Sun Mobility

If you are reading this post on The Wonderful World of Mobility read no further, this post isn't for you. If are reading it on a page from Sun Mobility then read on. I have noticed that a number of my posts are being displayed unaccredited on the Sun Mobility web site. Now I have no problem with people re producing my content, after all that is pretty much what the web is all about, but when you do it at least do me the service of a back link at least. Seeing as they have forgotten I will do it my self:

Pride Colt XL8

This was a bit I wrote about the Pride Colt XL8 mobility scooter back on the 21st of November that Sun Mobility reproduced over eighty five web sites (I know, eighty five seems like overkill).

TGA Breeze

Now I have written about the TGA Breeze several times, but our dear friends at Sun Mobility don't seem to have bothered to scrape them yet. They have however scraped the post about Mobility Scooter Price Match from a few weeks back which made it into a staggering ninety one sites. I should be flattered, and it was one of my better posts, but for some reason I'm not.

TGA Vita

Now this was the one that gave you away! The TGA Vita hasn't been written about much, in fact my two blog posts account for about twenty percent of the original copy on this scooter, so you can imagine my surprise when the Google results for "TGA Vita" lept from twelve to a hundred and eighty! It didn't take long to realise their was something fish going on that's for sure. It seems to me that they only scrape the longer posts so I'm going to have to pad this one out a bit longer. I'm at a loss what to put now, but I can say one final thing: if I was likely to be renting a mobility aid in Florida I would be unlikely to do it from a company that scrapes pages without permission and passes them of as their own. Oh and by the way, please feel free to reproduce this on your many many spammy sites.

Shopmobility Lose Scooter to an Imposter

Ubelievable. Petersfields Shopmobility has had a scooter stolen by a man pretending to have multiple schlerosis. The imposter apparently hired the scooter for a week after signing up in late summer this year using a blue badge to prove his eligability. Shopmobility have made numerous attempts to recover the scooter but the mans phone number has been disconnected and there is apparently no one at his address. Petersfield shopmobility say that the scooter was covered by insurance but in the mean time they are having to shell out nearly eight hundred pounds to replace the folding travel scooter until the insurance claim is resolved. This is apparently the first ever theft of a mobility scooter from Shopmobility.

Motability Operations to Take Over Mobility Scooter Scheme

It appears that from june next year Motability Operations are going to be taking over the Motability Scooter Scheme. For those who don't know Motability Operations are the not for profit company that manages the leases, customer services, servicing, and dealer relationships for the Motability Car Scheme. For those who haven't been on the scheme for a while, yes they ARE the same company as Motability Finance Limited (MFL). For those who only new them under their old guise this may sound like terrifying news; MFL managed to make the Motability Scheme into an expensive ordeal for many of their customers through overpriced contracts, impossible end of lease conditions and frankly second rate customer service. Fortunately they have managed to turn that around and deliver a far better product on all fronts, and anyone who is steering clear of the scheme based solely on past negative experiences with Motability Finance Limited should have a serious re-think. Getting back to the scooter scheme news, this does sound like a good thing. It is bound to drive down the costs for the user and customer service is bound to improve.

Pride Colt XL8

This year has seen the arrival of a number of new mobility scooters, most notably the new Heartway / Freerider Aviator adn Venus and the Heartway / TGA Vita. While it would seem that all the innovation in the world of Mobility Scooters is coming out Heatway's Taiwanese factory there are other manufacturers out there trying valiently to keep up. Foremost Amongst this chasing pack is Pride Mobility who this year launched the Pride Colt Deluxe and the Pride Colt XL8. The Pride Colt XL8 mobility scooter is an eight mile an hour scooter. It is heavy duty without being fully in the bariatric class having a maximum weigh capacity of twenty eight stones. The Colts are Prides more 'sporty' range and as such they have features such as over sized thirteen by four inch wheels and a respectable ground clearance of about three inches. The word sporty however should not be considered to be synonymous with deluxe; the Pride Colt XL8 has rear only suspension leaving the solid tires and your wrists to absorb any front end impact. The Colt XL8 is powered by dual 12v batteries that deliver 50ah, this gives the Colt a range of around twenty miles per charge which is better than fair and suitable for all but the most demanding users. The Colt XL8 has a retail price of £4,500 which is clearly far too high for this scooter, however as is usual in the scooter business the price you will pay can vary massively - for example Value Mobility offer the scooter at around £1,495 - and at the right price this a very competent eight mile an hour scooter that would suit most users looking to have the advantages of bot road and pavement use.

