I've been a long time Xootr owner. I bought my first over 9 years ago. I have probably owned in excess of 20 of them. I don't keep buying them because they break; I typically donate them to some worthy child I meet on vacation.
Originally I bought a bunch of Razor scooters to take and donate with me while I'd travel to some relatively poor areas of the world. I'd take a few with me and give them to deserving kids I'd meet. At the time I had a Razor scooter myself. It was pretty crappy to ride unless on very smooth pavement and it wasn't really big enough for my large feet to ride comfortably.
One time I returned to where I had previously "donated" a few Razor scooters and met up with the kids I had given them to. Every one of them was broken. I tried to fix them best I could but I had noticed they really didn't last that long in some of these areas.
At this time I searched for a replacement for my "big wheeled" Razor and encountered a little article on the Xootrs. At first I was struck by the thought that would anybody pay THAT much money for a scooter. What were they thinking? I read another good review and another and finally I opened up my wallet and bought a shiny new Street. After 4 days of waiting the UPS truck pulled up with my Xootr.
My first push and then glide seemed to go on forever. I was hooked after that first push. I immediately got rid of all my Razors and I never looked back. The Xootr has been an amazing traveling companion for me. I have Xoot'rd all over the world. I have taken my Xootrs to Russia, Ukraine, Germany, Holland, France, many other countries. Never once I have had to worry about a flat or any other problems while on traveling.
I have now donated quite a few Xootrs over the years. They are more expensive so I don't only donate 1 a trip. I have gone back and seen kids riding the same Xootr 2 or 3 years later. They were a little worse for wear but everything was still working fine with likely no maintenance done to them at all.
Only one recurring issue I see with current Xootrs is that the handlebar alignment pin seems to be off a few degrees so they are not lined up exactly right on any of my scooters. It is a minor thing and doesn't really affect the handling.
I have owned every model of Xootr including the carbon fiber ones they previously made and the eX3 (electric scooter no longer in production and that is a shame!). The magnesium one is a great scooter and a lot of bang for the buck. I love the street as it is incredibly tough. It also has the highest weight capacity if you are on the hefty side like I used to be. The Roma is my favorite. It is narrow (more efficient kick) and the fastest.
Keep in mind that your speed is limited to how fast you can kick. There is no mechanical advantage you get like on a bicycle that has gears. As a result you are going to be limited to going about as fast as you can run but with less effort. I find on level ground I can easily keep up a 10-12mph pace. In the city I am about as fast as on my bicycle but a lot easier to carry with me.
For commutes over 3-4 miles I'd suggest a bike. A Xootr folding bike is a great option too. In heavy traffic the Xootr can allow you to scoot through pedestrians much easier than I can on a bike. It is much more portable.
It is very quick to fold and put away. I also found that while some metro (subway) systems charged me to bring my bike on; they never once charged me for my Xootr. The quick release pin allows you to fold it down in about 5 seconds or less.
If you've read this far I'd like to give a few quick words of advice. Don't ride your Xootr on ice, snow or wet roads. This is a recipe for disaster in short order. The reflective road dividers are slick when dry and absolutely treacherous if even slightly moist. Take time to get use to the braking characteristics. While the brakes work they are not incredibly efficient. You will NOT stop on a dime and get change. They are not efficient at all when damp. Absolutely AVOID puddles. Also watch the bigger holes that could swallow a wheel as well as grates that have long longitudinal gaps. Always try to cross things perpendicularly (right angle). Pretty much the only wear item is the wheels and they are amazing. Bad roads accelerate tire wear.
While riding your Xootr is fun, it can also be fun to customize it too. There are some very neat accessories now. They have carrying bags, handlebar straps and even pretty cool quick-detachable luggage. With the magnesium version you can even get a few different colors. I've added a quick detachable 3 watt LED headlight to mine and a rear light as well. I use a Garmin Nuvi as a nav system on a RAM handlebar mount. I use a luggage carrier up front to carry groceries. All in all it has been one of the best purchases I've made. It is also a great conversation starter when I travel. I feel like I have become a Xootr ambassador when I travel to places around the world. Almost all my friends now have bought them. At first they cringed a bit about the price but after buying them they are incredibly happy and have no regrets. It is the exact opposite of buyer's remorse!
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I've been riding a Xootr to work every day for ten years! (since 2000!). I ride to the train, and then I ride from the train to the office. I repeat this on the way home. It's about 3 miles total each day. Over a decade of workdays that adds up to more than seven thousand miles! It's hard to believe but it's true!
My Xootr saves me about one hour of walking per day. Bicycles are not allowed on the train during certain hours, but nobody notices or cares when or where I take my Xootr. If necessary, I can even bring the Xootr into a restaurant or movie theater. Try that with a bicycle! My Xootr adds so much efficiency to my life that I'd pay $1000 or more if I had to. The good news is that I don't have to. They're quite affordable.
Over the years, the company has made a number of meaningful improvements to the design. If you've bought a Xootr in the past, the ones they sell today are the best Xootrs yet!
Just to name a few of the improvements:
The handlebar clamp is now made of solid aluminum whereas it was originally made of plastic (in the early years). The front axle is now a much better design especially if you need to remove the wheel for some reason. The brake itself was much improved when it was moved from the back wheel to the front. The fasteners are larger, stronger and more corrosion-resistant than before, and of course the improved 'ergonomic' locking pin is now standard. There's more to tell, but you get the idea.
In comparison to other scooters:
I've used or researched nearly every push scooter available, and in my informed opinion, nothing else can match the Xootr in terms of offering the right mix of mechanical efficiency, size, style and quality.
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I purchased a Xootr Roma (the smallest/lightest model) from the Xootr website for use when I walk to work from the subway. Here are my first impressions:
1. Scooters aren't as easy to ride as I remember when I was a kid. I almost killed myself in my living room trying to balance it without moving. You pick it up very quickly but I would recommend that before you jump into the fire on your first day of commuting with it, you take it out for a test drive or two without the throngs of fellow commuters to fall into. Watch out for curbs you have to be moving VERY fast or jump REALLY high to ollie them.
2. Definitely wear a helmet (I am using my snowboarding helmet in the winter and bike helmet in the summer).
3. It is bigger and heavier than I thought (to carry when collapsed). Even though I had an intellectual idea that it was bigger than a Razor, in my head, it wouldn't be that much bigger. When I opened the box, I was a little shocked.
4. It is VERY well built. This thing feels really solid and the relative high cost compared to Razors is completely understandable once you see/feel it in person.
5. The bag was surprisingly nice and is worth getting.
Overall, I am happy with my purchase and would have purchased it through Amazon had it been for sale here because of Amazon's good customer service (Amazon CS was a known entity and Xootr's wasn't at the time of purchase). That said, it was mailed promptly and I have no complaints about Xootr CS.
(Since Karl Ulrich mentions the fact that they sell their Xootrs on both Amazon and their website, I felt ok using this forum to discuss the Roma. )
Update: One last thing. If you are considering riding one of these any time after a rain, you absolutely have to get it with the rear fender/brake. It is amazing how much water the wheels pick up from what looks like nothing.
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I'd echo much of what others have said. This is by far the best scooter I have ever owned, and I have owned lots. This is probably the 6th Xootr I've bought, also like the other reviewer because I tend to give them away when I see people who really need them.
We keep our Xootr next to the front door. I use it anytime I need to run someplace 1-2 miles away. For these short trips it is better than a bike because (1) it is just easier to grab, and (2) when you get to your destination you can just fold it up and take it with you rather than having to deal with locking it up.
It is perfect for getting to a subway or bus stop, again because you can take it with you. It is also perfect for running to the store because you just step off, walk it around with you in the store, hop back on to go home.
I also use it to take my kids to school when are running late (often). We call it "double-scootering" and my kids love it. Even with my 10-year old on the Xootr with me, it still rides great. School is about 1.5 miles away and hopping on the scooter cuts the trip from 20+ minutes to 7 minutes. And it also gets me back home in half the time, so it saves me about 1/2 an hour round-trip.
