A real-life (updated!) review of the Glion Mini Electric Scooter Three-Wheel Thingy
Tiny but mighty! I ranked the Glion Mini mobility scooter as perfect for people with short legs, short statures, or who don’t mind a crunched-up posture…and a nifty but possibly too small option for the rest of us. (It has a backrest, I just took it off here because I was feeling so squished…and then Glion traded me out an updated seat with the backrest further back!)
Why a Glion Mini for a Mobility Scooter?
I bought the Glion Mini because most of the stores I love to shop—thrift stores, consignment stores, the Co-op, TJ Maxx—don’t have public scooters. While this is a travesty that needs to change, I just wanted a BYO in the meantime.
My criteria were tough, because I really can NOT lift more than 30lbs, and as a garage-less apartment dweller, I have to stash this thing in my Buick. I also need to be able to bring the battery inside to charge. All of which removed just about 90% of the mobility (and stealth-mobility) market, unfortunately.
So when Senior.com (you subscribe to Senior.com, right? I do. I’m 39, btw.) dropped this Mini, I didn’t bother to do my requisite 400 hours of autistic research. Nope. Just saw that it was for people under 5’8”, broke apart into two or three pieces (with the heaviest weighing 25lbs), and had a removable battery I could bring inside with me. Bought, sold, and paid for. (I got a refurb on Glion.com—$30 off!)
The Glion Mini mobility scooter is listed for people 5’8” and smaller. I’m a leggy 5’3” (maybe 5’3” and a half), with a 30 inch inseam. You know, the same height as Winona Ryder. I was CRAMMED on the thing…but Glion sent me a few simple mods that made it workably roomier.
When they say Glion Mini…they do mean MINI.
I did glance at the measurements before buying, but having nothing practical to compare it to and figuring I’m a short lady a full 5” under the suggested cutoff, figured it’d be fine. The lady in the pictures seems comfortably seated. I wrongly assumed she was 5’ after getting the scooter, then reached out to ask.
Really, the fit is less about SIZE, and more about geometry
To my surprise, the Spokesmodel pictured on the site is TALLER than me! But she looks more natural on the scooter. How’s this?
While the differences are slight, for me with fibromyalgia, they’re enough to be painful. Spokesmodel on the left is 5’6” with a 28” inseam (note the cuffed pantleg—I’m usually wearing ankle-baring “long” pants!)
I (right) am 5’3” with a 30” inseam, and longer arms. On Spokesmodel, you can see her legs angle down from hips to knees. On me, it’s reversed, with knees higher than hips. (Part of the problem here is disability has eaten my rump—I have NO padding back there!) You can see that if we pulled up next to one another, I would actually be shorter than Spokesmodel, because she’s taller through her torso.
She looks to have a more comfortable pelvic tilt here too. Hard to see, but I’m cramming what’s left of my butt through the space between the seat and the backrest to eke out a tiny bit more room, but that means the backrest puts my back into a painful arch.
What about a seat modification?
When I sent Glion the above picture, they shipped out both a new seat with a slightly tilted back and a small, simple fix—a seat modifier that dropped into the frame and made the seatpost 2” higher. While it doesn’t sound like much, it made for a more comfortable, relaxed ride.
How does the Glion Mini perform on hardwood floors?
Size caveats aside, I still had a blast riding this thing around my apartment and could see it helping with indoor bad days. This ain’t your slow-*** Target scooter (although with practice, I did learn to drive it slowly). For one thing, it’s much quieter. And it is LIVELY for indoors—you could mow fellow shoppers down with this thing! And definitely ram destructively into displays if you aren’t careful. At first I found the powerful stop/starts too jolting. Figured out the trick is to put it on setting three for a little less sensitivity on the throttle—but be careful not to let it get to a top speed of 7mph.
It’s not a super smooth machine…it sorta “rambled” across my hardwood floor with more motor motion than I thought necessary. But it felt solidly made, not rattly, despite the light weight.
With the original configuration, with my feet as far forward as they would safely rest on the peddles, my hips were seizing up, and with no way to lean back against the aggressive backrest, my lower back developed an ache in minutes. Several subsequent test runs around the apartment proved this would always be the case, so I unscrewed the removable part of the backrest for an inch of relief. Later, with the seatpost modifier and the new, slightly tilted backrest, I still felt cramped, but not as painfully.
Will the Glion Mini fit in my trunk?
Oh heck yes—I imagine this thing will fit in all but the most minimal of trunks. I personally have a spacious Buick, and fit the Glion Mini in alongside camp chairs, floor mats, umbrellas, with room to spare.
(For more pics of the Glion in my Buick, and a truly excellent blog on alternative mobility devices and how they fit into trunk, check out Tim Rides. Tim is lovely, and echoes my desire to research and consider the crap out of everything.)
Even haphazardly thrown in, the Glion has plenty of room. You can just barely see a row of camp chairs behind it. I could still easily fit groceries or other essentials alongside the Mini.
