Anyone decorate their scooter with lights?

[jo-jo]

In April , my DH used a scooter for the first time. Before we used a wheel chair and I weaved battery lights in the wheels. In April, the scooter had nothing. We saw a scooter that had lights like a tape. Changed color. Looks like it was just stuck on . And it was a rented scooter, not something someone took tons of time decorating their own scooter. I've tried looking at amazon, but frankly I'm stuck.

Can anyone give me tips if you've done this? Which type, how much length, etc. Thank you.

 

[Selket]

In April , my DH used a scooter for the first time. Before we used a wheel chair and I weaved battery lights in the wheels. In April, the scooter had nothing. We saw a scooter that had lights like a tape. Changed color. Looks like it was just stuck on . And it was a rented scooter, not something someone took tons of time decorating their own scooter. I've tried looking at amazon, but frankly I'm stuck.

Can anyone give me tips if you've done this? Which type, how much length, etc. Thank you.

I have used the battery operated mini light strands like you find at Target or Walmart or a craft store. I put the lights around the basket. Not sure I'd want to stick anything on a rental scooter. The lights I had were maybe $3?

 

[Simba's Mom]

I can't give you any tips, sorry, but I can tell you one advantage of doing this. Lots of times, when I get off a ride, the CM goes to get and bring over my scooter to me. But all undecorated scooters look alike. If you decorate it with lights (or in my case a bright pink bandana), you can say "It's mine over there with the lights on the basket [or wherever-or the bandana]"

 

[jo-jo]

I have used the battery operated mini light strands like you find at Target or Walmart or a craft store. I put the lights around the basket. Not sure I'd want to stick anything on a rental scooter. The lights I had were maybe $3?

Sounds like the lights I used when we put them on the wheels of the wheelchair.

My husband just noticed the lights on the other scooter and thought it was cool. If it makes the scooter cooler, let's do it. I may just do the basket like you suggested and be done with it.

I can't give you any tips, sorry, but I can tell you one advantage of doing this. Lots of times, when I get off a ride, the CM goes to get and bring over my scooter to me. But all undecorated scooters look alike. If you decorate it with lights (or in my case a bright pink bandana), you can say "It's mine over there with the lights on the basket [or wherever-or the bandana]"

I slipped a red tshirt over the back of seat, so a large blot of red to look for .

 

[SarahM1987]

Go to Amazon and search "battery powered LED light strips" and you'll get a ton of results. Unless your husband or someone you know is good at wiring the lights to the scooters battery, and adding a separate power switch so it wouldn't drain the scooter battery down accidently, I'd make sure you stay with LED's that come with their own power source. A lot of them just take AA batteries, and come with either a wired or wireless remote to control the color patterns and all the different modes.

You'll quickly notice on Amazon, that they come in short lengths, and extremely long lengths, but a lot of them are cuttable, and also make sure they say for indoor / outdoor use. If you don't want to mess around with cutting, use a flexible tape measure for sewing, that will help you figure out the pre-made lengths you might want. A lot of them come with tape on the back of the strip, you just have to peel it off and could possibly stick them right on the plastic covers or wherever there's a good spot on a scooter. That's more of a permanent mounting approach though, so you might want to use smaller pieces of double sided tape or velcro tape to make removing the strips easier if this ends up being just temporary. We just used different size wire ties / zip ties to hold the strips to parts of my wheelchair.

I'm by no means an expert with these strips, we have a Polaris RZR 4 seat side by side and DH added two LED whips and LED rock lights under ours, which are made with the same components that you can get on Amazon. The whips just have a clear shatter proof tube around the LED's to protect them from tree branches and other stuff while riding.

Several years ago we went to a Halloween party, and DH and I dressed up as Tron characters. So naturally DH had to wrap the LED strips around my wheelchair frame, footplate, backrest, and wheels. He used 3 different light sets, so my wheels had one small strip each, and my frame, back rest, and footplate had one longer set, all 3 could be set to different colors, or modes, but I kept everything the same for the most part to keep the Tron vibe. My chair was a far cry from looking like an actual Tron cycle, but it sure had its own cool factor, and everyone loved it and our costumes that also lit up. I'll see if I can find pics from that night, it was years ago, and I don't know if they're still on FB or one of my friends Instagram pages.

Good luck, and my advice is don't feel like you guys have to go over the top right away, just get a strip that's a few feet long, and have fun experimenting with that first. Please feel free to ask me any questions.

