Kick-scooters - on topic or off topic?

Question

I asked a question yesterday about brake blocks for plastic wheels.

Plastic rims and brake pads

At the time it seemed on-topic because its totally bike components. However not all scooters are built with bikes.

Your thoughts?

Answer 1

We're not overwhelmed with questions about scooters, so I'd be inclined to accept them. I would be less keen on questions about scooting, though I can't imagine there will be many of them ("left or right leg on the platform?", "how can I train for a 100km scoot?").

Answer 2

This seems to be against the trend of other answers, but I would NOT allow them.

If we allow scooters, we are on a slippy slope and where do we draw the line? Do you also allow skateboards? Roller skates? Skis?

For me the minumum requirement should be: "must have wheels and pedals" with one clear exception for balance bikes. This includes trikes and uni's whilst ensuring it is something that gets cycled.

Fundamentally the cycle part is why motorbikes are off topic

Answer 3

I would also vote against at least certain kind of questions. In term of use, they somehow compete with bikes (mostly electric shared bikes though), but they are ultimately another class of vehicle.

About the inclusion of the category because some use bike components, it's unlikely that a question asked is actually dependant on the vehicle on which the component is mounted. If a scooter uses bike brake calipers, it's likely that it will be relevant for bikes as well, and should be on-topic (because it's about the component, not the vehicle).

For the rest, the small-wheeled e-ones are being developed from different point of view than bikes: it's an integrated package where it would be hard to have the same kind of questions that we typically see here.

Answer 4

Perhaps kick scooters are something like 30-40% on-topic for this SE site. The exact percentage doesn't matter as much as the contentions that:

1. The world isn't always black and white. It can help to think of things in shades of grey.
2. I think that kick scooters aren't clearly on-topic for Bicycles SE. The FAQ does limit it to wheeled vehicles that are exclusively or mainly pedal-powered.
3. However, kick scooters share some similarity with bicycles. They are human-powered. They move at similar speeds. The motor skills required to operate them have some similarities with bikes. There may be some crossover in components and equipment, e.g. bearings, cargo equipment.
4. I bet most people would consider balance bikes to be on topic. These are learning tools for children. Kick scooters are more similar to balance bikes than they are to standard bicycles. It is obviously possible to go too far with analogies, so you need some sort of limiting principle eventually.
5. Kick scooters may be in a grey area between bicycles and not-bicycles. I think I would be fine admitting them despite them not being as much like bicycles as unicycles, handcycles, balance bikes, etc.
6. Point 5 may change with circumstances, e.g. if kick scooters really take off in popularity and we get flooded with enough questions that people start wondering if they deserve their own SE site.

Answer 5

Kick scooters should be on-topic. Bicycles stack exchange is not limited to the narrow definition of two-wheeled, single track human pedal powered vehicles. We already have questions about unicycles, tricycles, and handcycles. Unicycles are one wheel short of being a bicycle, tricycles have one bonus wheel compared to a bicycle, handcycles are not strictly bicycles either, and kick scooters lack pedals. But as a community, we should welcome kick scooters as part of the wider family of variations on the bicycle that we can see on the road.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

I created the kick-scooter tag to cover such questions.