Every Day Adventurers

In a recent How-To post about carrying passengers on your Xtracycle, Don tossed a tip our way about using Razor scooter handlebars to get an ‘xtra 2″ of peg space. Intrigued, and always excited for new mini-projects, I started scouring the local 2nd hand stores and re-use depots looking for forlorn Razors.

Sadly, working scooters, let alone busted, broke-down ones were either in happy use or languishing under 10-years of other fads. Figuring that one would land in my lap at some point, I decided to leave the pot to boil on its own.

Didn’t have to wait long because two days later, while doing free bicycle safety checks at the Temescal farmers market, a young boy rode up on a broken Razor scooter asking for some repair help. I dug through my box of rando-parts and found a Nyloc nut and the proper bolt to tighten his stem clamp. Before he left I offered him $5-$10 if he could locate a Razor scooter for me that still had the handle bars. To my surprise, he immediately offered up his newly fixed steed for the cold stare of a Hamilton. I tried to dissuade him from parting with a now-functional transportation device, but his insistence and my lack of wanting to wait on the project won over. With money and goods exchanged, we were both satisfied.

Enough jibber-jabber, let’s talk Do-It-Together!

Ingredients:

• 1 Razor Scooter complete (or 2 handlebar ends from a Razor Scooter)
• 1 Xtracycle with KickBack installed
• 1 razor or other sharp cutting blade

The Steps

Lean your Xtracycle against a wall or other immovable vertical object so that your KickBack retracts into the “ride” position. I used a curb just to make my life harder. It’s what I do.

Press the spring buttons on the Razor scooter handlebars and remove them. Set aside the scooter, we’ll revive ‘er yet.

Line up the spring button with the Xtraycle spring button to figure out how much grip you’ll want to keep on your new pegs. A rough measurement is about 2″, but measure yoruself to be sure. Use a razor to cut the foam grips, no need to go too deep since they’ll cut easily.

Remove the KickBack axle from side easily accessible. You can set aside the axle or give it something to do and act as a new, shorter handle for the cannibalized scooter. Insert your scooter bars in place of the removed axle. Ensure the spring button seats properly. My Big Dummy holes are a bit smaller than the Razor spring button. (One option might be to swap spring buttons from the KickBack axle for the Razor handlebars, but that might require some drilling.)

Repeat for other axle and PRESTO! You’ve got some extended KickBack pegs and a still functional scooter! (If you started with a functional scooter to begin with.)

The Razor grips, depending on their age/wear, will likely fall off on the first ride. I mixed some epoxy to secure them to the peg, but expect them to get torn up as people use them. You can always use a used grip or other suitble sized sheath to even out the height of the peg for an even foot platform.

Hope this helps some people’s frustration with KickBack and Footsie’s incompatibility. Please share any photos of your setups if you undertake this DIT tutorial. Ride on!