 

[RoseGold]

I have a 10$ monster LED battery strip on my stroller, but I wouldn't put this on an ECV because of visibility. To me, it's a safety issue. I need my night vision good to see the humans I don't want to hit. Fairy lights might be smaller and you could put them on the back.

 

[jo-jo]

Go to Amazon and search "battery powered LED light strips" and you'll get a ton of results. Unless your husband or someone you know is good at wiring the lights to the scooters battery, and adding a separate power switch so it wouldn't drain the scooter battery down accidently, I'd make sure you stay with LED's that come with their own power source. A lot of them just take AA batteries, and come with either a wired or wireless remote to control the color patterns and all the different modes.

You'll quickly notice on Amazon, that they come in short lengths, and extremely long lengths, but a lot of them are cuttable, and also make sure they say for indoor / outdoor use. If you don't want to mess around with cutting, use a flexible tape measure for sewing, that will help you figure out the pre-made lengths you might want. A lot of them come with tape on the back of the strip, you just have to peel it off and could possibly stick them right on the plastic covers or wherever there's a good spot on a scooter. That's more of a permanent mounting approach though, so you might want to use smaller pieces of double sided tape or velcro tape to make removing the strips easier if this ends up being just temporary. We just used different size wire ties / zip ties to hold the strips to parts of my wheelchair.

I'm by no means an expert with these strips, we have a Polaris RZR 4 seat side by side and DH added two LED whips and LED rock lights under ours, which are made with the same components that you can get on Amazon. The whips just have a clear shatter proof tube around the LED's to protect them from tree branches and other stuff while riding.

Several years ago we went to a Halloween party, and DH and I dressed up as Tron characters. So naturally DH had to wrap the LED strips around my wheelchair frame, footplate, backrest, and wheels. He used 3 different light sets, so my wheels had one small strip each, and my frame, back rest, and footplate had one longer set, all 3 could be set to different colors, or modes, but I kept everything the same for the most part to keep the Tron vibe. My chair was a far cry from looking like an actual Tron cycle, but it sure had its own cool factor, and everyone loved it and our costumes that also lit up. I'll see if I can find pics from that night, it was years ago, and I don't know if they're still on FB or one of my friends Instagram pages.

Good luck, and my advice is don't feel like you guys have to go over the top right away, just get a strip that's a few feet long, and have fun experimenting with that first. Please feel free to ask me any questions.

wow , lots of details . I did go to amazon and saw that there are thousands of choices. Thank you. Do you have a picture of your chair as a tron cycle? Your DH must have spent tons of time on it. Sounds very cool.

I have a 10$ monster LED battery strip on my stroller, but I wouldn't put this on an ECV because of visibility. To me, it's a safety issue. I need my night vision good to see the humans I don't want to hit. Fairy lights might be smaller and you could put them on the back.

Good point. The scooter we saw last year, had several strips of lights yet didn't look that bright. We discovered fairy lights. We have some solar ones in jars hanging on a tree in our back yard.

 

[fabfemmeboy]

In April , my DH used a scooter for the first time. Before we used a wheel chair and I weaved battery lights in the wheels. In April, the scooter had nothing. We saw a scooter that had lights like a tape. Changed color. Looks like it was just stuck on . And it was a rented scooter, not something someone took tons of time decorating their own scooter. I've tried looking at amazon, but frankly I'm stuck.

Can anyone give me tips if you've done this? Which type, how much length, etc. Thank you.

I've had a couple different kinds. The ones I like best are more like rope lights, and I wrap them around the appropriate areas of my motorized chair then hold them in place with zip ties. I think they were about $15-20 on Amazon. You can also get the ones that are more like a strip, but I have had a harder time getting them into useful places/shapes on my chair so YMMV. They're all over Amazon - I search "LED Lights" and a bunch of kinds come up. Get the shortest length you can; mine is around 30 feet and frankly that's much longer than I would like.

 

[SueM in MN]

I can’t find them on the Target website, but I bought a set of LED strip lights at Target in the little bargain area at the front of the store last week. They are USB powered and came with a remote. The strip is flat with adhesive on the bottom. I’m planning on sticking them on the bottom of my daughter’s wheelchair seat.

