Tag Archives: electric scooters

Electric Scooter Guide – Helping You Find the Perfect Scooter

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By Steve Schaefer

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Electric scooters are taking off as a way to get around inexpensively and environmentally responsibly. And, they can be a blast to ride. While some city riders, in non-pandemic times, might borrow a scooter from a fleet, such as Lime, many people want their own. But how can you know what’s available and what best suits your needs? That’s where the Electric Scooter Guide (ESG) comes in.

The Electric Scooter Guide provides electric scooter news, industry insights, safety information, in-depth reviews, and exhaustive data. It was founded at the beginning of 2019 by Chuck Temple and Justin Klein with the mission to “help people find the perfect scooter.” They also put out regular YouTube videos to complement the substantial and regularly updated online content.

The website’s design is clean and functional. The home page offers four quick links to essential content; I’ll elaborate on them in detail below.

  • Best Electric Scooters of 2020
  • Beginner’s Guide to Buying an Electric Scooter
  • Hand’s-On Electric Scooter Reviews
  • A teaser for their ESG LIVE scooter chat live show

Best Electric Scooters of 2020

This long section is filled with charts, tables and images, and starts with ratings by more than 750 owners.

Ratings chart

It’s arranged by price range, after which ESG presents their top 12 picks, from 12 to 1. Each scooter gets a hero shot image, a link to written and video reviews, and pros and cons. These guys give you all the data, not just an impression.

Beginners Guide to Buying an Electric Scooter

A beginner is looking for more guidance, so this section is geared to walking the reader through a step at a time. It covers price, features, components, distributors, maintenance, and shopping tools.

Categories

Scooters are broken into three categories: Budget, Commuter, and High Performance. Budget scooters are priced under $300 and are meant for “minimal or light recreational use.” Commuter scooters are intended for daily use, so are more durable than the Budget ones. They offer more features, and the best ones have suspensions and other premium features. The guide subdivides Commuter scooters into three subcategories: Budget ($300-600), Midrange ($600-900), and Premium ($600-1,200).

The Performance scooters ($1,200-1,600) offer faster speeds and longer ranges, which you would expect for a much larger cash outlay. Upgrades include tubeless tires, semi-hydraulic brakes, powerful lights, and turn signals. Extreme Performance scooters ($2,500+) are the highest performing scooters but tend to be heavy (more than 70 pounds) and with their fat tires are best for offroading.  A prime example is the Wolf Warrior 11, which can zoom up to more than 40 miles per hour—much faster than the bargain units.

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The mighty Wolf Warrior 11

Features are discussed at length. After walking through the levels, the guide discusses features, which further helps the reader figure out which scooter will work for them. It starts with price, referring back to the previous section. Next is another crucial number, range—how far it’ll go on a charge. Then, they discuss weight, which can be a factor in how it handles but really matters if you plan to carry the scooter. Top speed is useful to know. Most riders are OK going 15-18 mph on the street, but if you have the aforementioned Wolf Warrior 11, you’ll be flying. Max weight is the limit the scooter will carry. For most scooters, it’s 220 pounds. Motor power makes a difference in your riding experience. It starts at 200 watts and runs to 500 watts or more. The Guide recommends at least 250 watts for commuting. Suspensions, as in cars, makes riding much more comfortable, and the guide advises getting a scooter with one if you plan to commute longer distances or drive over rough terrain. Lighting is crucial if you plan to drive at night, and it varies from scooter to scooter, although there is minimally a white light up front and a red one in back. Brakes, of course, are essential. There are four types, from electric and regenerative (the weakest) to manual foot brakes, to drum brakes and at the top, disc brakes. As in cars, disc brakes stop better, but tend to be on the more expensive scooters. Tires—also essential—are either pneumatic (air-filled) or airless. The latter are solid and much less comfortable, although they require virtually no maintenance. There is something called an IP Rating (ingress protection), which rates how water-resistant the scooter is. This would be important for protecting the parts from damage. IP Ratings go from x0 (no protection) to X7+ (can be fully submerged). If you plan to ride in the rain, you need at least IPx4.

Distributors are the places you buy the electric scooters. ESG lists three types: Domestic (shops or online), direct from China, or a crowd-funded campaign. They recommend buying domestically. Shipping from China is cheaper, if unreliable, and crowd-funded campaigns are exciting but more of an investment opportunity (be prepared to lose your money and wait a year or more for a scooter).

Maintenance – It’s important to consider how you’ll fix your scooter if it breaks. You should expect any scooter to require some maintenance. Some companies don’t offer replacement parts, so you may have to learn how to fix it yourself. Preventative maintenance saves a lot of trouble, and the guide offers links to detailed maintenance information.

