Pride XL8

The Pride Celebrity XL8 is dead; long live the Pride Colt XL8! Over at Mobility Review they look back at one of the iconic (is that too strong?) scooters of the last few years, the Celebrity XL8 and look at some of the alternatives available now it has been discontinued. Else where they look to the present, and the scooter that for now seems to have replaced the Celebrity XL8 in the pride range - the Colt XL8. While on the subject of the Colt XL8, I thought this was rather amusing - an ill disguised rant at the practice of re branding mobility scooter.

Freerider Royale?

Not any more, nor in fact was it ever. After a flurry of activity from Niagara Health Care's (NHC) marketing department the internet is well on its way to being purged of the name Freerider Royale. The accepted nomenclature is Heartway Royale or NHC Royale. The move does in fact make sense, Freerider is a brand in its self and the only tie between the Royale and Freerider is that they are both distributed in the UK by NHC. While the move makes sense it goes against common usage, a search today on google for "freerider royale" (in quotes to match the phrase) returns 3,570 results, where as a search for "nhc royale" returns only 78 matches. While in the long run this will clarify and simplify things for consumers it is bound to lead to some confusion while people struggle to understand why most dealers don't stock the Freerider Royale any more.