To transport the Glion Mini, I remove the battery and keep that with me. That takes the frame weight down two pounds. The 5.5 lb chair pulls off fairly easily. The 25lb base HAS tweaked my back when it’s caught on the trunk netting or been tricky to wrest into the car. It’s a funky shape and the handles don’t “snap” onto the frame, so it’s a bit unwieldy. It’s doable on my own as a single lady with ME/CFS, but I’m excited to see even lighter options in the future. Still—I dare you to find anything lighter, and from such a kind company.
How is the Glion Mini outdoors?
To be clear—I bought this thing for running into shops without mobility scooters on site. I had no illusions of using this as a replacement for outdoor walks. It says DON’T ride it outside. But, the brakes came a little too tight, and Glion themselves recommended I try it outside to loosen them up. Plus, I wanted to see how the cruise from car to store might go, since there isn’t an easy way to “walk” it. Quickly, I wound up using it more outside than for anything else!
How does the Glion Mini perform on blacktop or asphalt?
So, I found a continuous blacktop path and trundled the Glion Mini forth. Not bad! It wasn’t totally smooth sailing, but on a basic new blacktop, good enough. (Later, I tried it on an older, weathered blacktop path, and it’s really not too shabby if you slow down for cracks.) Since original publication, I’ve whipped this around some newly paved streets, and it’s more than happy to cruise. On older streets, the ride is rougher, but doable.
I expected to get some weird looks, but the Glion sparked lots of wide smiles and good mornings from tourists and joggers.
Can the Glion Mini handle ramps and hills?
The Glion easily muscled up the rolling hills of the park, and engine braked safely (if awkwardly) on the way down. After reading about other mobility scooters that pooped out on inclines, I was impressed! This is probably extremely against the rules, but I found it easier to cut the motor and coast the scooter down longer hills because otherwise the engine brakes grabbed. Note, the handbrake is not super strong and it has a long stopping distance this way. But, it helped me get in some of the braking Glion recommended.
Does the Glion Mini have a smooth ride?
It’s a little…trundly on smooth indoor surfaces. It’s not bad on asphalt. But as soon as the Glion and I transitioned to a smoother concrete with uniform cracks between the slabs, though, OOF. Those cracks HURT, with a bone-rattling, teeth chattering jerk jolting up my neck on each one. (I noticed the irregular cracks in asphalt were not as bad, probably because both back wheels weren’t coming down at once. Unfortunately, I was a little committed to my course, and spent about a block wincing and jolting. This thing is truly unforgiving on even brand new sidewalks, like you might encounter between shops. It’s far better on even rougher asphalt than it is on sidewalks with spaced cracks.
One of the cracks finally jostled me so badly, the bag flew off the front and I started to run it over, putting a good skid in the hooky thing. I was grateful not to have flipped and faceplanted.
(I’ve since learned to avoid concrete with constant cracks, and when I do need to navigate a crack, I go over slowly at an angle, to keep the back from coming down hard.)
Glion Mini on a sunny day, about to test out the smooth grass to the right.
Can the Glion Mini handle gravel and grass?
This left me with two choices: return over the painful concrete cracks, or cut across well mown grass to get back to the blacktop. I decided to see what this baby could do on short grass.
Glion Mini triumphs! It was a rowdy ride, and not something I’d want to put my neck through often, but kinder than those jarring concrete cracks. If you need to cut across a lawn, you can do it! This got me back to the blacktop and I cruised smoothly enough back to my car. The Glion easily adjusted speeds from a full-tilt 7mph that felt plenty fast for getting from point A to B, to slowing down to respectfully get past tourists.
All of this took maybe 15 minutes, and I wasn’t ready to go home yet, so I set my eyes on a well-graded path halfway between dirt and “gravel” (with gravel chunks of about a quarter inch or smaller—there’s a term for this, I just can’t recall it.) Again, it was a bit wild for someone with cranial instability, but totally doable for a short distance.
The Glion Mini mobility scooter, totally capable of summitting a soft-wood creek bridge full of staring six year olds. The slats in the wood were kinder than the slats between concrete on sidewalk—more of a thunk than a merciless jolt.
Maybe 50 feet of graded “gravel/dirt” yielded to a wooden bridge…loaded with a summer school’s camp of six year olds. There was no turning back from their inquisitive eyes. As more than a dozen tiny heads turned to stare at me, I braced for unfiltered child-chatter and questions.
Instead:
“Cool bike!”
“Hey, Luke, did you see that cool bike?”
“So cool!”
The Glion Mini: cool for six year olds.
To be fair, it would probably fit them better than me. I probably looked like I’d stolen the thing from some wronged first-grader.
For me at a leggy, short-torso’d 5’3” with chronic pain, the Glion Mini is just barely big enough with the seat modification and the new tilted backrest.
I could see people who are more comfortable “curling up” enjoying it at higher heights.
Kids are obsessed. Seniors are interested.
Since I’ve ridden this more, I’ve yet to encounter a kid whose eyes didn’t light up at this thing…which surprised me! I thought it looked pretty utilitarian, but it seems to read to them as some sort of bike. In fact, they’ve all used that word—bike. I’ve gotten tons of compliments from the under-12 crowd. Meanwhile, seniors are curious too—I can see the gears turning as they think about how they might use this.
