- Matt Tyler

"You choose how you want to ride, tricks you want to learn and how hard you want to work at it. It can be relaxing and fun, or challenging and rewarding. Scootering can be a stress reliever or a serious battle. You get to choose whatever you want it to be and how you want to express yourself. "

What is compression?

A compression system is one of the most important part of your scooter because it holds everything together securely. Most systems consist of a compression bolt, a form of threads and a clamp. The purpose of this is to lightly compress the headset bearing and keep your fork from rattling around.

​

When using thread less compression it is required that you use a star nut. A star nut is a round flanged metal piece with threads in the center. They can either be placed inside your fork tube to run SCS and HIC compression or inside the bars to run ICS. The bolts are tightened into the star nuts to squeeze the bars and forks together. The bars are placed over the fork and the clamp squeezes them together on the outside. ( Many thread less forks nowadays have integrated threads to remove the need of inserting a star nut.)    

Threaded compression

Two lock nuts are threaded onto the fork to tighten the headset into place. A clamp is placed around the handle bars and tightened to the fork. This is the cheapest form of compression most commonly seen on beginner scooters. 

ICS compression

The Internal Compression System (ICS) is the lightest compression system available. The long ICS bolt goes through the bottom of the fork and threads into a star nut inserted into the handle bars. A clamp is then used to tighten the bars around the fork

SCS compression

The Standard Compression System (SCS) requires a special clamp. This clamp is placed over the fork and joined by the bolt and  washer placed in the center. The bottom half of the clamp squeezes the fork, the washer acts as a shelf for your bars to rest on and the top half squeezes your bars in place.