In a Nutshell:
Recommended For: Anyone weighing up to 500 pounds who’s on a budget. These are still expensive, but comparatively less so than scooters offered by the major brands.
Do you suffer from some type of mobility issue? Does that issue see you spend at least part of each day in a wheelchair? And finally, are you more interested in a mobility scooter than a conventional wheelchair?
If you answered yes to those questions and you haven’t been satisfied with the models you’ve run across to this point, you’ll be interested in what you read in this Golden Avenger scooter review.
Golden Technologies is not a well-known brand. They’re a small American company whose products are designed here and manufactured in China, which helps them keep their costs low. In our minds, they’re rather like Flash Furniture, which is a tiny but plucky furniture manufacturer that makes almost shockingly good office furniture. Golden is the Flash Furniture of the mobility industry.
Although this is a relatively expensive model, given its capabilities, it is less expensive than comparably appointed scooters offered by the bigger and more established brands in the industry.
Is it right for you? The short answer is that it might be, and in the sections that follow, we’ll step you through everything this model has to offer.
Despite its relatively modest overall rating, lowered chiefly by the fact that Golden is a smaller brand, this is a surprisingly good, capable, versatile machine. Even if you ultimately decide that it’s not for you, we think you’ll be impressed! If you’re curious to know more, read on, and let’s take a closer look.
An Overview of the Golden Avenger Scooter
Although many people write Chinese imports off, the simple truth is that Chinese manufacturing quality has increased dramatically in recent years, and the Avenger is of far higher quality than you might expect. This is evidenced by the fact that the company offers a lifetime warranty on the frame, which is comparable to what you’ll find offered by the big brands in the industry.
It’s also a sharp-looking machine with a fair amount of polish. Simply put, it looks comfortable, capable, and inviting, but before we say more than that in this section of our Golden Avenger scooter review, let’s take a quick look at the core statistics that define the model.
Here are the basics:
- Overall Product Dimensions: 24.5” (W) x 57.5” (D) x 42.5” – 45.5” (H)
- Seat Dimensions: 20” (W) x 17” (D) (Note: This model is also available with a 22” wide seat)
- Top Speed: 7 mph
- Maximum Range: 18 miles
- Maximum Climbing Angle: 8 degrees
- Wheel Size: 13” x 4”
- Ground Clearance: 4”
- Chair Weight: 268 pounds
- Turning Radius: 67”
- Maximum Supported Weight: 500 pounds
For the most part, these are exceptional numbers. The first thing to point out is the fact that the Avenger is a huge machine as scooters go. In fact, it’s so big. if you decide to invest in a lift to help you carry it, you’ll need to measure to be sure that the lift is capable of handling a scooter of this size.
The seat is a good size and generally a good fit for the supported weight limit. Though if you are near the top end of the supported weight limit, you may want to contact the company directly to request your Golden Avenger scooter with the wider seat.
It’s a fairly zippy scooter too, with a top speed of seven miles per hour. The range is decent at 18 miles, but we have seen models that offered a greater range. Even so, 18 miles is certainly enough range to be genuinely useful.
In a similar vein, the 4” ground clearance is a good fit for this machine. While it doesn’t sit high enough off the ground to make it a true adventure scooter, it will carry you easily enough over a wide range of terrains, operating as seamlessly over paved surfaces as it does over uneven ground.
It will struggle over truly rough terrain, however, so you’ll need to keep a watchful eye out for any obstruction serious enough to hit the undercarriage and potentially hang you up.
The slope handling capability of the Avenger is as impressive as the rest. While many scooters top out at six degrees, this one is capable of handling slopes of up to eight degrees, allowing you to power over most slopes with relative ease.
The turning radius, however, leaves something to be desired. This stems mostly from the fact that the Avenger is such a massive machine. But given the turning radius, this scooter is virtually impossible to use indoors unless you happen to live in a palace. You can still use it for shopping trips, but be aware that you’ll probably have to make more than a few three-point turns if you do.
