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Two-wheeled fad sweeps valley Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Eleven-year-old Brittany Anders rides up and down the street in front of her Medford home on her scooter. The new rage for preteen kids only resembles scooters of a few generations ago in principle: Today�s scooters have small wheels instead of large ones, brakes instead of foot-drag stopping power, and they are lightweight aluminum instead of heavy wood and steel. Modern scooters are all the rage with preteens By Mark Freeman The bicycle, skateboard and in-line skates are all collecting dust in Brittany Anders� garage, having lost favor to a new and odd-looking contraption complete with day-glo wheels and shiny handle bars. A new aluminum scooter, with skate-like wheels and a foot brake, has captured the fantasies of this 11-year-old Medford girl and scores like her whose constant quest to be different has all of them coveting the same new contraption. "It�s fun and it�s different," Anders says between buzzings down her asphalt cul-de-sac in east Medford. "It�s a nice change from rollerblading and riding your bike." Move over, Schwinn. Hang �em up, Rollerblade. Scooter-mania is rolling into the Rogue Valley, where the little two-wheeled wonders are gaining favor among the young as an intriguing alternative to bikes and boards. Sporting goods stores and specialty shops roll the scooters out the door as fast as they come in, largely because of their uniqueness and the right type of personal endorsements from the young daredevils of Medford�s blacktop. "You can go fast," smiles a semi-toothless Cody Anders, Brittany�s 8-year-old brother and neighborhood stunt-boy. "Real fast." More than a dozen different companies are making the new high-tech, low-riding scooters and it�s tough to tell them apart, says Reuben Davis, owner of Lowdown Board in Ashland. The different brands all sport the same basic design � a flat foot board, slick wheels spinning around low-friction ball bearings and adjustable handlebars. They ride much like a skateboard with handles, with the rider kicking with one foot for speed and gliding long stretches at a time. The scooters cost anywhere from $60 to $150 or more, and stores from Costco and Meier & Frank to the specialty shops can�t keep them in stock. The scooters are just odd enough to be popular this week in the ever-morphing world of preteen marketing. "They�re new and different," Davis says. "I think they�ll come � and they�ll go. "They�re a little bit goofy," he says. Shasta Owens, 10, revels in the goofiness, as well as finding ways to be different from the "generation" of her sister, who is all of 19. "My sister never had one of these," says Owens as she scoots away from the concession stand at the Bear Creek skate park off Highland Drive. "They�re cool because all my friends have them now, but I was the first one on my cul-de-sac to get one." Despite this rush for mass individuality, don�t look for the older generation to make scooting too smooth here � like bikes and skateboards, they cannot be ridden on sidewalks downtown, says Lt. Tim George of the Medford Police Department. "It�s a skateboard with a handle on it," George says. But that doesn�t mean George doesn�t like them. "I got to buy one for my daughter�s birthday, if I can find one," George says. "They�re cool. "I�d like to have one myself," he says. "I�d scoot to work." Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA