Recently one of our Scooter Hut staff members, and long time Professional rider Max Peters brought up a very important point on his YouTube channel.... Do you need a Custom Pro Scooter to learn how to ride?
The first ever Razor scooter launched in the year 2000 and over 5 MILLION were sold in just the first six months..... That's insane! Tho in that being said, you would never of seen even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of that number riding these two wheeled "Toy's" at a skatepark.
Fast forward 6 years and videos started emerging on the internet of guys taking these Razor Scooters to the extreme, throwing down tricks such as Backflip Tailwhips, Front Scooter Flips, Flairs and more!
Jesse Macalouso Mini Video 3 - 2006
All of these tricks that these guy's were to say the least... Inventing, were all possible on one of the first ever scooters released to the market. The scooter's themselves were not even the slightest bit 'Dialled" in fact, the headtube on an original Razor would rock backwards and forward so much, your headtube angle would change as you rode!
As Max would say in his YouTube video;
"What people used to do back in the day is they used to put hot glue in between the spokes of the wheels as they would literally last you half an hour as they were a plastic core wheel, so we would put the hot glue in the wheel to make it that little bit stronger"
He would also go on to say;
"So if i was to buy a brand new razor pro and i was to snap the bars in a week, i would have to go out and buy a whole new scooter just because we did have the access to Scooter Hut and stuff like you kids do now, You guys are so lucky to have the parts and the opportunity's, the stores and all of that stuff now because back in the day when i was growing up we had nothing"
Why a custom scooter WON'T make you PRO ! - Max Peters
Pretty much the major idea behind Max's video was to prove the point that you do not need an $800 custom scooter as your first whip to be able to learn the tricks all your friends can do. 10+ years ago they had the one type of scooter (That was terrible) and still managed to learn all the tricks you could imagine!
Scooters have evolved over the last 18+ years to be more durable, light weight and sturdy so you are not needing to replace a complete scooter every second week as you jumped down a 5 stair to flat and your bars exploded on impact. As you progress your riding, your parts will progress with you. Your first week of riding a scooter you wont need a 5" x 22" deck that the pro's are rolling around on and you wont need the most expensive titanium bars the market has to offer either. Instead of blowing your budget building a setup from scratch there is a HUGE amount of out of the box complete scooter's that will fit your riding level perfectly from your first push, to first bunny hop to your first whip. Once you have cemented yourself in the scooter lifestyle and have a solid set of tricks down that's when you start looking around at what particular products will suit your needs best.
The video from Max as well as this article is in no way telling you that you don't need a Custom Complete Scooter AT ALL, but more so letting you know that building and buying the most expensive custom setup you can does not mean you will land your first tailwhip any faster then the next kid rolling around on a entry level "Out of the box" scooter.
In closing, Its not always about what scooter you want more so then the scooter you need. Take advice on board from our friendly staff members as they know what they are talking about and are here to help you progress your riding to the next level!
