Mini Mobility Scooters
A few years ago, David’s MS suddenly took a turn. After 15 some years of being well controlled
by medication, he started rapidly having increasing difficulties with
walking. He started using walking sticks
gradually, but fairly quickly he lost the stamina to walk distances, even a
block. At home we accommodate for this
largely by strategically driving the car close to where ever we needed to be,
but when we planned a trip last fall to visit Acadia National Park – a park
that features carriage roads that allow no motorized vehicles – I knew that we
would need to devise a new strategy.
I discovered mobility scooters – scooters intended to aid
people who do not need a wheelchair, but who need assistance getting
around. Cool! AND – then I found a business in Bar Harbor
(adjacent to Acadia) that would rent them by the day – VERY Cool! So I reserved 2 scooters – one for David and
one for his father Roy who would be joining us on that trip. Long story short, the scooters were revolutionary
– allowing us to explore a few miles of carriage road – the one that went to
Hadlock Brook Bridge in fact.
But we did put that little scoot through the ringer. Our plans were not such that we considered
the scooter before making the plans – so it had a lot to live up to. It didn’t necessarily live up to all the
challenges, but we recognized a number of our choices were beyond reasonable to
expect for it to succeed.
The first challenge was a visit to the trails at the Research Center of the Elkhorn Slough in Monterey Bay. When I suggested we meet my brother and sister in law, Keith and Sylva there, I had assumed the research center was along the river’s shore. Huum – No, indeed. It is a hundred feet or so higher than the river level in the hills. Well, there we were – nothing to do but to take our chances on the fairly steep gravel trail down to the river side. Thankfully David had already adjusted the breaks on the TravelScoot – and it handled like a champ on the way down. We walked the trails for an hour, and then we knew we had to tackle the trip back up. Keith valiantly offered to give Dave a push when the incline quickly grew too steep for the scoot. Eventually that gave out and Dave dismounted to hike the rest of the way up. But the scoot was easy to roll up the rest of the hill.
Then Dave and I went on to
Sequoia National Park, and couple of days of seeing giant trees from paved
paths. Again some of the grades were
more than the TS could handle, but overall it performed amazingly well! I came home ready to buy a TravelScoot.
Both the TravelScoot and SmartScoot are fantastic machines. Both are easy to lift in and out of cars, simple to operate, can be carried up sections of stairs in a pinch, and are so small that you can easily enter stores and buildings to do your business. They are in the same price range. So one’s preference of one over the other I think comes down to the details. For those interested, linked below is our fairly extensive list of comparisons between the two models of Mini Mobility Scooters - all of these comments are based on our personal observations, after taking each model on a 5 day trip via airlines and rental cars.
Mini Mobility Scooters Comparison
I discovered mobility scooters – scooters intended to aid
people who do not need a wheelchair, but who need assistance getting
around. Cool! AND – then I found a business in Bar Harbor
(adjacent to Acadia) that would rent them by the day – VERY Cool! So I reserved 2 scooters – one for David and
one for his father Roy who would be joining us on that trip. Long story short, the scooters were revolutionary
– allowing us to explore a few miles of carriage road – the one that went to
Hadlock Brook Bridge in fact.
In the past year we have taken a few more opportunities to
rent scooters. With the sale of the
kennel, we had plans to travel more – and we discovered that it isn’t always
possible to find a place to rent a scooter at our destination (boy did we luck
out in Bar Harbor!!) So we started to
think about purchasing one. But again –
for travelling, the scooters we had experience with were too big to travel with
on an airplane. Sure they broke down
into a few pieces, each which could be put into a car easily, but the battery
alone was about 30 pounds! So back to
Google.
And then one day I discovered
the TravelScoot – what I’m calling a “Mini Mobility Scooter”. These bare bones scooters in total weight not
much more than the battery of the more traditional models! And they fold down
to a size that can fit into a shoulder carry-able duffle bag. WOW – but how would they perform? We rented a TravelScoot for our trip to Monterey in
August. And we were thrilled!
