Mystery Part? (Question from Anne)

Q. In the front, near the crutch/cane cups, there's a metal bar with a piece of wood in it, taped together. What's that for?

A.  Anne, thanks for sending in a picture of the piece you're asking about. That mystery part is just a placeholder to protected the metal piece it's sitting in from damage during shipping. If you bought a basket, remove the piece and your basket edge will fit in that metal ridge.

Here's a link to the instrucctions that come with the basket:

http://ifisher.com/travelscoot/basketinstructions.htm

Anne's 'Scoot has arrived!

From Anne:

My TravelScoot is here! Unpacking and assembly were a cinch, all by myself, and the Li battery ("cub") only took about an hour to charge. I've been riding the TS around the house -- doesn't do too well on the bumpy new carpet in the living room, but fine on floors and flat carpet.

The dogs are a bit freaked out by it. I hope they get used to it enough for me to be able to take one of them at a time out for walk.

Hope to get my TS out to my car today (don't know if I can get it down the steps by myself), and then out to a mall or Walmart or some such place to test it further. Ironically, we had the first snow of the season today, but not much stuck. Should be no problem for my yet-to-be-named TS.

Rhonda's Thanksgiving Cruise

Rhonda and her family took a Thanksgiving cruise, which was her first cruise with her TravelScoot. I thought you'd enjoy seeing some of the pictures she sent and her comments...

"When not in use, it doubles as storage."

"Boarding was smooth, I handled all of the ramps with no problem and so far no obstacles. Elevators are a little smaller than I am used to, so I guess no donuts in the elevator."

I had asked her to take a picture of her scoot in their cabin, which wasn't a handicap cabin.  Rhonda said she was able to get the scoot through the cabin door with about an inch to spare.

New Adventure to Report From the Streets of New York

From Kay:

Wednesday I had the longest scoot adventure I have had so far. I work in Manhattan and we had a half day on Wednesday. My son was coming home from Washington D.C. and I arranged to meet him at the K-Mart on 34th Street and 7th Avenue.

I started out about 1:30 from lower Manhattan where I boarded a No. 15 city bus for 34th Street and 1st Avenue-a distance of about 6 miles. The wheelchair lift was amazing and I sat on a regular seat with the scoot brakes locked, of course. When I exited the bus the lift was again in fine form and we were off. I had already decided that I would try to ride the scoot to my destination.

The avenues in New York are quite far apart - each is probably equal to 5 or 6 city blocks. What I did not realize was that 34th Street is an uphill climb all the way to 5th Avenue. My motor did overheat once (with the large L'ion battery), but I sat through several walk signals and was quickly on my way again. I really enjoed getting a close up look at the architecture.

Did I tell you that there was a light mist in the air? After checking out our intended meeting place I headed to Sixth Avenue do a little bead shopping. It started raining harder so I headed to Macy's to do a little retail therapy. As it turned out the trip from Washington DC took a lot longer because of the holiday traffic, so I had a lot of time on my hands.

I spent this time scooting around Macy's, which has to be the largest store in the world. I can tell you that people do not look where they are going - at least 8 people ran into me in the store.

Three hours later, with no bus in sight, I headed to our meeting point and the dreaded amber light came on. I channeled our mother and drove right up to the service desk at K-Mart and told them my battery was dying and asked if there was there a place that I could charge it. Just as if they got this request every day they pointed me in the direction of the nearest electrical outlet where I sat for about an hour charging my battery. I then had enough of a charge to scoot the rest of the way to the Ferry while my son walked alongside me. We actually had a really good time catching up on his life for the last several months.

This was definitely an adventure to be repeated.
TravelScoot

Nancy's food tray invention for the TravelScoot

From Nancy:

The problem I had was that a regular size paper or styrofoam plate would not fit in the basket. I sometimes go down to the cafeteria at work to get take out, so I needed a bigger, but secure, tray to carry the take out plate or box on my travelscoot back to my office via the elevators.

This picture shows the braided nylon with cordlock at the top of the basket which allows for quick leveling of the basket when the tray is used. It also is stronger than the original plastic and less involved than undoing the velcro tie that I was originally using. Still use the velcro tie to hold the scooter wires to the tiller. This pic also shows the 2-3/4 inch and 22 inch long velcro one wrap strapped over the top of the basket. (you can get 6 feet of this from Campmore for 3.99 plus shipping and cut it to the size you want but the ones I used were originally sold at Lowes for holding water hoses).

This one shows the underside of the kids play tray I got from Letsgostrolling.com with two pieces of 2 inch wide stick on velcro stuck on it. You just lay the tray down on the basket and the velcro sticks fast but can be removed. Really this same plan would work with a wooden or plastic tray just as well. That sticky back velcro sticks to just about anything but I really like the one wrap best since it can be used over and over again for many things.

And this one shows my tray in place and ready to use. Works great.

Lubricating the Throttle

Cynth wrote Tony at TravelScoot, telling him her throttle isn't as responsive as it used to be and asked for instructions on lubricating it. This is his response:

Hi Cynthia,

You can try applying Vaseline at the rotating grip of the throttle and see if that helps. If that doesn't work you try a spray lubricant, preferably NOT WD40 to the area. Let me know what works.

Best regards and Happy Thanksgiving,

Tony
mail@travelscoot.com

Elford and the Helsinki Metro

From Elford:

Here are some fotos on the Helsinki Metro. I usually get on the Metro at Vuosaari (our suburb) and go to another station, get off and then scoot to another station. Then return to Vuosaari. This allows me to see parts of Helsinki I have never seen before. I have never run low on battery yet. The Li battery seems to work very well.