I have an electric scooter with 3000kms on it. I use it for commuting to work several times a week.
I much prefer it to driving; you get to experience the open air; it's exciting, there's no traffic and it's often faster than driving. If I look at the money I've saved in gas & parking, my scooter has paid for itself almost 3x so it's cost-efficient too.
I heartily recommend that anyone with a commute of 30km or less per day try one out. Especially if you live in an area with good cycle-lane coverage. It really hits that sweetspot of efficient, enjoyable and cheap transportation.
- No insurance required
- No registration
- Can use both bike lanes and sidewalls where I live
- Park anywhere I can lock it to something
- Nearly maintenance free (tires and bearings only)
- Saves unnecessary wear on my vehicles; could replace them entirely if I wasn't a motorhead
I have absolutely no regrets about my dual motor scooter
Helmet and eye protection is what you wear on a regular e-scooter or bike. You wear motorcycle gear if “keeping up with cars” is a meaningful concept for your vehicle.
You can die from getting hit by a car while stopped at a light. People wear helmets on low speed vehicles either because their personal risk assessment or the law convinces them.
I don't know about where you live but where I'm at, no adult wears a helmet on a <20mph escooter.
I said wear a helmet and eye pro because at 25-35mph and above the wind is so strong you can't keep your eyes open and clear without it, hahaha
Where I live, e-scooters have a speed limit of 25 km/h (15.5 mph). Any faster and it needs to be registered as a motorbike, where a helmet is mandatory. Some people take the risk and ride unregistered fast e-scooters, but they’re surprisingly aware of the danger and usually wear full moto gear.
Yeah they’re super enjoyable. To think, when I was a child I would have considered it a toy, and now I can ride it around while having fun and feeling good about it?
The main factor that's been an issue for me using an electric scooter was road surface quality. Even small potholes and cracks in tarmac make a scooter dangerous.
A bike, electric or acoustic, can go just as fast and be less particular about road quality. A Walmart pedal bike can get you a long way for rather cheap
> The main factor that's been an issue for me using an electric scooter was road surface quality. Even small potholes and cracks in tarmac make a scooter dangerous.
Totally agree. Loss of control, jolts to the rider or potential damage to the scooter
E-scooters are probably superior to e-bikes in American cities if for no other reason than that you can fold them up and take them with you into buildings.
Yes I understand there are folding bikes, and provisions to allow bikes to be stored inside buildings too. But neither are perfectly implemented.
Leaving a halfway decent bike outside, locked or not, is just begging it to be stolen sooner or later.
I've been using a mix of folding bikes, (shared) e-scooters, and public transport, for a long time by now, and an additional problem of folding bikes is that at best, they're clunky to carry inside metro carriages (except high-end models, which are expensive).
E-scooters are not very easy to carry, either (15+ kgs is not light, and they're relatively long), but they're practical enough to use consistently.
I got an electric cargo bike 3 years ago and it has fundamentally changed the way I move around my little suburban town. I can do pretty much every errand I'd normally do with a car.
If it weren't for the heavy snowfall we get I would be able to get rid of one car; for now it just sits unused for 1/3rd of the year.
I have rain pants and a jacket and my two kids sit in a tent on the back. They love it. I love it. Together we have put over 2000 miles on the bike in two years.
Patagonia makes great rain jackets that have hoods that can adjust to fit over a helmet.
What about safety? I have an ebike too similar to yours, I bring both my kids (it requires some serious efforts on steep hills with both kids though), but I fell down once in the rain that gave me a decent scare, especially since my wrist is taking so long to recover and I could have hurt my daughter (lucky, nothing happened)
I took a spill with my kids over a bridge that had black ice. Luckily everyone was ok.
We all wear helmets, we almost exclusively use bike/walk infrastructure, and we take it slow.
The biggest risk in my mind is interacting in any way with cars. And so I avoid cars on our routes as much as possible. And I regularly “break the law” by riding on sidewalks because paint on the road is not bike infrastructure and my life is more valuable to me than some ticket for a ridiculous law.
I've found that for a decent lightweight commuter scooter with a suspension to make it somewhat comfortable to ride, getting closer to $1000 is a more reasonable budget. The model in the blog post is more of a kids toy.
Seems like a lot of the negative reviews are abiut a bad purchase experience more so than the device itself, and the prices when mentioned are also several times higher than mentioned in the article.
I've used both and it depends on the usage patterns.