So super light, it was no trouble to throw
into the car (or trunk of a taxi, or shuttle bus at the airport, or to gate
check at the airplane…). And its little
motor embedded inside one wheel was really amazingly powerful. We went all over Monterey and the coastal
path from Lovers Point into town. For
the first time in many years – when a call on my cell phone alerted us that the
table we had been waiting 45 minutes for was ready at Lou Lous Griddle in the
Middle, I could send David ahead to go claim our table… because he could return
to the restaurant faster than I could!
And then one day I discovered
the TravelScoot – what I’m calling a “Mini Mobility Scooter”. These bare bones scooters in total weight not
much more than the battery of the more traditional models! And they fold down
to a size that can fit into a shoulder carry-able duffle bag. WOW – but how would they perform? We rented a TravelScoot for our trip to Monterey in
August. And we were thrilled! 
So super light, it was no trouble to throw
into the car (or trunk of a taxi, or shuttle bus at the airport, or to gate
check at the airplane…). And its little
motor embedded inside one wheel was really amazingly powerful. We went all over Monterey and the coastal
path from Lovers Point into town. For
the first time in many years – when a call on my cell phone alerted us that the
table we had been waiting 45 minutes for was ready at Lou Lous Griddle in the
Middle, I could send David ahead to go claim our table… because he could return
to the restaurant faster than I could!
The first challenge was a visit to the trails at the Research Center of the Elkhorn Slough in Monterey Bay. When I suggested we meet my brother and sister in law, Keith and Sylva there, I had assumed the research center was along the river’s shore. Huum – No, indeed. It is a hundred feet or so higher than the river level in the hills. Well, there we were – nothing to do but to take our chances on the fairly steep gravel trail down to the river side. Thankfully David had already adjusted the breaks on the TravelScoot – and it handled like a champ on the way down. We walked the trails for an hour, and then we knew we had to tackle the trip back up. Keith valiantly offered to give Dave a push when the incline quickly grew too steep for the scoot. Eventually that gave out and Dave dismounted to hike the rest of the way up. But the scoot was easy to roll up the rest of the hill.
But… David was talking with the representative who rented us
the TS, and he couldn’t say enough about the SmartScoot – a competing model of
mini mobility scooter. He was so adamant
of the SS’s advantages, that Dave decided we had to try out that model. The catch, however, was that the company
(Scoot Anywhere) does not rent SmartScoot – ostensibly because they can’t keep
them long enough because they sell quickly.
We resolved to purchase a SmartScoot, and return it after a few days for
a restocking fee if that became necessary.
However, the timing wasn’t working in our favor to action that
plan. We had a pending trip coming up –
and upon initial trials around our neighborhood we figured the SS was fairly equivalent to the TS, so we took the easy road and kept the SmartScoot.
However, the timing wasn’t working in our favor to action that
plan. We had a pending trip coming up –
and upon initial trials around our neighborhood we figured the SS was fairly equivalent to the TS, so we took the easy road and kept the SmartScoot.
Our pending trip was… back to Acadia! Yes, our trip last year was challenged by
being late October and the weather and available services were less than
ideal. So we decided to repeat much of
the same trip this year, in late September.
But this blog is about the scoots – and I can say we
couldn’t be happier with the SmartScoot!
(Whew) It has a number of design
changes as compared to the TravelScoot which are distinct advantages to
us. Our biggest concern was over the
front wheel drive – thinking that there wasn’t enough weight on the front wheel
to give the scooter the traction that the TravelScoot, which uses the left rear
wheel as the drive wheel, has. Well,
suffice it to say we saw no drawbacks on the traction on the front wheel drive.
 |
| Stowing the scoot on the Parking Shuttle |
Both the TravelScoot and SmartScoot are fantastic machines. Both are easy to lift in and out of cars, simple to operate, can be carried up sections of stairs in a pinch, and are so small that you can easily enter stores and buildings to do your business. They are in the same price range. So one’s preference of one over the other I think comes down to the details. For those interested, linked below is our fairly extensive list of comparisons between the two models of Mini Mobility Scooters - all of these comments are based on our personal observations, after taking each model on a 5 day trip via airlines and rental cars.
Mini Mobility Scooters Comparison
Labels: Travel
posted by Monica |
7:24 PM
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