Off Road Powerchair

Seriously, how did I miss this? I feel such a fool blogging about someone who has stuck a few bits of tin foil to his scooter when this fellow is out there. The Tank Chair, as it unsuprisingly called, was concieved and built by Brian Soden of Phoenix after a car accident left his wife Liz paraplegic. Great lovers of the out doors, the Soden's found that traditional off road wheelchairs were just not up to the job when faced with the rugged Arizona landscape. The Tank Chair is a real monster, it can handle rocky trails; snow; and even the steepest of inclines. Brian is now offering tank chairs to consumers. While in many cases the final product will be customised to fit the needs and wants of each individual consumer, he also offers two standard models - if these can ever be described as standard. The standard tank chair is fitted with rubber tracks and the more conventional Speedster is fitted with a pair of beautiful 21 inch alloy wheels. Visit http://www.tankchair.com/ for more details

TGA Breeze: The Roll Royce of Scooters

Now I have often said the TGA Breeze is the Rolls Royce of scooters, and it seems I'm not alone. Retired engineer Bill Inston of Worle in Somerset has spent the last three months converting his second hand Breeze 4 into a facsimile of a Rolls Royce Silver cloud. Working with such diverse materials as tin foil, mahogany and knitting needles Mr Inston has created a scooter the envy of all on Weston Supermare. He said: "My Rolls-Royce is the only one of its kind in the world. "Like everyone else, I always wanted a Rolls and like many others, I could never afford one. So one day I had the idea to turn my scooter into one. When I'm cruising through Weston people often stop me and ask about it." With a mahogany dash, perspex roof, and a distinctive dancing cherub in place of the flying lady it is no wonder he is caussing a bit of a stir. Daily Express On thing about this story that doesn't ring true though - where on earth did he manage to pick up a Breeze 4 for only £200!

A Week in Mobility Scooters

A quick round up of what's going on web wise in the world of mobility scooters. Ill Informed Moaning As ever the world wide web is a hot bed of people whinging about scooters, first up The Daily Gripe with a moan about reckless drivers. The article is pretty tame; the usual stuff about how it would be better if people were more considerate, but as usual the comments display typical ignorance of the difference between the classes of scooter and the laws that apply. There is nothing wrong with being ignorant of these things, but if you are PLEASE don't start spouting off on a public forum, it just makes you look silly... An article in the Yorkshire Star might conjure up some sympathy one would think, but no apparently not. A pick of the comments include: "she will know how the young child feels like who was run down last week by an OAP on a scooter there are not safe for OAP or CHILD" "I bet she was on the road without her lights on." I dread to think what was in the posts that were removed by the moderator! New Products MNFSA have a good review of the new scooter in the NHC Freerider range, the Freerider Aviator. The Aviator is an eight mile an hour scooter from Heartway that looks set be a bit of a hit. On HubPages there is another review, this time of the Pride Colt XL8 . The XL8 is the new top of the range of the Colt family and apparently they are flying out the door at the Pride dealers. The versitility and sporty styling is clearly striking a chord with the buying public. And Finally... A woman in New Zeland is still witing for an apology from McDonald's after the restaurant refused to serve her at the drive through window as she was on a mobility scooter. The woman claims that she was unable to get her scooter through the doors and was forced to use the drive through window. McDonald's have apparently invited her to discuss the matter but she claims that on the two occasions she has visited the restaurant the have claimed to be too busy to talk.

Mobility Scooter Price Match

Now a lot of people who try to buy their first scooter are surprised by several things. The first is the recommended retail price of most mobility scooters. In many cases the RRP of an 8mph mobility scooter could be as much as a small car, around six or seven thousand pounds. The second surprise will be the wild variations in listed prices on some models. Some dealers (less so on the Internet) will NEVER volunteer to discount a product, offer all products at or around the RRP; other dealers however will discount hard, sometimes as much as sixty or seventy percent of the manufacturers recommended price. The third surprise is that some dealers will never list a price at all. For the new consumer of mobility products this seems bizarre and in many ways they are right. Ultimately what drives this strangeness are two things, the manufacturers and the large retailers. Traditionally mobility scooters were sold in one of two ways (if we exclude the Mobility scheme from this discussion), either from shop fronts or by direct marketing. Mobility scooters have always been a low volume product and in order to maintain either expensive property or an expensive sales force it was necessary to make a very large mark up on each unit. In order to get ahead companies would invest in larger properties and more staff in order make sales. Since the advent of the internet this has all changed, now smaller family run businesses are able to take advantage of their low overheads and sell products online at greatly reduced margins. The way to get ahead now for these businesses is to invest in stock and increase volume. This has not been met with joy buy the large established dealers and to finally get to the point, this is what is happening in the market place: in order to maintain market share large dealers put pressure on the manufacturers to keep the prices inflated, the manufacturers put pressure on the small dealers to stop advertising low prices, and in this way the large dealers hope to maintain the status quo for a few more years. Unfortunately for the big dealers the online dealers are getting smarter, some even offering instant mobility scooter price match services that will send you a price beating quote in seconds at the click of a button. The future looks bright for mobility consumers.

