How Is a Scooter Made?

If you’re looking to do some stunts, you will surely be interested in looking through some Globber scooters reviews. When building a scooter, there are 8 components needed. This article will go in depth analyzing those components and we will see how they all come together to form the scooter.

The bars

The first component that you see when looking at a scooter is the handlebars. These are particularly important because they determine how the scooter feels for you and they are thus a very personal choice. The dimensions and shape need to fit your size and preference to allow you to enjoy riding.

Handlebars are made using steel tubing; however, you can sometimes find some made of aluminum tubing, which is slightly less sturdy. In terms of diameter, you will find that most of the bars are oversized, meaning that they have a diameter of 1 3/8″, although the standard diameter is 1 ¼”. Handlebars require a compression system, and a clamp to fit them.

You can customize your bar by adding the grip that you want to it, and you can also change the color.

The deck

Next, when it comes to big scooter parts, we have the deck. Some say that it’s the most important part of the scooter. Like the handlebars, it comes in different lengths and offers different widths and styles, allowing you to personalize the scooter as you wish. That is why it’s important to test all kinds of decks and see which one suits you best.

Most of the decks made nowadays consist of one single piece incorporating both the main body and the head tube. It is recommended that you get a deck that has an integrated headset if you’re looking to freestyle. These are the ones that allow you to start riding without requiring the insertion of another aftermarket headset. The bearings are already installed.

But if you wish to change the headset type, you should buy a deck with a non-integrated headset. The deck is the main scooter part; all the others are built around it, and that is why this piece is designed to offer you a well-balanced ride and a feel of high-performance. That is why most professional decks are made of aircraft-grade aluminum and that ensures they are lightweight and durable enough.

Headsets

Headsets are what allows scooters to turn. A headset is a piece that allows the fork tube to turn into the headset, allowing it to rotate freely. The quality of the headset reflects upon how fast you can maneuver your scooter. The best scooter models will have a sealed headset that will have a much smoother operation. Such a headset requires a compression system and a threadless fork to work, so it’s a bit more complicated.

Every headset consists of bearings, bearing cups, a top cap, and a fork face. All of these small components combined make the headset functional. As we shortly mentioned before, there are two kinds of headsets. The integrated ones already have bearing cups installed into the head tube. This ensures a way better fit, and a perfect alignment for the fork, allowing for smooth rotation.

That is why this kind of headset is recommended, especially for beginners. Working with a headset installation is a hard process and unless you’re an expert, you shouldn’t do it.

Forks

We talked a lot about the fork, but we didn’t get to describe what it does. Being the direct link that goes through the headset and connecting the bars to the deck and the front wheel, the fork is what keeps your scooter together. Thus it’s very important for it to be as sturdy as possible. But that’s not the only characteristic needed.

For your fork to work well you also need a quality compression system to attach it to the scooter bars. There are different kinds of forks, but most professional scooters use a threadless fork. That offers much-needed strength and performance. The alternative is a threaded fork.

Again, because forks come in different styles, choosing one is always difficult. However, you should know that threadless forks are newer and they’re generally better. But you should also look for different strengths, styles, and weights and choose the one you think suits your style the most.

Clamps

Now that we talked about the fork and what it does, it’s time to discuss the part that keeps it in constant contact with the bars. The clamp is the piece that keeps the fork and the bars together, allowing them to move simultaneously, without slipping apart. Again, there are many clamp models, allowing scooter riders to customize their rides as they wish.

The most used clamps today are the Double, Triple, and Quadruple clamps. Each of these names shows how many bolts the clamp has. So a double clamp will have 2 bolts that are used to tighten the bar and the fork together. Because they need to be so sturdy, clamps should be made of durable materials.

Based on their performance and their design, clamps differ from a manufacturer to another and different clamps should be used for different purposes. Finding a clamp that’s best for you can be difficult, but when building a scooter, it is a key element.

Wheels

These are probably the scooter parts that are the most fun to install. They are what makes the scooter ride smoothly, so it’s a great feeling when you put on your new wheels and everything goes well. Scooter wheels are made of 2 parts, one of which is the core, and the other the urethane that surrounds it.

The core should be durable and made ideally of metal, especially for those scooters that suffer a lot of stress in the hands of a freestyler. Plastic cores can also be found, but they aren’t as durable and they should only be used for casual riding.

On top of this durable core will come the urethane (a material that is a bit softer and it allows for smooth riding), and you will see that every wheel-producing company uses a different type of urethane for its wheels, each of them having a different feel. Nonetheless, the diameter of the wheels is 100mm or 110mm, and choosing the size of the wheels is a personal preference.

However, you should know that having larger wheels has its benefits. These are mainly the fact that the wheels run faster and smoother because there is more urethane. But not all wheel sizes fit on your fork, so before purchasing a large wheel, make sure it fits. You should also know that the brake sometimes doesn’t allow you to attach wheels which are too large, so keep an eye on that too.

Wheels come in a huge variety of colors too, and that allows scooter enthusiasts to add a bit more style to their rides.

Brakes

Although a small part of a scooter, the brake is a very important one. Attached to the rear of the deck with a bolt, the brake comes in 2 different styles. There are the flex and the spring-loaded brakes. If you’re aiming for high performance, a flex brake is what you should choose.

It’s a piece of steel shaped so it fits the wheel, and it’s also silent and reliable, offering you all the braking power that you need. Of course, the brake will be damaged after a while, but it’s easy to replace.

Compression

Last but not least is the compression, which is not a piece, but rather a system that holds the bars and fork together onto the deck. Most entry-level scooters use a threaded compression system, which is simple to build, but it’s older and it doesn’t provide much reliability in case of freestyle riding.

The systems used nowadays are the HIC, the ICS, and the SCS, and each of them offers good performance and durability.