Buzzaround Carry on Folding Mobility Scooter GB120 Review 2024
ByWheelchair JunkieLast updated:
In a Nutshell:
Buzzaround Carry On is a lightweight, surprisingly capable, airline-friendly scooter offered by a small but great company! It is recommended for anyone on a budget who weighs up to 300 pounds.
Affordability
Durability
Maneuverability
Usability
Brand Reliability*
Overall Rating
4.2/5
* Brand Reliability is a measure of the strength and longevity of the brand, which by extension, is a measure of the level of support you can expect.
Do you have a mobility issue requiring you to use a scooter or wheelchair? Do you love to take trips, including flying to various places?
Is your current wheelchair or scooter less than travel-friendly?
If you answered yes to the questions above, get ready to grin from ear to ear because you’re going to love what you read in this review.
Although you may not have heard of Golden Technologies, rest assured that this is an incredible machine.
Golden is one of the innumerable small brands in the mobility market, but they have distinguished themselves with exceptional products offered at amazing prices. The Buzzaround Carry On Scooter is an excellent example of their work.
It’s not really fair to compare this model with a more conventionally designed scooter because, in order to make it as airline friendly as possible, certain sacrifices had to be made to keep the weight down. Even given those realities, though, we were very pleasantly surprised by what this little scooter is capable of, and we think you will be too!
In the sections that follow, we’ll tell you everything this model has to offer, and we’ll be quick to point out the things it doesn’t do so well. That way, you’ll have all the information you need to decide for yourself if this is the travel-friendly mobility aid you’ve been searching for.
If that sounds good to you, read on, and let’s take a closer look!
An Overview of the Buzzaround Carry On Folding Scooter by Golden Technologies
While most of the products Golden sells have an incredibly polished look, the Buzzaround Carry On Scooter is a decidedly Spartan machine. In this case, though, we regard that as a very good thing.
After all, the body panels that make other models look so cool add to the weight of the scooters they appear on without doing anything to enhance functionality. With the model, Golden wanted to do all they could to keep the machine as functional and lightweight as possible.
Spartan in its appearance or no, though, the company did give a small nod to aesthetics, making this model available in your choice of red or blue accents. Before we talk about anything other than aesthetics, though, let’s take a moment to review the basic stats that define the model. Here they are:
Overall Product Dimensions: 19.5” (W) x 38” (D) x 34.5” (H
Seat Dimensions: 15” (W) x 13.75” (D)
Top Speed: 3.6 mph
Maximum Range: 18 miles
Maximum Climbing Angle: 6 degrees
Wheel Size: 6” front wheels and 7” rear wheels
Ground Clearance: 4.”
Chair Weight: 59 pounds without batteries. 65.5 pounds with batteries.
Turning Radius: 48.75.”
Maximum Supported Weight: 300 pounds
Given the design parameters of the Buzzaround Carry On Folding Scooter, these are good numbers, although the smallish seat means that this isn’t a scooter you’ll be wanting to spend all day in. It’s fine for short jaunts, but if you plan to fly somewhere and then spend an entire day in your scooter, you’re bound to be fairly uncomfortable in this one.
Two of the big contributors to the weight of the scooter are the motors and the batteries. This scooter has a relatively small motor, and it’s got a correspondingly slow speed. At 3.6 miles an hour maximum, you won’t get where you want to go quickly in this scooter, so if you’re looking for something speedy, you’ll have to look elsewhere. As long as you’re not in a great rush, you’ll be fine.
The range is quite good at 18 miles, which gives the scooter tremendous versatility. Also, note the ground clearance! Although tiny, this little scooter is quite capable of handling a wide range of terrains, including uneven ground. If you find yourself at a park or campground, you’re unlikely to get bogged down, though it still pays to keep a watchful eye out for major obstructions.
The turn radius here is fairly awful, and that’s a genuine point of weakness in the design. This isn’t a great scooter for indoor use unless you like backing up a lot. Also, if you’re visiting someone who lives in an efficient apartment or a tiny house, you can pretty much forget using this one inside that person’s home.
Outside though, or in shopping centers and big-box retail stores, this little scooter is a dream. Also, check out the weight! Even when you take the batteries into account, the Buzzaround Foldable doesn’t weigh much more than a conventional wheelchair, and it weighs less than most reclining wheelchair models.
We’ll have more to say about that later, but for now, just know that this is a super travel-friendly mode.
Adjustability and Comfort
Most of Golden’s products are incredibly adjustable. This one, however, is the exception to that. There are a few adjustment options, but they’ve been kept to a minimum. The seat is fixed in its position and sits 19.5” from the scooter’s deck, and this model has no headrest.
Similarly, the nominally padded armrests are fixed in their positions, but they do flip back for easy transfers into and out of the scooter.