 

[mamabunny]

I can’t find them on the Target website, but I bought a set of LED strip lights at Target in the little bargain area at the front of the store last week. They are USB powered and came with a remote. The strip is flat with adhesive on the bottom. I’m planning on sticking them on the bottom of my daughter’s wheelchair seat.

Just an FYI - sometimes the adhesive that is on the bottom of the strip lights just doesn't hold up well, and can leave a sticky mess behind. For years, I have put them on with zip ties (and just left the paper backing on to help make for quick and easy removal if needed in the future).

 

[SuperJ]

We took a trip to Walmart after we got there. used the battery led lights, went around the basket and the base. It was Xmas so we hung stockings from the handle bars and cheap candy cane decorations on the seat back and front of basket. Used zip ties to hold everything in place. Just make sure you have scissors to cut it off before returning the rental.

 

[SueM in MN]

Just an FYI - sometimes the adhesive that is on the bottom of the strip lights just doesn't hold up well, and can leave a sticky mess behind. For years, I have put them on with zip ties (and just left the paper backing on to help make for quick and easy removal if needed in the future).

Thanks for the reminder.
I did have that concern, but there is no space between the seat and frame pieces to attach up with zip ties. Her wheelchair has a fabric ’seat pan’ bolted to the frame with like 6 screws/bolts on each side. Her seat cushion sits on top of that. I might try to figure out a way to attach self stick Velcro to the lights and the bottom of her ‘seat pan’.
This wheelchair has less frame pieces than her old wheelchair, so can only really attach zip ties on front and back of frame.
I have kind of a ‘collection’ of different lights. My favorite was a set of solar lights; the downsides were the string was about 15 feet long and the solar collector got in the way. I also have a set of battery operated fairy lights and 2 fiber optic lights. Those were attached to her wheels with the battery pack velcroed onto the mag wheels. But, no place to attach them on her current wheels with spokes.
I might see if I can find a fiber optic set powered with USB - I like the USB because I csn just attach a phone charger and it’s good to go.

We took a trip to Walmart after we got there. used the battery led lights, went around the basket and the base. It was Xmas so we hung stockings from the handle bars and cheap candy cane decorations on the seat back and front of basket. Used zip ties to hold everything in place. Just make sure you have scissors to cut it off before returning the rental.

Good ideas for rental.

 

[DisneyOma]

I can’t find them on the Target website, but I bought a set of LED strip lights at Target in the little bargain area at the front of the store last week. They are USB powered and came with a remote. The strip is flat with adhesive on the bottom. I’m planning on sticking them on the bottom of my daughter’s wheelchair seat.

What do you use to power them - a phone charger? If so, does it get hot? Mine does when I'm charging my phone, but I'm guessing the lights pull less juice out?

 

[jo-jo]

Great ideas and tips. Thanks everyone.

 

[mamabunny]

What do you use to power them - a phone charger? If so, does it get hot? Mine does when I'm charging my phone, but I'm guessing the lights pull less juice out?

I just use a USB battery pack - most of the light stings I have used have a standard USB plug on the end of the cable or cord.

I use this kind of LED lights (as I told Sue above, I leave the paper backing on, and just attach it with zip ties, or you could use Velcro One Wrap strips if you were putting it on a rental)

And I use this kind of battery pack (I prefer Anker or Mophie brand, because they tend to have batteries with a longer lifespan) and I have had this one for almost 3 years now, with no signs of serious degradation. I do have a couple of Fuel Rods, and in a pinch, I have used those and just swapped them out at WDW instead of worrying about recharging packs!

 

[jo-jo]

I just use a USB battery pack - most of the light stings I have used have a standard USB plug on the end of the cable or cord.

I use this kind of LED lights (as I told Sue above, I leave the paper backing on, and just attach it with zip ties, or you could use Velcro One Wrap strips if you were putting it on a rental)

I checked out the link, it looks like the perfect size for put near the bottom front edge of the scooter. We have a battery pack that is weather proof (though I wouldn't run it through a puddle) but some rain is fine.

I may get a few dollar store type lights to weave in the basket. A few years ago they had Christmas "light bulb" necklaces. Maybe grab them.

Again thanks to all.

ETA......

Mamabunny, those lights. Have you used them on your scooter in the rain? I don't see if they are for outdoor use. I was thinking adding them to the metal tube that runs along the bottom of the scooter from Gold Mobility . The pride victory 10 , 3 wheel model.

