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.
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.