the rear kick as a useful tool on the scooter

One of the things I love most about my Mercane is that kick up at the back. Its not only a great piece of styling its a great way to brace yourself when you hit the accelerator on take off and needed for transferring weight back and rear during braking.

Here's how I use mine:

Personally I love narrow longer boards because it gives me great stability, especially where you need it front <-> rear because that's where forces come from:

• braking forces
• acceleration forces
• bumps and movement

Sadly I see so many videos done by sales people who are most often business people with no history or experience in riding (either scooters, skateboards, mountain bikes or motorcycles), and its pretty obvious when you watch them

its pretty obvious who the guy with no experience on a scooter is ... the two kids are doing it naturally.

Videos like this seem to be just some sort of wankfest where they show spinning wheels (with no one on the scooter, in dirt) and proceed to influece (at least unconsciously) viewers who are newbies.

This feet together style is just bad bad bad and forces you to put all your body weight on your stem in an unexpected encounter with a bump that you didn't see. Leading to stuff like this:

I have no idea what led to this but stems are not designed to be for more than directing steering. The leverage is just too high and you'll eventually break it (or hopefully just weaken it and complain about the wobble.

I love the cosplay outfits like big motorbike boots, jackets and full face helmets that clown is wearing, where you just pretend its all going to help you ... Sadly the reality is that bad stance like this will likely lead you to this:

Even with the cosplay gear like the motocross boots and full face helmets isn't going to help much in accident at any sort of speed (even 20kmh), which will likely lead to stuff like this poor fellow suffered when fell off and broke a few things. He reportedly wasn't going "flat out" either.

Safety is in observation and technique, so:

• don't stand like a statue
• keep your balance
• practice emergency braking (stop as fast as you can without locking up the rear wheel)
• stay chill

Happy Scooting