​

 

[DisneyOma]

I checked out the link, it looks like the perfect size for put near the bottom front edge of the scooter. We have a battery pack that is weather proof (though I wouldn't run it through a puddle) but some rain is fine.

I may get a few dollar store type lights to weave in the basket. A few years ago they had Christmas "light bulb" necklaces. Maybe grab them.

Again thanks to all.

ETA......

Mamabunny, those lights. Have you used them on your scooter in the rain? I don't see if they are for outdoor use. I was thinking adding them to the metal tube that runs along the bottom of the scooter from Gold Mobility . The pride victory 10 , 3 wheel model.

​

Just be careful that whatever you do to the rental doesn't nullify any protection agreement - maybe ask them if you can attach lights along the bottom? If they fall off and get entangled, it might break something, KWIM?

 

[mamabunny]

ETA......

Mamabunny, those lights. Have you used them on your scooter in the rain? I don't see if they are for outdoor use. I was thinking adding them to the metal tube that runs along the bottom of the scooter from Gold Mobility . The pride victory 10 , 3 wheel model.

If I were going to add lights to any rental, I would use the Velcro One Wrap, and cut it into strips long enough to take the place of zip-ties. It may cover a few of the light bulbs, but it won't matter on the LED strips. I have used the LED strips at WDW for *years* in the rain; the main thing you want to waterproof is if there is a connection between the strip of lights and the cord that plugs into the USB outlet. You can use painter's tape, or electrical tape.

I also make sure to cover any ports that are not currently in use with tape (so I cover the charging port on the USB battery pack) during the day at Disney, so I don't have to worry about rain getting inside the pack and shorting it out. Standard painter's tape is great for this, because it won't leave a residue.

Just be careful that whatever you do to the rental doesn't nullify any protection agreement - maybe ask them if you can attach lights along the bottom? If they fall off and get entangled, it might break something, KWIM?

If you use something like the Velcro strips, they shouldn't be able to hurt the ECV at all; they are basically a fabric double-sided Velcro, and I have never had them scratch anything I used them on. If the lights were to come loose and get tangled in anything, they *might* get wrapped around the axle of the scooter wheel... but that would be evident very quickly, and they should be able to be removed easily.

More likely, if they happen to fall off and trail behind, it would give the folks walking behind a great light show!

 

[jo-jo]

Just be careful that whatever you do to the rental doesn't nullify any protection agreement - maybe ask them if you can attach lights along the bottom? If they fall off and get entangled, it might break something, KWIM?

If I were going to add lights to any rental, I would use the Velcro One Wrap, and cut it into strips long enough to take the place of zip-ties. It may cover a few of the light bulbs, but it won't matter on the LED strips. I have used the LED strips at WDW for *years* in the rain; the main thing you want to waterproof is if there is a connection between the strip of lights and the cord that plugs into the USB outlet. You can use painter's tape, or electrical tape.

I also make sure to cover any ports that are not currently in use with tape (so I cover the charging port on the USB battery pack) during the day at Disney, so I don't have to worry about rain getting inside the pack and shorting it out. Standard painter's tape is great for this, because it won't leave a residue.


If you use something like the Velcro strips, they shouldn't be able to hurt the ECV at all; they are basically a fabric double-sided Velcro, and I have never had them scratch anything I used them on. If the lights were to come loose and get tangled in anything, they *might* get wrapped around the axle of the scooter wheel... but that would be evident very quickly, and they should be able to be removed easily.

More likely, if they happen to fall off and trail behind, it would give the folks walking behind a great light show!

Trust me, I am the "just in case" person. If three strips of velcro are good enough, I'll use 5 and bring a few extra strips, just in case. I know what seems sturdy in the room, may not hold after being jiggled around on the different sidewalks/railroad tracks/ cobblestones.

I think what I'm going to do is do the mammabunny lights along the bottom. On the front of basket, get a few plastic ornaments , a Merry Christmas sign, along the top of the basket, some garland and one of those 10 bulb strands battery run. We are having a cane holder on the scooter. Maybe bring some white and red ribbon and make it look like a peppermint stick.

Hey if this trip takes place (remember last year??? sniff sniff) , we'll be there for two weeks. And possibly our last trip, I am going all out.

Again thank you all for the comments, tips , warnings, and ideas.

 

[Selket]

I would really love to see pictures of these for folks who plan to do it or did it in the past!