Hands-On Reviews

As you’ve seen already, the ESG is very detailed. The reviews are arranged by price categories, making it easy to compare products in the category you plan to shop in. There are more choices in the lower price categories, for example, 10 options in the $300-600 range, and unsurprisingly, just three in the $3,000 plus group. Each scooter, regardless of price, gets a thumbnail photo and a one-short-sentence description, with a link to the full review.

Reviews - 4

Once you click the link, you’ll get multiple photos, tech specs, highlights, and a summary, including a video and other scooters to consider. Here’s an example of the specs chart.

GoTrax specs

Following the intro section is a thorough review, including performance tests, features, warranty/post-purchase support, and conclusions. They may even include comparisons with the previous version or a close competitor.

ESG explains their exhaustive five-step review process. It starts with the initial unboxing and assembly, which identifies possible issues. The assembled scooter is ridden for a week each by two team members to sort out the details. Then, they run performance testing for acceleration, braking distance, range, and hill climbing. Then, they get together as a group and produce written and video reviews. The final piece is long-term testing, which exposes any durability issues.

This section, frankly, looks more thorough than what major automotive buff magazines do—almost more like Consumer Reports. Excellent.

The YouTube Video Show

I tuned in to one of Chuck’s shows on YouTube. Professionally recorded, they feature Chuck’s folksy charm as he talks about the topic of the day.

Scooter Database

There’s even more to this sprawling site. ESG offers a constantly updated database that contains detailed information on every available scooter, based on manufacturers’ data. You can set a filter at the top for Metric (kilos) or Imperial (pounds), beginner or advanced, and “All” or “Curated.” I’m not sure what the difference between All and Curated is, but there is LOTS of content available.

Safety and Gear

Scooters are fun, but can be dangerous if not driven carefully. Even then, it’s best to be equipped with a good helmet and other crucial accessories. Currently, this tab on the home page contains seven valuable articles about keeping safe while you’re riding.

Coupon Codes

There are deals to be had, from discounts to free accessories. All of this is listed in one tab, but is also provided in the individual scooter reviews.

Summary

The Electric Scooter Guide is a compendium of expertly written reviews and carefully maintained content that should make it easy for anyone to figure out which scooter to buy for their needs and budget. Readers will also learn how to take care of their new scooter, and how to protect themselves while riding it. And it’s a gateway for connection with fellow enthusiasts. The YouTube channel is fun for enthusiasts to enjoy this growing transportation phenomenon. And with a busy Facebook page and a Facebook Group with more than 5,000 members, the Electric Scooter Guide gives you everything you need for your electric two-wheeled commute or adventure.

Superpedestrian Builds an Advanced New Scooter

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By Steve Schaefer

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Electric scooters are popular in congested urban spaces. Easier to use than a car, with no parking issues, they are also great for last-mile connections to public transit. However, scooters have some issues, including safety, reliability, and profitability for fleet operators. And, of course, there is the current concern of staying safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. But scooters have an important role to play in the future of urban mobility.

The weaknesses of scooters are well known—they’re easily damaged and maintenance is expensive and time consuming. What was needed was a better scooter, so Superpedestrian developed one.

I spoke with company founder and CEO Assaf Biderman about their scooter and the LINK application they are rolling out to access it.

Origins

BIderman moved to the United States from Israel in 2001 and co-founded the Senseable City Laboratory at MIT. Using his Physics background, he and the team focused on micro vehicles and the technology to make them safer and more cost effective. They used artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and robotics to address urban transportation problems in new ways.

Superpedestrian was spun out of MIT as a robotics company in 2013. They then spent more than four years developing their proprietary Vehicle Intelligence System (VIS) and introduced it in their first product—the Copenhagen Wheel. This product is an amazing red disc/motor that learns your biking style and adds power to support your ride. You can buy a bike with the wheel or add it to your own bike (they will custom-build it to fit).

Since 2018, Superpedestrian’s team of talented designers, developers and engineers has focused on engineering and validating a superior scooter for shared fleets.

The Urban Transportation Problem

“There will be two plus billion more people on the planet by 2050,” said Biderman. “Where can we put them? How do we share the road space? The only solution is multi-mobility.”

That means providing more one- or two-person vehicles, with autonomous capability and the ability to monitor themselves to prevent them from breaking down.

“It’s like an immune system,“ said BIderman. “Are they safe to ride before starting? What’s the chance of electronic failure before riding? There are hundreds of things.”

