters, due to their construction, can utilize practically all of the possible skatepark structures, from ramps, to rails, to boxes. While a considerable amount of especially young riders enjoy doing 'flyout' tricks and pushing their trick level constantly, others enjoy more of a 'flowy' style, based on a combination of BMX and their own developed styles. Street riders often look upon parks as a place to learn tricks to then apply it to the street.

Street

Street riding more popular among inner city riders utilizes urban construction to create a challenging riding environment; stairs, ledges, hubbas, handrails and gaps as well as more unusual and creative architecture. Most scooter riders enjoy street to some extent, but only a small group declare themselves as focusing strictly on street riding.

Flatland

The flatland genre of freestyle scooter riding takes place on flat surfaces such as parking lots, driveways, or tennis/basketball courts. While this type of riding may not be the most visually exciting for the average rider, people who do ride flat are noted for their advanced skill level and progression. Flatland itself involves many different types of tricks. Some riders prefer to do tricks usually reserved for ramps, such as triple tailwhips, whip rewinds, 360 tailwhips, front scooter flips, and many more. Still other riders prefer to link smaller tricks up in "combos", or combinations, such as barspins, manuals, tailwhips, fakies, nose manuals, scooterfakies, and more.

General Freestyle Scooter Parts

File:Kickscooter.jpg

A typical freestyle riding kick scooter.

Bars

Bars more commonly and reliably are made out of 4130 Chromoly or 6061 Aluminum. Originally the first bars created where in the form of a T which is still the predominant form of bars today. The next type of Bars which had an uprising in the mid 2000s were Buff bars, an aluminum steer tube with a stem to fit any size of tube preferred. Other types of bars have been made to accommodate not only abuse but to bar width. Many bars are gusseted in some way or other.

French ID is know for rounded gussets that have been cut in a diamond and rounded at the center to create a curved aesthetic, as well as a technology for strength in aluminum bars. Proto has two general types of gusseting one of which is a flat triangular piece welded bbetween the bars and steer tube (Tank bars). Their other bars have two round chromoly tubes that bridge underneath the bar handles which leaves a triangular opening (Slayer Bars). RAD is the first and only company to incorporate a bmx styled bar into their design. They use two bent round tubes that are welded at the top of the steer tube and reinforced with a round tube that bridges the pieces directly above the steer tube (crow/vulture bars). These are also the only bars to have backsweep. Every company has a model bar original to the T

Decks/One Piece Decks

Decks have probably caused the most heart ache than any other part due to their incessant cracking. After Razor put out the "old a" and the B model, both of which were at high risk for cracking, they introduced the Pro model. It was much like the B model but had a reinforcement plate bolted inside the bottom center of the deck and the drop outs were widened. The Pro model is still the prominent deck used today. All razors come with a folding mechanism that needs to be removed. The head tube and deck are separate from one another and so are then bolted to prevent movement. The newest model to be manufactured by razor is the Ultra Pro. The Ultra pro was created in response to the free style community. It is their only model that is one piece. It has a rounded neck that is welded through the deck. Many complaints have arisen; although the deck has the same amount of foots space, many criticize the head tube angle as being far too gradual and actually creating less available standing room. Also the neck strength has been questionable as people have begun to snap them. All current versions of the Razor other than the Pro model and Ultra Pro have considerably less ability to withstand abuse.

Decks have come onto the market more recently, from several companies. The first of these was TSI. Their design consists of an aluminum square neck welded to two horizontal square tubes. A plate is then bolted to the top.

Lucky has also created their signature deck. An entirely machined aluminum deck with a square half neck and a separated head tube that is placed over the half neck and bolted.

The Phoenix deck has had some secretive beginnings but is slowly being noted as a very strong deck. It is also one piece with square neck welded into an entirely machined deck.

Forks

Most companies make forks, note worthy Proto, Inward, and French ID. SR forks (The Scooter Resource), created by Andrew Broussard (president and owner of Proto), were the first forks developed. They consited of a fork tube flat somewhat triangular shaped bed for two pipe legs and the fork tube to be welded into. Most companies have followed this general design usually changing the types of legs and adding gussets. Inward is noted as perfecting the appearance of this general design and the first company to allow an option for zero offset. Proto more recently released the Striker fork which actually has some resemblance to the Razors fork design, but with thicker legs, gussets, and thicker fork tube. French ID was the first company to have created an aluminum fork. It was not welded but machined in two pieces. The fork tube and legs were glued together by an extremely powerful industrial glue.

Wheels

Eagle-Sport, Proto and Micro are presently the only brands to have created wheels specifically to scooters. Yak Wheels were 'THE' wheel to have around the mid 2000s. It was a plastic core wheel with extremely well composed urethane. The company was sold to a Chinese buyer that did not receive the urethane composition and quality failed to meet use for freestyle scooters. Many turned to other roller blade or roller ski companies for wheels.

The first metal core was introduced to the community by Micro-Xtreme for the use in free style scooters. This had immediately become the "god" of all wheels as the only wheels readily available were plastic core. There were many defects in the urethane and the term "ovalizing" became popular to describe what happened to the bearing slot with heavy use and poor core design. There were other metal core wheels available in the roller ski community but were very difficult to attain.

