PART 1
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FOREWORD -
Next to my regular TSI setup, I too own a so called "dirt scooter" (an OG Phase Two Radtke sig) which actually I've
rarely used it on actual dirt jumps, but IT IS indeed a very handy tool in terms of conquering spots that are otherwise impossible on
normal scooters, such as soft rooftops, sketchy fences, grass, trees & fat branches, forests etc, you name it. I gotta admit and I'll never stop emphasizing:
dirt scooters opened up a new variety of spots in my town, a completely new playground.
You think you know every spot in your area? Get a dirt scooter and think again. Friggin wallrides/fencerides next to grassbanks are the coolest shit ever, I swear. Hence I guess that's why my videopart in
"Just a stupid video" contained more than the usual amount of dirt scooter material compared to my other videos.
I just think that the term
dirt scooter is insufficient. I'd rather call it an
all-terrain scooter, but for the sake of this forum I'll keep it simple and we're gonna talk about
dirt scooters/setups. Even though I've rarely used dirt setups, I can relate to a lot of these posts in this thread through personal experience on my various setups. So here goes:
Just get a regular scooter
If you want a bmx bike feel; buy a bmx bike.
Really poor input, guys. Try explaining
why next time, please.
If you're not planning on riding on dirt, you're better off getting a regular scooter. They're much faster and easier to maneuver, they should handle fine on bumpy streets and basically anything that isn't dirt/sand.
There's a lot of regular scooters out there that are bigger than dirt scooters, bars can basically be as high as you want depending on which brand you choose and deck lengths for regular scooters are anything between 19" long to over 22" long. Generally, the bigger the bars/deck the harder it is to do certain tricks (like whips) while making others easier, and bigger scooters feel more comfortable to ride so if you're mostly going to be cruising around and just doing a few little tricks here and there you're better off getting something slightly bigger/more comfortable.
Agreed. If you stick to paved roads, 125mm wheels will help you get over the obstacles you need. Unless you (@
Undefined) wanna add a few occasional grassrides / sketchy stuff in the mix, then you'll definitely like those 200mm pneumatic wheels that dirt scooters have.
It depends on the terrain, its annoying riding a regualr scooter on really bad surfaces as after a while it can hurt your wrists and such, I dont own a dirt scooter but obviously bigger wheels/tyres means that riding on bad terrain is more comfortable on a dirt scooter. tricks will be harder obviously but people do recognize that, even so if you are really into tricks a regular scooter is more versatile for them (it is easier to learn more different tricks)
+1
hahah, thank you for your input
You are more bent over on a dirt scooter because you are standing farther away from the bars.
And they extremely slow compared to a normal scooter as well.
1) Higher bars compensate that feeling. There's really no use for handlebars where you have to hunch a lot unless you want to have back problems of a 50-year old by the age of 20. From my personal experience, I just kept the deck, wheels, and the fork and put my own bars + SCS on the "dirt" setup, so that the bar height would be in the correct ratio with the deck's lenght.
2) Might be, might not be.
There are two options that might mislead the user into feeling that a dirt scooter is "slow", especially for those who come from a, lets call it, a
toy scooter background (on SR we call these
normal scooters) -- one is simple physics, the other one is false tire pressure (a type of user error):
OPTION A: a dirt scooter is "slow"? Try understanding physics.
It is
kind of true and I gotta admit they do take a lot more energy to get some speed in compared to a "normal" scooter with PU wheels, but you're really comparing two diffirent books here: a comic book is always easier to lift up than a fat dictionary. Tipping over a comic book standing on its side using one finger requires less energy than tipping over a fat book. Carrying 5 comic books around in your backpack is always easier than carrying 5 fat dictionarys on your back. It's just physics. It would be the same if we'd compare a scooter with a kickbike: a kickbike will always require bigger effort to get the speed in, but once you get the speed in, the thing rolls / behaves on the road way more stable than any toy scooter you'll ever own. It's called
inertia.
Once you acknowledge that such an attribute applies on every physical object on this Earth, you'll never say
"dirt scooters are slow" ever again. On the contrary, [insert meme here]
Let's proceed, shall we.
OPTION B: wrong tire pressure
This somehow has a huge effect if you have your tires underpressurised. It's an user error if the tires don't have the correct air pressure. The key is to keep them inflated at their max permitted pressure level whether it's 80 or 100psi or whatever is allowed / written on the tire side markings. Fully inflated wheels behave realllly well if used correctly, otherwise wheels with lack of pressure will suck in all the energy you put into pushing / generating speeds.
More pressure = less grip = less friction w/ the ground = will lose its speed later;
Less pressure = more grip = more friction = slows down in a shorter amount of time.
EDIT:
OPTION C: tire texture?
Dirt scooter tire texture is pretty rugged, which might slow things down a bit, but usually those Razor Phase Two tires have a hard line in the middle specifically designed for smoother/faster ride and pumping ramps, as I recall Radtke explaining this concept. (see the bottom quote by the user
Hcc)
i bomb hills n shit, you go fast as fuck on a dirt scoot and you also avoid small potholes and rocks which a normal scoot wheel would catch on and you'd die
[...]
Haha, somehow i've been avoiding bombing paved hills with that to be honest, EVEN THOUGH i believe it would be stable as fuck to guide these rigs down hills. It's just that roads might contain glass or whatever that may pop those wheels instantly compared to PU wheels, and I can only imagine how that pavement tastes like afterwards if things get really out of control, haha. Then again, avoiding potholes and rocks with pneumatic wheels seem to be definitely easier with dirtscoots, so it's a valid point.
+1
It's still slower in every aspect, I've bombed hills and it's still not faster and I run my tyres at 90 psi
Really? Damn. Makes me really curious now about those hillbombs. Maybe it's because of the rugged texture that those dirt scooters usually have? I could imagine that some slick tires would behave a bit diffirently on hillbombs, haha.
(to be continued)
