Why Swifty Scooters

For a male fast approaching retirement age, the purchase of an adult kick scooter could be regarded as something on the wrong side of normal, even rather eccentric and that’s fine by me. I like eccentric. Let me explain.

I don’t do normal, I like to do my own thing, regardles of what other people do or think. With cycling I ride a fat bike, a Surly Pugsley with 4″ wide tyres. I ride on the beach and locations up in the hills where trails and tracks are few and far between. I also like looking for brickmarks and I collect sand but we’ll leave those for another time. So, purchasing two Swifty Scooter is quite normal for me.

I already had a kick scooter, a Frenzy F205P, which was pretty good with 200 mm pneumatic tyres making for a smooth ride, at least on tarmac, but not much use off-road. As a folding scooter it was easy to transport and store but tended to squeak and rattle a lot when ridden which I found really annoying. I wanted something better, one that was smooth and quiet, one that I could tinker with and one that could use for off-road adventures. I did my research on the Internet, as there was really no other option. There was only a handful of companies offering what I was looking for and after a while I came up with two possibilities, the Czech firm of Yedoo and the UK-based company of Swifty Scooters.

Yedoo offer a whole range of models, mostly towards kick bike styles but the 16″ wheeled Friday got my attention having same-sized front and rear wheels, odd sized wheels just seem wrong. Swifty Scooters have a smaller range with only three models, the folding Swifty One, the Swifty Zero and the Swifty Air. I was looking for scooters with 16″ wheels, which seemed the optimum size.

The Yedoo Friday looked very similar to the Swifty models. It was cheaper to purchase (£300 against the cheapest Swifty at £439), lighter in weight by almost 2 kg, came with a bottle cage mount, could be fitted with an optional side stand and had quick-release wheels as standard. However, it did not appear suitable for off-road use, which was an option I wanted.

I then looked at the Swifty range with the Swifty Zero quickly attracting my attention. Build quality looked good, the overall design looked just perfect, simple and minimalist, very neat and tidy. I then looked in detail at Swifty themselves, reading all the reviews I could find, both good and bad, and all the articles I could find. The product looked ideal and support also seemed excellent. They were also UK-based, something that I liked.

Initially I was not convinced that they would be any good off-road, so I opted to purchase the Swifty Zero. My thinking was to buy the more street-orientated Swifty Zero and give it a try off-road, to see how it works out. If it didn’t pan out, I would still have a great scooter for street use. If it looked feasible I would buy the Swifty Air later on.

And that’s just what I did. I initially tried the stock Swifty Zero on some local woodland trails and while it managed fairly well, the skinny tyres were not ideal. Swapping them for a pair of Maxxis Hookworm 16″ x 1.95″ tyres made all the difference. It looked like off-road scooting was on and I purchased my Swifty Air in the Black Friday sales towards the end of November.

What I like about my Swifty scooters is mainly that they are just fantastic to ride and never fail to bring a smile to my face – and just about everyone who sees me passing. I’m more than happy with the quality of the product and any dealings I’ve had with the staff and owners at Swifty have been excellent. In addition, I can tinker with them, for example, adding Magura hydraulic brakes to the Swifty Zero and I’ve a whole list of ideas in the pipeline. And that’s how I came to be the proud owner of a sunrise yellow Swifty Zero and a hero blue Swifty Air.

Copyright ©2020 Gary Buckham. All rights reserved.

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