Eagle-Sport a leading Roller ski company was introduced to the scooter community via Hep Greg trying to buy wheels. Marcel Oosterveen President of Eagle-Sport took it upon himself to create better urethane for his wheels after he saw numerous photos of people breaking them. He also created a stronger core and bearing slot to prevent any type of ovalizing. Marcel, acclimated to extreme sports in his lifetime was interested in furthering the community so in turn he built a team and a budget for scooters.

Proto also introduced a set of wheels tailored to freestyle scooters. The core was designed to 'never ever in a million years ever ovalize' (Buff core Technology). They were met though with quit a few problems concerning the urethane gluing and curing. People were experience extreme damage to the urethane and many wheels had to be replaced. Since then the urethane curing time and gluing has been perfected and other colors have become available.

Eagle-Sport Proto rivalry. In the past an extreme amount of animosity was seen as to which wheels were better. Many took extreme measures to state as to which side they were on. This was largely in part by both company owners extreme type A personalities at odds, but ultimately fueled by an expired Eagle-Sport distributer and community loyalty.

Headset

Headsets in scooters have no difference to those on bikes. All scooters take a 1 and 1/8 sized headset. A threaded headset is used for a threaded fork only. Their main use is for those usually running the stock razor fork as it is currently the only threaded fork readily available. Threadless headsets are used only with one of the compression systems and a fork with no threads.

Compression

Stranded Compression System: scs clamp, compression bolt, starnut, headset cap, shim The SCS resembles an over sized clamp but internally works much like a bicycle stem. There are two slots to fit the bars and fork. The smaller of which is located on the bottom and is for the fork. A starnut is installed into the forks and the SCS is placed over the fork tube. The compression bolt is screwed into the headset cap and then into the starnut. the cap is caught on the lip that is located internally in the SCS. The bars are placed into the top slot and bolts externally located on the SCS are tightened to act as a clamp.

Inverted Compression: compression bolt, starnut, headset cap A Starnut is installed into the bars. A compression bolt is screwed into a headset cap and is placed into the fork tube from below. It is then screwed into the starnut located in the bars. The headset cap is larger than the inner diameter of the fork tube and so catches and compresses.

Hidden Internal: compression bolt, headset cap, starnut, compression shim A starnut is installed into the fork tube. a compression shim is placed over/around the fork tube and the compression bolt is screwed into the top of the fork tube through the headset cap and into the starnut. The shim is the main compressor, as the headset cap is pushing down on the shim, the shim intern pushes down on the headset.

Clamp

Clamps my come in all shapes and sizes. Most popularly is the double clamp style. In the past only razor clamps were available but French ID, Proto and District have all developed creative variations.

Break

There are three popular types of breaks and two types of break systems. The Razor stock fork is probably one of the most popular breaks becuase it has the ability to be modified to allude to a more solid break. Razor break installation involves a thin bolt that runs perpendicularly through the back of the deck and utilizes a spring system. This system is used with most other breaks including Madd and Blade breaks. Madd and Blade breaks are both thicker aluminum breaks. They are also slightly wider so there is less space for movement and so have the ability to be quieter and stronger. The second type of break was created by and for the TSI. At first it was integrated into the deck plate as one piece. The break resembles a curved and lifted tab that hovers over the wheel. Through testing and cracking they changed the design to be a separate part. Instead it is bolted to the deck vertically with a single bolt so it may be replaced upon damage.

Bearings

Any type of "608" size, with an inner diameter of 8 mm, an outer diameter of 22 mm, and a width of 7 mm. May be used. Typically this is the standard size for skateboards.

They are usually made of steel, though silicon nitride, a high-tech ceramic, is sometimes used. Many [scooter/skateboard] bearings are graded according to the ABEC scale. The scale starts with ABEC1 as the lowest, 3, 5, 7, 9. It is a common misconception that higher numbers are better for skateboarding, as the ABEC rating only measures tolerances, which do not necessarily apply to [scooters/skateboards]. The ABEC rating does not determine how fast or how durable a bearing used for [scooters/skateboarding] will be (http://www.lushlongboards.com/workshop/abec-ratings-explained-c-199_200.html)

Pegs

Make shift pegs used to be created using sockets from a socket wrench and bolting it along with your front and/or back wheel. Quebec Scooters Co is one of the well known companies for well designing a peg dedicated for the use of scooters.

Deck Reinforcement

Deck reinforcement was created to prevent cracking of Razor models. Pirate Alex created Pirate reinforcements, basically Aluminum square tubing cut to deck measurements and then bolted. These reinforcements also created a wider flat space and the possibility of landing a some tricks more attainable. (Ex: 5050).

Dominater Scooters created deck savers essentially an entire bottom plate that is bolted to the deck.

Grips/Bar Ends

Razor's stock grip are made of foam which were and still are not reliable. Comfortable yes. Most riders use standard rubber grips from BMX brands. No scooter company has made rubber grips. French ID however did make a thinner foam grip which did not preform well.

Bar ends are also bought from BMX brands. Most who have the tube diameter to run bar ends use the stock nylon bar ends than come with their grips. Some BMX brands (Ex. Shadow Conspiracy) have aluminum bar ends with a smaller diameter and use a wedge type system to stay in place. Bar ends were created to prevent decapitating fingers. For scooters this is not at all a high risk but bar ends do have a benefit of making bar rotation more fluid.