Fake scooters unsafe, warns man who invented the original

UP to 70 per cent of the scooters whizzing around Hong Kong footpaths are fakes that could put children in danger of serious injury, the Swiss company behind two popular models has warned.

Micro Mobility Systems, which shares the patent for the popular Razor and Micro scooters, said cheap but convincing imitations had flooded the market and were a potential risk to users.

Company chief and inventor Wim Jan Ouboter, who was in Hong Kong last week after visiting factories on the mainland, said the fakes were not made to the same standards as the originals and could snap under pressure. 'Absolutely it's a safety problem. These scooters are made out of aluminium and they're not heat-treated, so they're not strong enough. But they're such damn good copies that most people can't tell,' he said.

The company, which estimates 100,000 scooters have been sold here in recent months, said trouble could arise when children did tricks or jumps and tested the strength of their scooters.

'There might be some fatigue in the raw materials. It's likely that some of the key welds or stress points could just break. Depending where your foot is or what your body motion is at the time, you could find yourself in real trouble.' Mr Ouboter said Micro Mobility, which also makes the popular Kick Boards, was shocked by the number of fakes sold in Hong Kong, where scooters have proved immensely popular since being launched in Japan 10 months ago.

He said key features of the Micro skate-scooter, such as the folding mechanism, the telescopic bar and the braking system, were patented and registered on the mainland where the originals and the copies were both made.