My city trips are from 5 minutes to around 45. For short trips, where one doesn't use public transport (for me, the threshold is around 15 minutes), bikes are definitely more practical, but when public transport comes into play, bikes are too bulky to comfortably carry.
The big deal I'm assuming is the ability to fold. An ebike requires a surprisingly complex parking spot, because it needs to be secured, more so than a car. It's a giant pain. I wish I could use bike everywhere.
There is no way anyone ever paid $800 for that thing. $800 gets you far better than the scooter in TFA. This thing has probably always had a street price hovering around $200. It's bordering more on "toy" than "adult transportation".
Do you have a recommendation? This seems pretty good for $200 and only 23 lbs. I had a Xiaomi before which was ok but $400 at the time and much heavier.
Mine is just some random Chinese one off Amazon that is no longer listed. At this price range you are one level above aliexpress junk and the scooter is essentially disposable after the solid tires wear down or the battery wears out.
I keep feeling like I should buy an electric scooter. I really just want a non-electric scooter, but it seems like no one makes adult-sized kick scooters that don't have a motor, so buying an electric one and just not using the motor feels like the only option.
Probably not what you have in mind, but I’m literally buying two of these [0] tomorrow (for me and my fiancée). It’s a local manufacturer, they have both smaller models and larger models, this one has two 20” wheels and is foldable in two dimensions.
Yea, I mostly just want it for popping down the street for those 1-3 mile distances that are a bit slow/hot/long to walk. Not having to do a lot of unfolding or locking it up is a big value to me.
I guess, but there's no way it's harder than making a bicycle, right? I don't really care if it weighs 5-10 lbs, it's still easier than walking places.
200 bucks for an e-scooter is really really cheap. Don't expect to get anything worthwhile for that price unless it's some kind of sale. The realistic price for a basic, entry level one is more like $500. A decent one is $1000 and a good, dual-motor one will be $1500.
I have two scooters. One I bought for 300 USD and is basically a kids toy, OK for popping down the street to the store. The other I bought used for ~1200 (comparable new price ~1800) and is viable for daily use/commuting, but the manufacturer doesn't recommend using it in the rain and I would want a brighter headlight for evening use in traffic.
- the very first issue is weather. Sometimes it rain, sometimes snow, sometimes it's too hot and so on, open-air travel under this very common weather condition is far from being nice, so they can be used only a subset of the year, but to be usable you need to be in a dense area for all the year, meaning you'll have another mean of transport witch tend to be underutilized and does not offer comfy condition as well because of city density, meaning when it rain the traffic skyrocket;
- they encourage producing more waste, yes, you read it correctly: you use something not suited to have anything but yourself, so you'll probably eat ready made packed food and than drop the package, you can't buy large quantities so again more package. Actual narrative sell the city as green, but it's only dollar-green, not spring grass green.
Neither rain nor a bit of snow are a huge problem for commuting on an e-vehicle. In some countries even riding on regular bikes in the snow is perfectly normal. So it’s more of a people issue than a device issue.
Yes, on icy compact snow you can ride a bike issueless. Definitively not on partially molten snow, yes you can ride a bike when it rain, no special issues, except you reach your destination very wet. You can do the same in hot summers, reaching your destination equally wet, and smelling.
It's not a people issue, it's a desperate propaganda issue to being able to sell the modern city, the perfect way to enslave people pushing all back to the classic proletariat.
They know cities are absurd. They say they are efficient, of course, it's efficient build big buildings using some just to sleep and some just to work, occupied 50% of the time, keeping commuting between them "but hey, at a 15' range!", they know the city is made to consume, producing a far bigger slice of rubbish than spread living, because you just ride a scooter and so you buy small things, you eat ready made food and so on, a gazillion of packages to the bin, and in your own free time you go outside just to consume services. There is nothing else in a city. With this model you can push people to the zero ownership, rent anything, and to rent you need to work, as the owner of the city, who do not live there, offer. A social score in the middle.
The people problem is that many accept such model. They like the idea "hey, renting anything meaning far less to take care and think of", "hey, no need to have money for capex" and so on.
I much prefer it to driving; you get to experience the open air; it's exciting, there's no traffic and it's often faster than driving. If I look at the money I've saved in gas & parking, my scooter has paid for itself almost 3x so it's cost-efficient too.
I heartily recommend that anyone with a commute of 30km or less per day try one out. Especially if you live in an area with good cycle-lane coverage. It really hits that sweetspot of efficient, enjoyable and cheap transportation.