TGA Breeze and Pride Colt Price Match

Value Mobility have launched an online price matching service on some of their most popular scooters. For so many consumers the process of finding the best price has involved tedious rounds of searching the web and making phone call just to find the best priced mobility scooter. The Value Mobility price match service should go some way to removing that headache. Instead of having to call in, or fill out a long form all you have to do is type in your email address and the best price you have been quoted, and the price matching agents will do the rest, often responding within a matter of minutes. While the price matching service isn't available on all scooter it is currently available on the following:

• TGA Breeze 3 and 4
• Freerider Royale
• TGA Supersport
• Pride Colt XL8 and Colt Deluxe
• Electric Mobility 3,4,6 and 8

TGA Vita Continued...

Apart from their shared heritiage and modernist styling the TGA Vita and NHC Royale 4 are quite different beasts (yes I know I was comparing them in the last post!). The Royale 4 is a true heavyweight mobility scooter weighing over 100lbs more (batteries included) than the Vita . The Royale is also six inches longer and an inch and a half wider than its smaller cousin. Perhaps it is a little surprising that the TGA Vita actually claims a higher maximum rider weight of 400lbs to the Royale's 350lbs, but it is less surprising that the Vita with its slimline form requires a lot less juice coming stock with 2 x 50 Ah batteries whereas the Royale requires 2 x 80 Ah. The Vita also has a less powerful motor - 700 watts versus 1,300 watts in the Royale - but this doesn't seem to affect the pick up on the machine as it felt very lively during our quick test. Ride comfort in both machines is provided by fully active suspension, all wheel on the Royale and front wheels and single post on te TGA Vita. Both have oversized pneumatic tyres front and rear, although again the Royale as befits it's greater size adds an inch or so on both front and rear tyres. I think I am going to have to change my initial assessment on the TGA Vita: I still love it, but I'm not sure it is the Royale killer I assumed at first look. The difference finally is about power. If you are looking for a mobility scooter to power up steep gradients on or off road you may find that the Royale is still the best scooter for you, but if you are looking for something that can do a bit of everything and is above all fun then I think you should seriously consider the TGA Vita.

TGA Vita: a First Look

TGA have been promising a new luxury 8 mph scooter since the beginning of the summer but all I had seen was a few teaser pics on their web site and other than that nothing. I was starting to think it was all an elaborate fantasy. But today at long last I got my hands on the new TGA Vita!

I'm going to put my cards on the table: it was love at frst sight. Up till now I thought nothing could touch the NHC Royale when it came to styling, but this beats it hands down. Both scooter have clearly based their shape on modern mopeds but While the Royale was supremely elegant in its three wheel incarnation, the four wheel model appears to be a bit of a fudge.This is not the case for the TGA Vita, it was clearly designed as a four wheel scooter and as yet there appears to be no plans to make a three wheel version.

It may come as no surprise to discover that this mobility scooter is manufactured by Heartway Mobility, the same company that build the Royale, although it does beg a couple of questions: first, why didn't it get picked up as part of the NHC range? And second, why have they manufactured something that is so clearly aimed at the Royale's target market (the RRP of the Vita will £3,995, easily within the same price band)? While these questions are interesting to scooter nerd they are irrelevant to the average consumer, who can only benefit from the competition of two companies offering such high quality mobility scooters.

Tomorrow I will put up some more pictures and go into some more of the technical details that make this scooter so special, but for now you can check out TGA Vita specifications at Value Mobility.

Mobility Scooter Madness in Gravesend

Strange things going on in Gravesend (as ever?). A young able bodied lad is causing a bit of a stir with his mobility scooter. Sam Scutts, a 17 year old media student, has taken to travelling around town on a second hand mobility scooter. This wouldn't have been much of a story if the local constabulary hadn't decided scooter riding was anti social behavior. While driving through Gravesend town cenre in June young Mr Cutts was pounced on by five, yes five, members of the local plod.

"They threatened to arrest me for dangerous driving, add three points to my provisional driving licence, tow away the scooter and fine me £110", said Sam.

"I was shocked by the police reaction because I was not doing anything wrong.

"I wasn’t driving dangerously, I was driving around people and stopping to let them pass, and the fastest I can go is walking pace.