The ideal system avoids problems by diagnosing them in advance and fixing or preventing damage to key components before they break.

“For example, a cut wire can be identified and fixed before it leads to a bigger problem,” said Biderman.

The company had a three-part goal for their new scooter:

  1. Provide a safer ride
  2. Make them cost effective for fleets
  3. Create a scalable platform that brings sustainability to the city, integrating with public transit and plans the city makes for scooters, such as protected bike paths

What Makes the Superpedestrian Scooter Different

Although it looks similar, the Superpedestrian scooter is fundamentally different from regular scooters. It has a full-blown operating system (OS) onboard, developed over years of research and engineering by the company’s robotics engineers.

As Biderman explains, a basic scooter has motors and basic parts, but it can know what’s going on with the scooter itself and report back issues in the cloud so they can be fixed.

Superpedestrian has spent more than seven years developing their Vehicle Information System. Its more than 140 indicators monitor or provide:

  • Power from the motor, electric braking, and energy in and out of the battery
  • Vehicle encryption for cybersecurity
  • Decision-making ability in real time to prevent most safety hazards
  • Temperature/water penetration to help prevent component failure
  • Reporting ability – generate a repair ticket
  • A cloud data layer

Your basic scooter doesn’t contain any of this. Amazingly, the high-tech Superpedestrian scooter costs about the same to manufacture.

“This system enables you to scale micro vehicles to the millions,” said Biderman.

You’d expect that the system would use lots of sensors to detect vehicle behavior, as you’ll find in a car. But, per Biderman, they are expensive, need calibration, and can break.

“We found a way to do it without the sensors,” he said. “It’s a machine learning process, where we train the system to attribute functionality of components to failures upstream. It’s a very low-cost, reliable system.”

So, how does the scooter communicate when there’s a problem?

“Most data isn’t significant to the user,” said Biderman. “But if something goes wrong, the scooter will stop safely, and tell you why.”

With the data living on the scooter itself, Superpedestrian’s scooter can implement geofences in under one second.

The Superpedestrian scooter has a larger, 84-cell battery, for a greater range.  This reduces charging frequency, keeping the scooter in use more of the time.

Easier and Safer to Ride with a Lower Center of Gravity

While some scooters put the battery on the vertical part of the scooter, Superpedestrian installs it under the foot panel. A lower center of gravity makes it easier to control the scooter. Also, the engineers designed the scooter to work optimally for most people—the 50th-percentile man and woman as well as a shorter female and a 95th-percentile man. The angle of the upper section and handlebars is carefully planned as well.

The Superpedestrian scooter stops in a shorter distance than a standard scooter. One reason is that it uses a dual mechanical braking system. Each lever actuates regenerative braking, which helps charge the battery and reduce wear on the mechanical brakes. It’s a system used in electric cars.

However, in cars, when the battery is full, or the battery is hot or is below a certain temperature, regeneration is turned off. How to make it available all the time in a scooter?

“We found other ways to dissipate energy,” said Biderman. “For safe stopping, it’s important that the brakes feel the same all the time to the rider, so they don’t apply too little or too much pressure.”

Built to Last

Scooters are notorious for having short lives, taking abuse from various riders and rough handling. Per Biderman, the real problem with longevity isn’t mechanical as much as it is electronic.

“Our software ensures that the vehicle doesn’t experience any fundamental electronic issues,” he said. “Replacing batteries and controllers is where you get a total loss.”

The Superpedestrian scooter is designed to take at least 2,500 trips, far more than the average scooter. They also build the scooter to withstand much more stress than you’d expect. Their scooter can withstand one ton of vertical load, for example.

“If a big guy is riding the scooter and hits a pothole, it can create a lot of force—our scooter is able to tolerate that,” explained Biderman.

As for vandalism and theft, Superpedestrian is prepared.

“We can easily replace a plastic fender,” said Biderman. And the structure itself is sturdy enough to withstand vandalism. All of the cables and wires are hidden inside the vehicle for safety and security.

When and Where can I Ride One?

Superpedestrian has acquired the Zagster fleet management system and is offering their scooter to consumers via the LINK brand. The LINK app gives you access to the scooters, and it will be rolled later this year in cities in the U.S. and Europe.

To help solve the climate crisis and urban mobility issues, Superpedestrian is providing scooters that are safe, dependable, and scalable and profitable for fleets.