On the plus side, the angle of the steering tiller can be adjusted to taste, which gives you at least some means of tweaking the scooter to increase comfort.
The seat of the Golden Buzzaround Carry On is only moderately padded with conventional block foam that has black vinyl stretched over it. That, combined with the fact that the seat is on the small side, really serves to underscore the point that this model just isn’t designed for all-day sitting or lounging.
Primarily, it’s designed to get you where you want and need to go. Expect that you’ll be there in 2 hours or so, or you’ll tolerate a slowly growing amount of discomfort if it takes longer than that.
Note too that the upholstery is vinyl. That’s certainly not the kiss of death, and in fact, most of the scooters on the market today are upholstered in vinyl because it’s inexpensive, it looks nice, and it’s easy to clean.
Sadly, vinyl has two drawbacks, and they’re both rather significant. First, vinyl isn’t a breathable material. The more time you spend sitting on it, the hotter you’re going to get. Typically that happens at around hour four, but if you live in or are visiting a warm climate, it’ll happen much faster than that.
The seat is small, so it’s not a major expense, but if you want to keep your Buzzaround folding scooter looking good, it’s something you’ll need to keep on your radar.
Second, the vinyl shows its age after about 18 months of regular use by peeling and cracking. Bear in mind that Golden is offering a lifetime warranty on the frame, so you can expect that the upholstery will need to be replaced around the time you’ve gotten the scooter broken in good.
The good news is that there’s a simple way to solve for the moderate comfort of the chair and help protect the vinyl all in one shot. Buy a pad for the seat and one for the seatback. These come in all sorts of flavors, so you can get a gel-filled pad, memory foam, or simply some additional block foam as you prefer.
This will get you off of the vinyl, so the lack of breathability won’t be an issue, and since you’re not sitting directly on it, it won’t wear as quickly either. That’s a win-win!
Extras and Options
The one extra that comes standard with this model is the USB charging port. This is a small thing, but it’s incredibly high-value, and we wish that it was a standard feature on most, if not all, electric wheelchairs and scooters.
It’s very cool to see it offered here, and it allows you to keep your phone charged while listening to your favorite tunes and tooling around on your Buzzaround Carry On Mobility Scooter. Kudos to Golden for its inclusion!
That’s the only extra on offer, but the company does offer a number of accessories that are designed to fit all of their products. Even so, we caution against adding too many. Anything you add will have to be removed each time you collapse the scooter and then reattached, which could quickly become a hassle.
Nonetheless, just so you’re aware of the kinds of things Golden offers, here’s a quick list:
A Tube Cane Holder
An Oxygen Tank Holder
A Walker Holder
Deluxe Pack N’ Go
A Rear-Mounted Basket
A Scooter Cover
A Lap Belt
A Safety Flag
Unless you absolutely need something from the list above, we’d recommend here in our Buzzaround Carry On review foregoing those items as well as picking up a saddlebag style storage solution (just one, or one for each arm) and some padding for the seat and seatback as mentioned above.
If you focus on just those things, you’ll radically increase the versatility, usefulness, and comfort of the machine with a minimal investment, and those items won’t require a lot of space in your suitcase!
Portability & Ease of Use
When folded, this scooter is only 12” high, which is a small enough profile that you can probably slide it under the bed to keep it out of the way, and then pull it out and unfold it when you’re ready to ride. That, combined with the fact that the total weight is just 65.5 pounds, makes it incredibly travel-friendly.
It can even fit in the trunk space of some smaller cars, so if you have a full-sized sedan, hatchback, SUV, truck, or van, you won’t have any difficulty at all.
Even better, the batteries used in this model have been airline-approved. Although airlines tend to charge by the pound, this scooter doesn’t weigh significantly more than travel-friendly manual wheelchairs. It actually weighs less than most reclining wheelchairs, which makes flying with this scooter a simple matter indeed.
Pros & Cons of Golden Buzzaround Carry On
Every negative thing we could say about the Buzzaround Foldable is a consequence of the design paradigm. We’d love it if this model looked more polished, but that would add weight. We’d love it if it were faster, but that too would add more weight, and so on.
Given that, we don’t really have any genuine complaints about this model. It’s superb. The only thing to be aware of is the fact that because it is optimized for travel, it makes a poor choice for use as your everyday mobility device.
Given that and its price, there are inevitably going to be some people who really want one of these but who simply won’t be able to afford an everyday scooter or wheelchair and one of these on top of that. That’s a pity because this is a really good machine.
Buzzaround Carry On Scooter Review Conclusion
While we don’t quite love the Buzzaround Carry On Scooter, we do really like it. Each time we dig more deeply into Golden Technology’s product line, we grow more and more impressed by them as a company.
This is a superb, well-rounded, and capable little scooter that will serve frequent travelers (and especially frequent flyers) very well. While it does have some limitations, we absolutely recommend it.