- No insurance required - No registration - Can use both bike lanes and sidewalls where I live - Park anywhere I can lock it to something - Nearly maintenance free (tires and bearings only) - Saves unnecessary wear on my vehicles; could replace them entirely if I wasn't a motorhead
I have absolutely no regrets about my dual motor scooter
I don't know about where you live but where I'm at, no adult wears a helmet on a <20mph escooter.
I said wear a helmet and eye pro because at 25-35mph and above the wind is so strong you can't keep your eyes open and clear without it, hahaha
A bike, electric or acoustic, can go just as fast and be less particular about road quality. A Walmart pedal bike can get you a long way for rather cheap
Totally agree. Loss of control, jolts to the rider or potential damage to the scooter
Yes I understand there are folding bikes, and provisions to allow bikes to be stored inside buildings too. But neither are perfectly implemented.
Leaving a halfway decent bike outside, locked or not, is just begging it to be stolen sooner or later.
E-scooters are not very easy to carry, either (15+ kgs is not light, and they're relatively long), but they're practical enough to use consistently.
If it weren't for the heavy snowfall we get I would be able to get rid of one car; for now it just sits unused for 1/3rd of the year.
Patagonia makes great rain jackets that have hoods that can adjust to fit over a helmet.
https://www.ternbicycles.com/us/accessories/473/storm-shield
We all wear helmets, we almost exclusively use bike/walk infrastructure, and we take it slow.
The biggest risk in my mind is interacting in any way with cars. And so I avoid cars on our routes as much as possible. And I regularly “break the law” by riding on sidewalks because paint on the road is not bike infrastructure and my life is more valuable to me than some ticket for a ridiculous law.
The main use has surprisingly been family related - we take it to playgrounds, on hikes, school etc.
For bigger kids and adults there is this. https://youtu.be/nbby5sb7uow?si=rhqpyvCes_sPGgw1
I've found that for a decent lightweight commuter scooter with a suspension to make it somewhat comfortable to ride, getting closer to $1000 is a more reasonable budget. The model in the blog post is more of a kids toy.
Besides size and cost, why e-scooter instead of e-bicycle?
Asking as I am thinking of getting an e-something, but my travel need is around 29km/18mi.
(edit: swap units)
My city trips are from 5 minutes to around 45. For short trips, where one doesn't use public transport (for me, the threshold is around 15 minutes), bikes are definitely more practical, but when public transport comes into play, bikes are too bulky to comfortably carry.
[0] https://www.kostkafootbike.com/twenty/899-foldable-footbike-...
These are great
Any other recommendations for entry level scooters?
- the very first issue is weather. Sometimes it rain, sometimes snow, sometimes it's too hot and so on, open-air travel under this very common weather condition is far from being nice, so they can be used only a subset of the year, but to be usable you need to be in a dense area for all the year, meaning you'll have another mean of transport witch tend to be underutilized and does not offer comfy condition as well because of city density, meaning when it rain the traffic skyrocket;
- they encourage producing more waste, yes, you read it correctly: you use something not suited to have anything but yourself, so you'll probably eat ready made packed food and than drop the package, you can't buy large quantities so again more package. Actual narrative sell the city as green, but it's only dollar-green, not spring grass green.
Yes, on icy compact snow you can ride a bike issueless. Definitively not on partially molten snow, yes you can ride a bike when it rain, no special issues, except you reach your destination very wet. You can do the same in hot summers, reaching your destination equally wet, and smelling.
It's not a people issue, it's a desperate propaganda issue to being able to sell the modern city, the perfect way to enslave people pushing all back to the classic proletariat.
They know cities are absurd. They say they are efficient, of course, it's efficient build big buildings using some just to sleep and some just to work, occupied 50% of the time, keeping commuting between them "but hey, at a 15' range!", they know the city is made to consume, producing a far bigger slice of rubbish than spread living, because you just ride a scooter and so you buy small things, you eat ready made food and so on, a gazillion of packages to the bin, and in your own free time you go outside just to consume services. There is nothing else in a city. With this model you can push people to the zero ownership, rent anything, and to rent you need to work, as the owner of the city, who do not live there, offer. A social score in the middle.
Just take a look at https://youtu.be/NXyzpMDtpSE this is the future western city, where people need to be happy, smiling, the Canon model: https://petapixel.com/2021/06/17/canon-uses-ai-cameras-that-...
The people problem is that many accept such model. They like the idea "hey, renting anything meaning far less to take care and think of", "hey, no need to have money for capex" and so on.