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Scoot Rolls Out Bird Two – the Latest-Generation e-Scooter – in San Francisco

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By Steve Schaefer

BirdTwo_1

If you’ve been in the city lately, you’ve probably noticed people zipping around on electric scooters (e-scooters). They’re great for quick trips, being faster than walking and requiring no parking space. But, there are issues with scooters, including battery range, rider safety, damage, theft, and longevity. Bird’s latest model, the Bird Two, aims to address these, both for riders and for making running an e-scooter fleet more profitable.

On January 30th, Scoot, owned by Bird, debuted the Bird Two in San Francisco. Scoot plans to transition all of its existing scooters to the new, improved model. San Francisco will be the first city to have 1,000 of these scooters on the street.

“With each new generation of electric vehicle we bring to San Francisco, fewer San Franciscans have a need to get in a car. Bird Two continues this trend with industry-leading performance, range, and safety features, allowing our riders to replace even more of their car trips with micromobility,” said Michael Keating, Founder of Scoot, and Senior Vice President for Cities at Bird.

Battery Upgrade

Bird’s new battery management system can handle extreme weather, so the battery holds a charge for greater range and lasts longer. Although San Francisco’s temperatures are moderate most of the time, it still provides an advantage, and keeps the scooters in service more of the time because they spend less time charging. With the new e-scooter’s greater range, riders can feel more confident about riding to farther destinations. And the new model’s sensors and self-diagnosis system send alerts to the fleet operator of dangerous humidity changes in the battery encasement.

Safety

The Bird Two’s sleek design has fewer exposed screws, so there’s less chance of an injury while handling the scooter. New puncture-resistant tires mean safer travel and less maintenance time in the shop for the scooters. Of course, be sure to wear your helmet while you’re riding!

Scooter Longevity and Reliability

We’ve heard stories of how scooters suffer from vandalism and theft. The Bird Two has self-reporting damage sensors, as found in new cars, so Scoot mechanics can fix scooters fast and get them back out on the street. An industrial-grade anti-tipping kickstand helps keep the Bird Two upright when it’s parked, reducing damage from being dropped on the pavement. And with anti-theft encryption, riders are protected from malicious software hacks.

The Bottom Line

The e-scooters have come a long way, and with these upgrades, the Bird Two is safer and more pleasant to use. And with its durability and higher quality, it can stay in the fleet long enough to keep the business case viable while taking cars off the road. And that’s the real point, isn’t it?

For more information, visit the Bird Two website.

Bird Flies Sustainably with Sturdy Scooters

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An Interview with Melinda Hanson, Bird’s Head of Sustainability

By Steve Schaefer

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Bird, the two-year-old, Santa-Monica-based scooter sharing company, has been growing and developing its trademark electric scooters since it was founded in September 2017. One question about scooters, though, is how sustainable they are. I spoke with Bird’s Head of Sustainability, Melinda Hanson, at VERGE 19 in Oakland to find out.

Hanson has two facets to her role: One is promoting the carbon mitigation potential of electric vehicles while helping cities meet their clean energy transportation goals. The other is working to make sure Bird itself is a more sustainable company.

Hanson is focused on developing climate policy that gets people into EVs, including the small scooters that are Bird’s mainstay. She’s concerned emissions are still going up despite the rise of EVs and scooters.

As anyone who lives in a city can attest, the scooter sharing business is booming.

“The main growth in EVs in 2018 was in scooters,” said Hanson.

Hanson told me that Bird’s goal is to get people out of their cars for short trips, especially in crowded cities.

“The data shows that many car trips are less than three miles,” said Hanson. “They should be riding scooters.”

I asked if people were really replacing car trips with scooters and Hanson said that one third to one half of e-scooter trips were replacing personal car trips—and much of the rest was in place of using ridesharing services, such as Uber and Lyft—which are not environmentally positive if they’re internal combustion engines—and contribute to traffic congestion.

Bird takes its scooters seriously. They have developed and refined them over the last two years to be more robust, so they last longer.

“Our first scooters were consumer models, not rugged enough for many trips a day by multiple people,” said Hanson. Bird has built its own custom models now, which they test for ruggedness. They have learned a lot from the last two years.

“We used to have screws come loose, and shock absorbers wore out,” Hanson said. “We have increased frame density and put on better kickstands,” she said.

BirdTwo_1

The Bird 2 model—the newest one—is much improved. The company wants riding a Bird to be a great experience, so customers will come back and ride them regularly.

Bird has doubled the battery capacity of the latest scooters. This means that they can be used by more customers before needing to come in to be recharged. To facilitate local charging, Bird has a distributed charging program where gig workers can pick up the scooters and charge them at home and put them back on the street. These folks are called “chargers.”