"And there’s nothing illegal about me driving the scooter - I checked and its not against the law to drive one if you’re not disabled."

The story has a happy ending though, as after hearing of his plight a local garage took pity on him and his rather tatty looking scooter and "pimped his ride", buffing and filling the body work and adding a rather snazzy blue paint job.

Sam said: "It looks like a new scooter, I was shocked when I first saw it.

"It is electric blue all over, and all the panels have been rebuilt.

"We’re not sure what we’re going to do with it. We might auction it for charity."

Mablethorpe 'Daleks' bite back

Following anger at Guardian refering to their town as "Village of the Daleks" due to the high density of mobility scooters (seen here) the residents of Mablethorpe have hit back with this gem of a video.

Mobility Scooters For the Life You Want To Lead

A great look at some of the exciting new (and not so new) 8mph mobility scooters available.

Mobility Scooters For the Life You Want To Lead

We Interupt This Broadcast...

... for a quick advertisment.

If you are looking for a mobility scooter you could do far worse than try Value Mobility. There prices are second to none, and their service so far has proved to be excellent.

We now return to our scheduled programming...

Mobility Scooter Tricks

Now i have tried this a few times, but still haven't quite managed to pull it off...

An Alternative to the Pride Go Go Travel Scooter?

In the last few months the Pride Go Go Elite has almost dried up on these shores. Dealers are reporting delivery times of over four weeks to get your hands on these machines. This begs the question, what is the alternative? One to consider is the Mercury Prism folding scooter. While it is often £80-100 more expensive than it's Pride equivilent, the Mercury's styling, usability and build quality make it an attractive proposition.

Stay out my way fool!

As a follow on to yesterdays post, maybe drug dealers can earn the scooter community a little respect. I'm sure the tutting and eye rolling would stop the first time the oh so annoying little man on the scooter hops off and puts a cap in someones arse (ass?). Why an 8mph mobility scooter is the drug gang's motor of choice I have to say the picture doesn't quite do the story justice. Living in Brixton I am privileged to witness this first hand and the lads who are driving these things are usually about 16 and are resplendent in the usual drug lord finery - baseball caps with labels still dangling, tracksuits based on luggage, and pristine white trainers. The one thing the did seem to get spot on was the ratty old Rascal scooter, it really lets the whole image down. They should be rocking something like the Mercury M48GT . Not only is it a sweet ride, it's weight capacity would mean you could probably pack about 200 lbs of chronic around the frame...

Facebook Not Exactly a Friendly Place for Scooter Users

If you were to search Facebook for the term 'mobility scooter' what would you expect to find? Would it be groups of scooter users sharing tips and discussing issues? Or maybe charities who are dedicated to getting people mobile? Bound to be plenty of dealers trying to flog over priced mobility aids right? Turns out all these things are drowned out by one thing - the groundswell of loathing for the humble scooter user. Some of the groups include:

• F**KING MOBILITY SCOOTERS ! Quote: "Please stay at home and die, as is the natural order of things"
• Mobility scooters should be banned Quote: "YOUR JUST FAT PEOPLE YOU AINT GOT A DISEASE!!!"

And my personal favourite

• i hate people mobility scooters Quote: "dont u just hate the old fogeys? think they have right of way in shopping precincts, worse than bloody taxi drivers."

Now I don't know if this is a new thing, but in the last six months scooter users seem to have been identified as a legitimate target for pointless contradictory whinging (the main complaint seems to be people using scooters on the pavement... except when the complaint is that people use them on the roads). I'm sure this isn't just a Facebook phenomena, I'll have a look around the net over the next couple of days. Just incase this has left you feeling a little depressed, have a look at WE LOVE MOBILITY SCOOTERS AND THE PEOPLE ON THEM! . Might restore a little faith in humanity.

Picture of the Day

Chelsea pensioners’ motorised division: Retired army heroes on parade in mobility scooters (Telegraph)

New just in: Mobility Scooters are "Leisure Vehicles"

From the Times - Mobility scooter face tax increase

Mobility scooters for the disabled are likely to increase in price after a change in their tax classification to “leisure vehicles” by Brussels. The new designation puts the electric vehicles in the same category as golf buggies and racing cars and will mean extra import duty for those made outside the European Union.

Is this the Coolest 8mph Scooter on the Planet?

I give you The TGA Electric Breeze 4. I know I shouldn't get too excited by a mobility scooter, but honestly this thing is just tooooo pretty...

So what exactly are we doing here?

I haven't really thought about it that much, maybe some insights into choosing, buying and maintaining mobility scooters and powered wheelchairs. We'll see soon enough, but for now I need to get back to real work.