Finally, while its total weight may make it seem less than travel friendly, it’s actually better in that department than you might expect. We’ll have more to say about that a bit later. For now, just note that although heavy, the Avenger’s weight isn’t necessarily a huge issue.
Adjustability and Comfort
Most of the mobility aids offered by lesser-known brands are of the “what you see is what you get” variety and not terribly adjustable. Again, the Golden Avenger scooter is a pleasant surprise in this regard. The seat swivels and the armrests can be flipped back, making transfers into and out of the scooter a relatively simple proposition.
In addition to that, the seat height is adjustable and can be set to a range that spans 18.75” at the low end, to 21.75” at the high end, in 1” increments.
The seat also has a height-adjustable headrest, and the armrests can be adjusted for both height and width. The latter is important if you’re slightly wider than 20,” but you don’t want to get the 22” seat.
You can make up the difference and still get a relatively comfortable fit from the seat by pushing the armrests out and away from you slightly. Kudos to Golden’s design team for pleasantly surprising us with how adjustable this model is!
Comfort-wise, Golden sticks to the basics, but the results are still fairly impressive. The seat uses generous amounts of conventional block foam for padding, with two-toned vinyl stretched over it.
We understand the choice of vinyl upholstery here. Golden’s goal was clearly to offer a machine that was as full-featured as they could possibly make it while keeping the price as low as possible.
Vinyl upholstery is inexpensive, but it looks good and is extremely low-maintenance.
Unfortunately, there are two issues with vinyl to be aware of.
First, it’s not a breathable material. The more time you spend in the seat, the hotter and sweatier you’re going to get. That will happen more quickly in hot climates, and less quickly in cooler climates. But even in the best case, after about four hours in the seat, the lack of breathability is going to start taking its toll.
The second issue is that vinyl doesn’t age well. If you’re going to spend a few thousand dollars on a scooter like this, the odds are that you’ll want (or need) to use it every day. After about 18 months of regular use like that, the vinyl is going to start peeling and cracking.
Given that the frame comes with a lifetime warranty, long before you’re ready to retire this model, you’re going to need to have the seat re-covered.
The good news is that there’s not a vast amount of upholstery to contend with. The expense of having the seat re-done won’t be budget-busting, but it’s’ something you’ll have to do sooner, rather than later.
There is one cheap and easy way to solve for both of the issues above, though, or at least partially mitigate the limitations of vinyl: Invest in padding for the seat and seatback.
Doing this will not only enhance your comfort, but also since you’re no longer sitting on the vinyl direct, it will solve the lack of breathability problem entirely and help the vinyl last longer. Seat and seatback pads are some of the best enhancements you can make to this model.
Extras and Options
Once again, Golden pleasantly surprises us, as normally, smaller brands don’t offer any extras on the equipment they sell. The Avenger electric scooter has a full light kit, complete with LED headlamp, turn signals and taillights, a front bumper, and a handy, front-mounted storage basket.
We regard storage as a small but critical element in mobility aids like this, and honestly, there’s no such thing as too much storage. The basket is large enough to be useful, but you’ll almost certainly want to add additional storage to the unit.
In any case, the presence of at least some built-in storage and the headlamp combine to make this an incredibly versatile machine you can use day or night, with a range sufficient to get you just about anywhere you want to go and back home again for a recharge.
It gets better.
Golden offers a surprisingly robust collection of accessories you can use to customize and personalize your scooter. These include:
- Amputee Leg Supports
- A Rear View Mirror
- A Rear Basket
- An Oxygen Tank Holder
- A Quad Cane Holder
- A Tube Cane Holder
- A Cup Holder
- Deluxe Pack N’ Go
- A Forearm Crutch Holder
- A Scooter Cover
- A Lap Belt
- A Safety Flag
- And a Walker Holder
This is an impressive list, and we observe that neither Drive nor Pride Mobility, two of the biggest names in the business, offer amputee leg supports as accessories for the products they sell, so again, well-deserved kudos to Golden Technologies!
