Chopsy Baby is reviewing… Micro Sprite Micro Scooter
Product Specifications and Dimensions
The Micro Sprite scooter is suitable for use from age five years to adult.
Maximum weight – 100 kg/15st 10.5lb
The deck is 35cm
It weighs 2.7kg
Folded it is 66x25x10cm
Unfolded it is 69x96x34cm
Review
The Micro Sprite is an excellent all round scooter, especially for people coming onto two wheels for the first time. But while scooters are usually the reserve of children and teens, the beauty of The Sprite, is that it can be enjoyed by adults as well.
This has two clear advantages. Firstly, parents taking their scooting children to school don’t have to be lumbered with the task of carrying it home afterwards – they can scoot home.
And secondly, scooting is incredible fun and great exercise. This is especially so during these warmer summer months. As yet another bonus on top, the entire family can go out scooting as a free beat-the-holiday-boredom activity.
But scooting doesn’t just have to be a fun way of getting from A to B. Across the the UK, mothers are using scooters as an enjoyable and free way to get fit. Scooting clubs are beginning to crop up within communities, where like minded mothers join up for an hour of exercise while their children are at school.
To help mothers make the most of scooting fitness, Micro Scooters, inspired by scooting mums, have teamed up with fitness specialist Mary-Ann Elder, creating a series of three scooter fitness programmes aimed specifically at the needs of mothers: Post-natal, Women and Children and a General Fitness.
Chopsy Baby took on the challenge of setting up a Mum’s Scooter Club in South Bristol, following the General Fitness programme or more like, the Chopsy Baby scoot into the fence, dog poo and natter whilst eating cake fitness programme.
The Sprite Micro Scooter itself proved to be a sturdy piece of equipment, carrying a fully grown adult, suitable in height up to around 5.8ft before you would start to hunch over. It will cope with the moderately obese, bearing weight of nearly 16 stone.
The height of the handle bars can be adjusted to suit younger ones and when extended to full length feels very secure. The Sprite can fold down flat which is really useful for transport and storage. Its sleek design makes it easy for all ages to use, with no bulky wheels or other components getting in the way of smooth scooting.
The Sprite goes fast. Learning good break control and how to stop is an essential first step.
Make sure when you first start to use the scooter and gain this control, you get lots of practise in an area free of people and obstacles. Unless your back garden is several acres, it is unlikely to be large enough to get to grips with scooting. This would mean a trip to the park is in order. As with scooting children, it is highly advisable for all involved to wear protection including a helmet and trainers instead of sandals.
Our Mums’ Scooter Club met at the Greville Smyth Park while the children were in school. A large park such as this one is ideal as even at busier times, paths and open spaces are big enough for a gaggle of women wobbling on scooters.
A further meeting during the holidays was still fun but much harder with confident primary school aged children weaving in and out of mothers like maniacs.
Breezing around the park in formation did attract some interested looks from other park users and certainly gave the psycho cyclists a run for their money. Dogs are an unpredictable hazard, as are two-year-olds suddenly making a dart for freedom.
Chopsy Baby’s Jen Smith says: “This has been great fun to do with my four-year-old son. He thinks it’s fantastic that we can scoot together, though his Chinese State Circus/ Frank Spencer stunts are a little beyond my capabilities.
“The great thing about scooting is that although it looks like a cop out compared to walking, in a very short space of time – five minutes – you can already feel muscles working and toning in the backside area.
“In no way was I ready to attempt a serious amount of scooting straight away, or much in the way of set exercises created by Mary-Ann Elder. I found scooter control was something I needed to work on first, well away from obstacles around me.
“Trying to manoeuvre around cones, up and down the bumps of pavements was really difficult. As was getting to grips with breaking. The break is located on the back wheel, something that didn’t come naturally straight away and I kept trying to break on the handle bars like a bike.
“I found the best way to learn brake control was to go up and down the living room braking on and off until it felt easy.
“It has also been a real joy to get out in the sunshine as scoot, especially with other mums to laugh at and with.”
While there are plenty of outdoor exercise classes for mums with babies in buggies, there are less opportunities for mums with older children. Scooting with your child is a fantastic way of getting fit. It will help you by tone up and work muscles, having great fun with your child outdoors and spend no extra money.
Micro Sprite Scooter: £52
For more information about the range of Micro Scooters available for children and adults, visit: http://www.micro-scooters.co.uk/category/aluminium-scooters-5-to-adult/
For more information, or to set up your own Mums’ Scooter Club, visit: http://www.micro-scooters.co.uk/mums-fit.php