I do agree with the other reviewer who didn't like the locking mechanism for the handlebars. It works fine and is reliable and strong, but the pin is a bit awkward and gets a little stuck sometimes. Graphite powder helps. If the Xootr people are listening, this might be the one thing you could work on to make an excellent product even better.
I'd also add that any scooter has a limited range. After about 2 miles a bike makes more senseit is faster and has a smoother ride. I've taken Xootr on some longer trips by necessity and had a bit of a "shaken up" feeling afterwords. But for the short trips it is designed for, Xootr beats bike in terms of both convenience and total time.
In closingthis is one of the few products I own that tangibly makes my life better. If there is 1-2 miles of pavement separating you from someplace you go to regularly, then a Xooter will save you lots of time.
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I commute into NYC and use a scooter every day, covering about 3-4 miles. I had a couple years in on regular Razor scooters so did have some experience with various types of smaller wheeled scooters. For the last 2 and a half years I have been riding another brand and I will tell you why.
Here are some of the issues I found with the Xootr I purchased. These were fed back to the team at Xootr 2-3 years ago and got no response.
Handle post is a solid piece.
You cannot detach the bars, so if you need to carry, store or move through crowds of people you will constantly have issues with this. It does not fit in a commuter bus overhear bin for example.
The foot bed is very wide on the standard models.
This has two detrimental side effects: One is again storage, as, not only is it tall folded, but because of the handle post and the width of the foot bed, it also is wide. The second is your kick leg has to move further out and around it to contact the ground. In practice this means that your standing leg has to bend further so that the leg pushing can do it's work. This means that the standing leg gets tired faster.
The magnesium on the foot bed can chip. The magnesium foot bed model is only one of a number of Xootr options, but on the model I had it chipped within the first week, and in a place where there was no contact with anything likely to cause a chip. This looked unsightly and didn't speak highly of the quality of the materials.
The Xootr pin to secure the scooter is a simple idea, in theory, but fiddly in practice. If you drop the pin and happen to be standing over sewer or subway grating or in a crowd of people (Murphy's law says you will always end up in one of these situations for some reason) you are out of luck. The pin also has a bad habit of coming apart very easily (it screws together). If you lose a piece of this pin, you are going nowhere. I tied mine to the scooter with a piece of yellow nylon rope. Why am I tying a $220 product together with string?
The brake is on the front. This is my biggest complaint from a safety perspective and an area where I think Razor actually got it right. I am very athletic and I regularly move through the streets of NYC at speeds of up to 20 mph (depends on the road surface). Drivers and taxis in NY change their minds in a heartbeat and suddenly end up in front of you. You have to be able to stop. With a Xootr you hit the handbrake and you shoot over the front off the foot bed, while holding the handle bars, only to have the foot bed then swing around and whack you in the back of the ankle. This hurts like hell. Also remember you are now standing in the middle of traffic. The Razor scooter design means that to stop you must move your body weight back and over the rear wheel because you use the rear fender to stop. This keeps you solidly on your scooter and still in control. You only need to have a couple close calls to see the flaw in the Xooter design.
Big wheels. You will find that if a scooter is designed with a bit of thought you can have big wheels and easy storage. Razor has just released a large wheel scooter that proves this point but comes up a little short on the foot bed. The larger the wheel the faster and smoother the ride because the rolling resistance is reduced. If you have a long thin foot bed you can rest the front of your pushing foot to the rear of the resting foot without depressing the rear fender. This gives you a very flat storage and the opportunity for bigger wheels.
I ride a "Viza Kickit Air" which came with pneumatic tires which give a very smooth ride, but are silly because they can flat and they actually take so much more energy to push. What is nice about this model, however, is the quality of the build and the fact that you can put 7" wheels on it. I have actually gone from the original wheels to 6" Trikke wheels and then on to Trikke 7" wheels and the ease of ride after the transition to the bigger wheels was noticeable in each case.
So I guess this is as much a review as another design note to Xooter (I simply could not resist when I saw the VP of Xootr and the infamous Dorlene writing reviews). After all, what's the point of continuing to stand still if you are a scooter company ?
