The Uninitiated Take the Razor Scooter Out for a Trial Spin
He made it glide, hop and spin, but ultimately Taylor Harris was underwhelmed.
“Do you think you could jump this off stairs?” asked the gangly San Bernardino 16-year-old who was testing today’s toy-of-the-moment--a foot-powered, two-wheeled Razor scooter. Earlier in the day, Harris, who was hanging out near the Santa Monica Pier with friends, had leaped off a flight of 10 steps with his skateboard.
“I probably wouldn’t get into it or anything because I like doing tricks,” Harris said before hopping on his well-worn deck, doing a series of stunts and coasting away.
Some trends die hard. But only time will tell if this summer’s ridiculously popular Razor scooter will, like the skateboard, endure and evolve into a lifestyle--or simply burn out after a single season and be packed away with the virtual pets and Pokemon cards.
“It’s obviously a fad,” said Tony Farrell, senior vice president of creative services for San Francisco-based the Sharper Image. Razor boards, the 6-pound, collapsible stainless steel and aluminum scooters manufactured by Taiwan-based J.D. Corp., are currently the company’s bestselling product, he said, and are moving at a clip of several thousand per week despite a $120 price tag. “But we don’t see the end of this one just yet because it is so regionalized.”
The phenomenon that began in Japan last year and quickly spread to Hawaii and Australia before leapfrogging to the East, then West, coasts, according to Farrell.
Brian Wasilefsky, 19, hasn’t seen anyone Razor boarding around Phoenix, where he lives. Still, the roller-blader, on vacation with his friends in Santa Monica, was game to try one. He unlatched his skates and jumped on the scooter to take a spin in his white gym socks.
“I feel like I’m gonna break it,” said Wasilefsky, whose long, narrow foot barely fit on the 21-inch-long platform. “It might be easier to control--with shoes.”
Wasilefsky said he won’t be swapping his skates for a scooter any time soon. “You’re in control and can move quicker” on in-line skates, he said.
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Andre Fite, 69, won’t be giving up his bicycle, either. “Is that all there is to it?” he asked after taking the Razor for a quick ride along the boardwalk. Fite, who pedaled to the beach from his Westwood home, said, “I think I’m a little too old. Besides, I’ve got a bike.”
Ruby Gonzalez rides his bicycle 16 miles every day but plans to buy a scooter for shorter distances. “If you wear your helmet, I don’t think you can get hurt” on a scooter, said Gonzalez, 40, an employee of Santa Monica’s Department of Parks and Recreation.
Police departments in Santa Monica, Huntington Beach, Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach consider scooters to be in the same category as skateboards and subject to the same ordinances.
While Razor boards have cross-generational appeal, they are especially popular with the under-10 set, who use them to cruise around everywhere from the sidewalk to the boardwalk, in driveways and on streets, even to school.
But, “as you get bigger, you need bigger wheels,” said Eric Hemati, 25, a San Francisco Web site worker in town for a convention. A brand of motorized scooter, the Zappy, he said, is what’s popular up north, especially inside cavernous dot-com offices.
A variety of different scooter styles and brands are available, including the Xootr (which has a larger platform, bigger wheels and a hand brake), the Kickboard (with three wheels and a joystick steering rod) and the gas-powered Go-Ped. They range in price from about $100 to $400.
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But the Razor, which has a stainless-steel base, 4-inch wheels that come in a choice of colors, an adjustable steering arm and a rear-fender friction brake, is by far the most popular. It is the Kleenex, the Xerox of scooterdom.
“This one’s prettier,” USC pharmacy student Grace Kim, 30, said of the Razor after kicking off her Guess heels to test-drive it and the Xootr.
In Southern California, the scooters are especially popular along the beach, where numerous sidewalk vendors are selling them. They are not widely available for rental, however, much to the chagrin of roller-blader Louis Solis, 34.
A North Hollywood hospice worker who was skating the boardwalk “to have fun and get some exercise,” Solis was ready to trade his blades for a Razor after taking one for a ride.
“It feels good,” he said. “It feels great. May I give it another try?”