Can I keep up with bikers and go for bike rides on the Glion Mini?
While I bought the Mini for zipping into Safeway and the hospital, I jumped at the chance to ride it with my parent-friends and their grade-school kids. The kids could have absolutely beat me if they tried, but riding at a “family pace” the Mini kept up just fine, and in some periods, I wasn’t even running it at top gear. We didn’t go far—just a couple blocks to a playground—or fast, but it was fun and freeing to be out riding with friends.
Still, if my main reason for buying a scooter was biking with friends regularly, I’d probably look at an e-bike or e-trike. While the Glion is certainly up for the occasional ride at cruiser bike speeds in low traffic areas, an e-bike or e-trike will be better suited to the job, with a higher more sociable profile, bigger tires for terrain, and more room to stretch out while in motion. While I stayed on the Glion for the whole outing, I stretched out (shown above) when we weren’t in motion, which isn’t really possible when you’re in continuous motion.
Currently, with my lack of garage, I’m liking the looks of the Liberty Trike (which could double as a second scooter for indoor formats), but that’s another post and category, as a heavier, bigger machine.
Should I buy the Glion Mini?
Emphatic YES if you are short, short legged, or under 5’8” and just don’t mind a more compact riding position. This thing will be helpful for navigating stores and hospitals (I fairly FLEW down the halls of mine), and depending on the paths around your town, could be helpful as a commuter.
If you’re average-sized or can’t really curl up, I’d look to the company’s Glion Snap n Go, which is featured on Tim’s blog.
What about Glion as a company?
So far, Glion has been outstanding to work with. They stumbled into an early iteration of this review, and even though I hadn’t turned on traffic for my site yet, they immediately started picking my brain for improvements and then—to my utter surprise—mailing those improvements out.
As I said, I bought this scooter with my own money. They had refurbished “deals” listed with thorough descriptions of the items. This is important to me because my preference in life is to always buy used! Too many mobility companies will only sell brand new product at brand new pricing.
I had a few initial issues and Glion wrote back quickly. They were responsive and real—something you might not get with a random Amazon seller.
Finally, Glion urged me to really give the scooter a good shakedown even though I wasn’t totally sure I’d keep it in the beginning, and said that. They instructed me not to try to keep it pristine by just testing it in my apartment, but to really get it out there into the world. I appreciate the 30 day tryout policy.
There’s no restocking fee, but it’s not quite a risk-free return if you do take advantage of it—you still have to pay to ship the thing back. For me, that seems fair, given the weight and small company.
The scooters themselves are manufactured in China, but the company is headquartered in a small town in Nebraska. Manufacturing overseas and running operations from a place with a low cost of living helps the products stay more affordable for already overburdened disabled people.
A Quick, Real Life Review on the Glion Mini for ME/CFS
To me this is a “SO CLOSE” mobility device (even if I take out my wishful thinking for full suspension and soft pneumatic tires, let alone pretty designs). I strongly advise getting the seatpost modifer if they start offering it.
Even though a longer wheelbase would comfortably accommodate a broader swath of the bell curve, I still prefer the overall design of the Glion Mini to the Glion Snap and Go (at least theoretically, I haven’t tried it in person).
Why? The whole Mini assembled weighs less than the Snap and Go’s 31lb base, and I like the in-between seat option on the Mini. (On the Snap and Go, you get either a 15lb plush “office” style chair, or a minimalist bike seat.) I also prefer the lighter, smaller battery on the Mini. It just looks better engineered and less clunky.
If it didn’t add too much weight, I’d love to see the “Snap” feature and adjustability of the Snap n’ Go added to upgraded, slightly less-mini, Mini. Maybe it could be the Glion Middie?
I waffled a lot initially, but Glion’s responsiveness and the difference the few mods they sent me made led me to keep the Mini—and although I don’t use it often, I’m happy I did.
Finally, a note on buying mobility aids that insurance won’t cover.
My insurance won’t cover any mobility devices whatsoever for me. Because I can get to the bathroom a few times a day unassisted, I’m considered fine. Unfortunately, that’s just how insurance works.
I also recognize and empathize that many disabled and ill people are unable to purchase their own. I have scrabbled together resources ranging from COVID rental assistance, to hospital forgiveness, to selling all my old outdoor gear, to generous gifts, to quite simply an aggressive use of return policies to be able to “afford” mine—and I realize that is STILL out of reach for many people.
I do not mean to dangle any privileges of health or cashflow in front of anyone. My hope is that this blog helps more people get the help they need. Soon, it will feature a post on saving money on medical bills.
If you’ve been thinking about doing a GoFundMe, a mobility device can be a really successful way to to rally support. People just get it better. Most healthy people struggle to understand why sick people need ongoing help (major shout out to the ones that do). But, they rally more easily behind something tangible like a mobility device—it just feels good to give towards something tangible.
That said, it’s hard to know what to even fundraise for until you’ve tried something out. Part of the reason I wanted to review these devices is because I found so little real-life information and opportunities to test drive, and I hate wasting money. I
If this review helped you make a better decision and you’re in a position to do so, please consider leaving a tip!