In addition to these, of course, if you’re willing to consider third-party accessories, you’ll find an almost unlimited number of options on the aftermarket with a wide range of products offered by an assortment of third-party vendors.
Portability & Ease of Use
We’ll start by talking about ease of use because there’s relatively less to say on that topic than on the subject of portability.
The control system is very simple and intuitive. Even if you don’t consider yourself to be a tech-savvy person, you’ll be able to master the basics of the controls in about ten minutes.
Unfortunately, the size of the machine and its sluggish turning radius do take some getting used to, so you will need to practice that part of the handling to get a feel for it, and until you do, expect to do a lot of backing up!
It’s not particularly complicated, but you can expect to drive it for several hours before you feel like you’ve fully mastered turning the mighty Golden Technologies Avenger. The good news there is, it’s a genuinely fun machine to drive, so it won’t feel like work at all.
Now, about the issue of portability. This is a heavy machine. As such, on the face of it, it doesn’t seem like it would be particularly travel friendly.
Golden’s design team, though, made the scooter easy to take apart and put back together again. You can break the scooter down by sections in short order, which makes it surprisingly easy to store.
While the Avenger won’t fit into the trunk space of a compact, you should have no trouble finding room for it in the trunk and backseat space of a full-sized sedan. If you have a truck, van, SUV, or hatchback, you’ll find the going even easier.
Bear in mind, though, that taking the machine apart every time you want to take it on the road with you has a couple of disadvantages.
First, when disassembled, the heaviest piece still weighs more than sixty pounds. While it’s true that sixty pounds is significantly easier to move around than 260, it’s also true that it’s still fairly heavy, and you may need help storing and unpacking the heaviest sections.
Second, all that disassembling and reassembling takes time. That’s time you can’t spend having fun!
If you want to get around the time-sink aspect, there are two basic options available. You can buy a ramp, or you can buy a lift.
The ramp option only really works if you drive a truck or a van. If you do, then there’s no need to take the Avenger apart. Just deploy the ramp, drive the scooter onto the truck bed or into the van, secure it, and reverse the procedure when you get where you’re going.
Simple!
If you go the lift route, there are two things to be aware of. First, be sure to measure the lift to make sure it’s big enough to handle the length of this massive scooter. Second, lifts are relatively more expensive than a ramp, and that additional investment, on top of the scooter itself, may simply make it impractical for some users.
Before we close out this section, we should say a few words about air travel. To keep this part short, we can actually sum it up in a single word: No.
Airlines charge by weight.
This monster weighs on the high side of three hundred pounds. You can get a good manual wheelchair for air travel that weighs 30-40 pounds. It would be ruinously expensive to try and take this one on a plane with you, so while overland travel is a definite possibility, air travel with the Avenger is pretty much off the table.
Pros & Cons of Avenger Electric Scooter
We actually love the Golden Tech Avenger! Much more than its modest overall score might suggest. In fact, we would note that if you’re not particularly brand conscious and you remove that dimension from the overall score, this model clocks in at a much more impressive 4.5 stars out of five.
It’s only real weakness, in our view, is that it’s such a big machine that it might be a challenge to find a lift big enough to accommodate it. Sure, we’d love it if the range was a bit higher, but that’s true of just about every scooter sold.
The simple truth is that Golden did a fantastic job here, and this scooter is well worth your attention.
It’s robust and capable, and with a lifetime warranty offered, it will serve you well for years to come if you decide to buy one. That’s not something we get to say very often about products made by smaller brands.
Avenger Scooter Review Conclusion
As mentioned in the previous section here in our Avenger scooter review, we are absolutely thrilled by this machine. If you’re looking for a versatile, capable scooter and you don’t care much about brand names, this one’s a no-brainer. We highly recommend it. Go Golden!
Author’s Note: Should the day come that I need something like this, this is the model I would buy for myself. It’s that good.
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