Hi everyone!
Once again, I come to you all for advice. Currently, my fleet consists of my trusty acoustic bike, my Class 3 electric bike, and my own two feet. Couple this with my transit card and I’ve eliminated a lot of unnecessary automobile trips. Roughly, my trips fall into:
- trips within town that I can run them with my acoustic bike, or the ebike if I’m short on time. Usually sub 8 km (5 mi)
- trips to the outlying suburbs by hourly bus, getting me within 2 km of my actual destination, so I just walk
- trips into the metro core by bus + LRT, within 4 km of my destination, so I might walk or might wait 30 minutes for the bus. The ebike won’t fit on the bus, and even with the acoustic bike, this bus line often fills the front bike rack.
That latter one is what I want to optimize, since I missed that bus by 1 minute and then proceeded to walk in 38 C (100 F) heat to the LRT station. That was brutal.
So I wish to consider adding an e-scooter, as a faster-than-walking solution for short distances. This would be more compact than bringing either bike, and easily brought onto the bus or train. If I were going any farther than 2-4 km, or bringing more than I could carry, then the bike is needed.
That said, I know enough people that have eaten dirt on an e-scooter, so I would easily accept a scooter that is limited to some 15 kph (9 mph) – still faster than walking – so long as it can climb 3-5% grades. I would also like the largest diameter wheels I can get; 10-inch would be great. Suspension would be nice, but I’ll take what I can find.
I’ve searched locally on Craigslist for options, and predominantly see used GoTrax and Niu e-scooters, but these have 6-inch wheels and no suspension, as well as clones of the Xiaomi M365, like Maxshot. These are cheap, but still don’t meet most of my criteria, and it seems these clones have a habit of failing due to poor quality construction.
As extra background, I’ve never ridden a skateboard, so an electric skateboard is not being considered. Nor rollerblades. I would consider a really small folding bike or ebike, but this is only marginally better than what my current fleet can offer. Hence why I’m looking to e-scooters.
EDIT 1: forgot to mention that I’m in California/USA
EDIT 2: thanks to @Showroom7561@lemmy.ca , I honed in on the Segway Ninebot Max family, and settled on a refurbished G30lp for $315+tax.
I’m partial to the Ninebot Max (the OG dark grey one). You can still find them for sale, and while they aren’t the most advanced, they offer some wonderful benefits.
Mine reliably goes 45km and cruises up to 30km/h.
It uses a front drum brake and electronic rear brake. This combo is reliable, and maintenance free. No worrying about brake pads, bent or contaminated rotors.
The scooter has performed well in rain, heat, winters (not in snow!), and has been reliable throughout thousands of km without a flat.
It’s not super heavy and can be stored just about anywhere.
It doesn’t have suspension, but is still comfortable to ride, and not having suspension means less to worry about.
Basically, it’s reliable, extremely maintenance-free, and has great range.
Oh, it also uses just a standard “desktop computer cable” for charging, so no need to bring around a charging brick.
also uses just a standard “desktop computer cable” for charging
As an afficionado of the IEC 60320 electric power couplers, this adds an outsized plus-modifier to your recommendation. I will look into this some more. Thanks!
LOL. It looks like a IEC 60320 C5 connector.
As a bonus, it CAN still take a powerbrick charger, and high speed chargers are available in that case. Really depends on your use case, but if you’re only riding <10km at a time, you won’t need a fast charger.
After staring at the Ninebot Max lineup for long enough, and reading some reviews about the long-term reliability of the internal charger on the G30p, I found that the G30lp eschews the internal charger, meets my specifications, costs a bit less, and perhaps most relevant right now, it’s available refurbished through Walmart for $315+tax with a 90-day return period.
So while I won’t get to experience the joy of onboard charging, I get a bit of time to try out this e-scooter and see if it’s for me or not. Plus, I can always build my own adapter to allow the brick charger to connect to EV charging stations haha.
The LP model should suit your needs. I believe it’s get a slightly smaller deck, so if you’ve got big shoes, you might feel a bit cramped. But at that price, it’s hard to beat!
At last, small shoe size comes in clutch!
Might want to specify which market you’re in as options can vary. I’m more of a bike guy, but you’d probable be OK with Ninebot, Niu, or Segway as long as the specs fit what you need.
Whoops, fixed!
I’ve heard sketchy stuff about GoTraxx btw
acoustic bike
Had heard “analog bike” but this coining is much better.
so long as it can climb 3-5% grades.
I think that generally precludes that it will be a bit too bulky to take on a busy bus, but depends on how much you weigh. But not sure as I haven’t really looked at new models since I got my innokim quick 3 (quite bulky) about 8 years ago.
I wouldn’t worry about getting one that’s speed limited unless it’s required legally where you live: as long as you’re willing to ride defensively and slow down when approaching pedestrians, intersections, blind corners, driveways etc. Also some scooters have different power level settings that will limit your speed if you need to.
I’m about 70 kg (150 lbs) so that shouldn’t be at the edge of rated e-scooter performance, I think. To be abundantly clear, low-speed is not mandatory for me but rather, high-speed is not desired nor do I want to pay extra for it. My preference for low speed is simply because my objective is to be faster than walking, and since that’s a low bar, I don’t even need to take on additional risk of bodily injury.
If a candidate e-scooter can do 40+ kph (25 mph) but can be conveniently set up for just cruising at 15 kph, I would have no problem. But if I have constantly adjust a sensitive throttle on a e-scooter that is eager to bolt away fast, then that’s a usability issue for my slow-speed use-case.
Oh I see, yeah thst makes sense, yeah the ones that can do 40kph+ definitely cost a lot more so probably don’t need to worry about that as long as ya looking at the more reasonably priced ones. I think your best bet is to go to a shop that sells them and lets you test drive them so you can see if it can get up a 5% hill faster than walking pace and isn’t too bulky for the bus.
If you’re open to a small learning curve, there are electric unicycles that would tick all your boxes, especially for compact portability.
In a lot of ways, EUCs have an apparent risk that roughly matches their actual risk, with a strong majority of the – admittedly few – EUC riders I’ve seen wearing full gear, as though they’re going to motocross. Whereas I think e-scooters have the issue of masking their actual risk.
IMO, the lack of a handlebar or tiller will always be something deeply discomforting to me, but I’m also a person who can’t/won’t ride a bike without using the handlebars. Though that might be because of an ingrained need for control from years of riding bikes within suburban traffic.
Anyway, I digress. Yes, I do think an EUC could fit the bill, but sadly it doesn’t fit for me.
I haven’t spent any real time on scooters, but been riding with all kinds of PEVs. I think you’re right that scooters are deceptively safe looking. EUCs these days are pretty safe within their designed operating range. But I’m very biased because they’re my favourite device.
Weirdly now, handlebars feel like a superfluous crutch - but I still don’t risk riding a bike without a good grip on them. Risk assessment is a funny thing, and ultimately comes down to lived experience.