“We want to reduce friction,” Hanson said. That means making not only the riding experience fun and easy but also signup and payment.

Bird has started collaborating with Scoot to bring out other types of two-wheel transportation, such as mopeds.

“We want to provide a bunch of vehicles for different trip modes,” said Hanson. But the starter vehicle is still likely to be the little scooter, which is easy to ride and easy to park.

Safety is a concern, and Bird has worked with cities to try to create bike lanes. They have offered to send riders free helmets (the customer pays only for shipping).

Hanson is looking for a systems impact. She thinks there’s room to start converting parking spaces to scooter parking at some point, when there are enough of them out there.

“When scooters become a major aspect of urban mobility the streets will start changing the way they look,” said Hanson.

Why will Bird succeed where others falter? Hanson thinks their emphasis on a great customer experience will lead to winning in the marketplace. And, their major investments in R&D to create better quality scooters will help too.

Summing up, Bird’s goal is to improve the overall efficiency of vehicles, using clean energy; they want to get people out of their cars for all those short trips. And they want to do it sustainably.

Skip Scooters – a First Ride

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I just tried my first electric scooter! It’s easy, fun, and a little scary, too.

It began with seeing little blue Skip scooters tied to posts and trees around downtown San Francisco. I’ve just started a new job working in the city again after a few decades, and things have changed. My company builds and sells software for carsharing and ridesharing (and in the future,  hopefully scooters, too), so I was eager to sample one of the new “micro-mobility” options.

Skip scooters are available where you find them, but to ride one, you first need to download the app. That takes about a minute, from searching for it on your Apple or Android phone and waiting for it to download. When you open the app, it explains how to use the app and also how to ride the scooter safely. You can sign up for an account by adding in your personal information, such as driver’s license and credit card.

I decided that this particular Friday afternoon was a great time to try a scooter. Using the app, I located a couple of them near my office and set out to find them.

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I followed the map and looked–but no scooter! Then I looked across the street. I must have missed something, because there it was. The app made it look like it was on my side of the street.

I went up and tried to scan the QR code. The app then asked me for my driver’s license (front and back). Leaving the scooter tethered, I went to find a slightly more private spot to photograph my license on the street. The app warned me of “glare,” but I got two decent images. Then, I had to enter my credit card information.

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After this, when I put my phone up by the QR code, it gave me a four-digit combination to enter to unlock the scooter’s combination cable lock. Then, all I did was recoil the cable onto the scooter frame and pulled the bike over onto a piece of open sidewalk.

One push, and I was off. The accelerator is a thumb paddle on the right side of the handlebars. On the left is a matching one that slows the scooter down. There’s a manual foot brake that rubs against the wheel, but I think it’s more like an “emergency brake,” since the thumb brake worked fine during my .07-mile ride.

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After zipping along the sidewalk (proscribed by Skip and the City of S.F.), I got onto the actual street, after looking both ways carefully. I then spent the rest of my ride in back alleys, where I had lots of space and few cars to deal with.

The little Skip takes off strongly with its electric motor–just like an electric car, but without the mass. Of course, the motor and battery are tiny, so it all balances out. When you rent a scooter, the app tells you the percentage of charge left and approximate range you can expect. I assume going up hills would use up charge more quickly. I don’t think there’s a regen feature to add charge when you brake or go downhill, as in a car.

I wasn’t wearing a helmet–a bad idea–but I was just testing it, right? Most of the riders I’ve seen so far don’t wear them, possibly because they just hopped on it for a quick trip. However, if you take at least one ride, Skip will send you a helmet for free (you pay $10 shipping). When I got back to my office, I ordered mine using the app, I’ll wait for my helmet to arrive before taking another spin, just to be safe. However, even with a helmet, cruising up to 18 miles an hour down a street full of cars, potholes, pedestrians, and who knows what else seems like a risky proposition with no protection whatsoever.

When I was done with my test ride, I parked the scooter and attached it to a handy street sign pole. As a first timer, I neglected to wrap the lock cable around the pole a bunch of times like I should have, and I somehow missed the step in the app of taking and sending a “parking photo,” but the loan completed fine and my bank account was lighter by $2.75. I had a brisk sense of adventure and a little chill from moving at that speed with just a sweatshirt on.

Micro-mobility, as represented by scooters and electrically assisted bikes, is with us now. It makes a lot of sense in dense urban areas, where driving a car is a pain and environmentally irresponsible. It’s perfect “last mile” transportation from public transit to an office front door. I look forward to the day when downtowns are designed for scooters, with wide, car-free bike lanes separated from the cars and buses.